- Industrial
The rational B2B buyer – and other myths
There is a persistent myth about the rational B2B buyer. But modern psychology and market insights reveal that emotional wins over rational – and that personal value is on the B2B buyer’s mind. This opens the door to differentiating cement packaging through design and added value.
Download our guide – Dare to be different
The popular belief is that when commodity products are marketed in the B2B arena, functional arguments tend to dominate. The B2B buyer is seen as rational, and if the choice between using a differentiation strategy and a cost leadership strategy has to be made, the latter often prevails.
Studies all the way from Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman through modern marketing research point in a totally different direction. Emotion beats reason. A study reveals that out of 720 senior-level executives nearly two-thirds (65%) say that the increasingly complex business environment has made it more difficult to base decisions on purely “functional” factors (for example, cost, quality, or efficiency).* Subjective factors – such as personal value and sustainability – that can’t be quantified, increasingly make a difference when evaluating competing proposals.
This leads us to another “myth”: It is only the inside that counts. The packaging is used for protection during transport and handling. But what if you could use the design of cement packaging for real differentiation? We know you can. Read our guide – Dare to be different – to find out how revolutionary design of cement packaging can be key to success on a commodity market.
*BillerudKorsnäs Consumer Panel 2017
**Fortune Knowledge Group: Gyro, Only Human: The Emotional Logic of Business Decisions