Beware the ‘Bias for Action’

Having a ‘bias for action’ means not afraid to make decisions and take action, even when (especially when) you’re faced with uncertainty.
 
If you’re prone to “act first, think later” behaviour, then I’d recommend taking a look at Good Strategy/Bad Strategy by Professor Richard Rumelt.
 
In the book, Prof. Rumelt makes the important point that “The most common path to success is not raw innovation but skilfully riding a wave of change". In other words, don’t leap into action for action’s sake as you run the very real risk of incorrect diagnosis and tackling visible symptoms of a problem rather than the underlying cause. 
 
Thinking through the ‘real’ business problem you’re trying to solve requires diagnosis and close examination of underlying issues, as well as questioning your assumptions. The ‘bias for action’ is like any other cognitive bias in that it pollutes our thinking. The tendency to dive straight into solution mode creates the risk of causing more havoc.
 
As you look forward to 2021 or simply trying to close out a challenging 2020, don’t mistake ambitious goals and effort for strategy. A robust strategy starts with a robust diagnosis which then informs a direct of travel (or ‘guiding policy’) and, in turn, a coherent set of actions.

Behavioural Science can help B2B brands maintain resilience in a post-pandemic world

 B2B buyers in all kinds of industries are still grappling with the repercussions of COVID-19, and although there have been some encouraging signs in recent weeks and months of a possible return to the “New Normal,” we are not yet out of the woods. Many are now busy with scenario planning as budgets are reviewed and spending is scrutinised.

This means that you can’t take B2B relationships for granted and shift your emphasis wholly on to tactical sales messaging. Uncertainty makes it challenging for businesses to identify the most appropriate path forward. In contrast, times of crisis and uncertainty make it much easier for trust to be broken, as things can easily go wrong.

So, how should B2B campaigns be adjusted to reflect the current context?

Root yourself in empathy

Try to share the thoughts and feelings of your customers / prospects. Try to walk a mile in their shoes. For example, think about a colleague you work with and trust implicitly. How do they make you feel?

Chances are they make you feel understood and supported. They’re transparent in their dealings with you, so you always know what you’re getting. They’re a safe choice if you need to work alongside someone else.

Be sensitive to current context and, ideally, be seen to be responsive to it. Given this backdrop, it is also important to be conscious in the language you use in Marcomms.

Seek to make a connection with your audience

Google’s ‘From Promotion to Emotion’ study demonstrated that brands that connect meaningfully with B2B decision makers are disproportionately rewarded with greater consideration, purchase intent & willingness to pay a premium. Binet and Field’s work for the LinkedIn B2B Institute reinforced the importance of emotional messaging in driving sustainable growth.

As humans, we tend to trust faces behind the brand, so while B2B sales meetings are remote, we need to consider how can we achieve this connection without face-to-face conversation and human-to-human interaction? It’s easy to forget that negotiations are supported by non-verbal cues and allow for more nuanced discussion of complex business solutions.

Actively listen to customers and reflect on what they’re saying. Understand their motivations and mirror their language. Avoid jargon seek to foster trust, understanding and build rapport.

Use words which trigger sub-conscious mental processes (known to Behavioural Scientists as heuristics or cognitive short-cuts). For example, using the word “because” and following it with a reason helps ensure people feel they’ve been understood and, as a result, this improves compliance in subsequent behaviour. This will give your audience more of a sense of being understood and that your brand is authentic. Real, true and genuine. These techniques will improve receptivity to your messaging.

In summary, you can build more of an emotional bond with B2B buyers by:

1. Seeking to build trust
2. Showing empathy
3. Reflecting customers’ language in your comms
4. Explaining (“because”)
5. Demonstrating authenticity (as well as brand personality)

Brand Storytelling needs upfront planning, an over-arching narrative and empathy

 

According to Forbes, “Brand Storytelling is the future of marketing”.

In other words, one of the 4/7Ps now rules them all. If brands are storytellers and brand managers don’t have to worry about the wider marketing mix, then there must be plenty we can learn (this award season) from Hollywood writers?

I’d argue great writing is a function of upfront planning and having a thorough understanding of the contribution of each component part. Just compare the difference between Batman Begins and Batman vs. Superman - one was a gripping story made up of 4 clearly planned chapters and the conflict between 4 central characters while the other bumbled along and was instantly forgettable.

Great novel and script writers know the difference between plot, story, character arcs and foundational themes. Arguably, a parallel between plot developments and story in marketing communications are product launches and over-arching brand narrative.

Let’s look at Return of the King, which won 11 Oscars and is right up there alongside Titanic and Ben Hur for award wins. While Tolkein and Peter Jackson are both great story-tellers, Return of the King has been criticised for its many endings. I’d argue some of those ‘endings’ are simply plot developments.

I, personally, have less vivid memories of the ring disintegrating into the lava than seeing Frodo finally crack a smile as he boards the ship and waves goodbye to his distraught friends. Frodo doesn’t smile after the ring is finally destroyed or even when reunited with the Fellowship back in Rivendell. He also looks troubled when finally reunited with Bilbo. Why? Because he realises he is not yet free from the ring and its hold over him.

The ring disintegrating into the lava is less memorable than seeing Frodo board the ship, as it is much less emotional. Good writers are empathetic and capable of firing our emotions to strike a deeper chord. Brands also need to harness the power of emotion to help build associations and memory structures, so empathy is crucial in marketing too – allowing us to understand our customers, their pain-points, needs and how a product might help them.

Binet & Field (through ‘The Long & Short of it’) have demonstrated the importance of rational and emotional messages in successful campaigns and brand building. Empathy is not a soft skill. As Marketers, we all need to invest in understanding the relevant emotions of our buyers and their relationship with our brand / product. Otherwise we won’t know what need we’re actually solving.

In Game of Thrones, a healthy dose of empathy made for some of the most compelling moments. Yes, there were plenty of shocking deaths and visceral battles but a quiet moment of empathy forced the audience to acknowledge the complexity of a character who had, up until that point, served only as a font of villainy.

The character in question was Jaime Lannister - a handsome son of privilege, whose incestuous relationship with his sister, casual maiming of a child and general aura of arrogant self-satisfaction paint him as the primary villain. In one of the more memorable scenes, Jaime reveals that the act that earned him the nickname “Kingslayer” and gave him the reputation of being a man without honour is, in fact, the noblest thing he's ever done. George R.R. Martin reveals that Jaime saved thousands by slaying the king he was sworn to protect in order to prevent him from burning the capital city to the ground. In some ways, the moment changed not only the arc of the character, but the entire direction of the series.

B2B Marketing gets a bad rap

 B2B Marketing gets a bad rap. I’ve heard people in big, reputable agencies say “working on a B2B client isn’t going to help my career”. I’ve also heard client-side marketers say “the B2B team is where we put our problem children”. No wonder then that you get people describing themselves on LinkedIn as ‘Growth Hackers’ or ‘Demand Generation experts’ rather than being loud & proud B2B Marketers.

What doesn’t help matters is the myths and legends of B2B which result in ‘me too’ identikit ads and brands. I frequently find myself using the term “sea of sameness” when putting a compilation of competitor ads up on screen. For example, in Automotive, the ads are all slightly grey with bleached out colour and a ¾ shot of a shiny new car front & centre. Yes, they might feature a dynamic shot of a car in use or travelling at speed, but they’re entirely lacking life and personality. All missing any emotional content and built around the misconception that professional buyers are rational decision-making robots.

Over the past year, I’ve been fortunate to work with both B2B clients and a boss who encourage the agency team to break category convention and strive for resonance, rather than merely relevance.

So what are these myths?

Myth 1: B2B is all about Demand Generation

Like B2C, a challenge at the heart of B2B marketing is a fine balancing act between the long-term with short-term. Balancing brand building with targeted campaigns designed to generate demand and quality leads for sales. Balancing your campaign approach across mass reach brand advertising and narrowly targeted, segmented campaign activity focused on converting prospects - simultaneously picking the low hanging fruit with watering the tree. Balancing effectiveness with efficiency.

Myth 2: B2B comms must be serious and rational

Just as Demand Generation campaigns cannot build a sustainable brand, logical and reasoned arguments are no guarantee of success. Avoidance of risk is a key component of business continuity. Confidence, fear of failure and trust play a role in the B2B buying mindset. Triggering emotions is also key to the process of building memory structures and ensuring your message is recalled.

Myth 3: Focus more on your Competitors than your Customers

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos once said, “If we can keep our competitors focused on us while we stay focused on the customer, ultimately we’ll turn out all right”. In contrast, if you obsess over your rivals, rather than your customers, how can you be sure that your shiny new proposition will actually meet a need or will be seen as a viable alternative to a competitor’s?

Ultimately, your customers are not your Sales colleagues, but the people who grapple with the problem your business exists to solve. B2B campaigns are no different from B2C ones in that they’re aimed at human beings, so you need to invest in understanding the relevant emotions of your buyers and their relationship with your brand / product.

Kotler famously said “Marketing is the ability to hit the mark" – it requires an understanding of both the business challenge and end customer need in order to deliver the right solution.

Rule 4: The B2C team look after the ‘Brand’

We’ve already touched on the need for a balance between the rational (Tactical) and emotional (Brand Building). Analysis of B2B campaigns the IPA Databank by, marketing effectiveness gurus, Les Binet and Peter Field has shown it needs to be fairly equitable 50/50 split. The B2B articulation of your brand (proposition and positioning) will help drive the narrative around loss aversion and risk mitigation. Don’t purely rely on your B2C colleagues and ‘the Retail brand’ or it will be viewed through a different lens by the Decision Maker.

As Kotler also said "The art of marketing is the art of brand building. If you are not a brand, you are a commodity. Then price is everything and the low-cost producer is the only winner".

Sustainable brand growth in a post-pandemic world

COVID-19 is the latest challenge many businesses find themselves facing. In this rapidly changing environment, making the right decisions for tomorrow while maintaining operational effectiveness today is fraught with anxiety.

New information is coming thick and fast. This means the context which informs the decisions being made within businesses is changing rapidly. There has never been a time when strategic partners were needed more than mere supplier relationships.

In ‘normal times’, aspiration, confidence, fear of failure and trust all play a role in the B2B buying mindset. If you add the risk of imminent recession and likely need to cut overheads, there may even be a healthy dose of guilt in the mix.
It sounds obvious, but avoidance of risk is a key component of business continuity – more so now than ever. With all the noise about lead generation and “growth hacking” in B2B, it’s easy to forget that the people brands are targeting are actually human beings rather than rational decision-making robots.

B2B brands need to consider this, as well as the opportunity posed by limited competitor activity. Binet & Field’s analysis of the IPA Databank has shown that fame and salience matter in B2B, as they do in B2C. This analysis has also shown the need for emotional resonance alongside rational messaging. Add to this the outputs from Kantar’s recent COVID-19 Barometer (March 2020) and you need to consider your tone of voice and principles that guide your comms activity.

The Kantar study found that 75% believed “companies should not exploit the health crisis to promote their brand” but, in contrast, only 8% believed “companies should stop advertising altogether”. The vast majority of respondents (77%) expected brands to be helpful during this pandemic. So, B2B brands need to shift their focus from ‘BAU’ promotions and instead look at ways to genuinely help and support your audience.

All around us people and the businesses they work for are being forced to adapt. How can your brand support this? Established rules are being broken all the time. As, the filmmaker and author, Astra Taylor observed that “in a crisis, the rules don’t apply”. So, what actions can you think of which support your words? With McKinsey’s reporting (following their ‘B2B decision-maker response to COVID-19’ survey) that business buyers are expecting to cut budgets (e.g. 60% anticipate a reduction in Vehicle purchases), what would encourage buyers to maintain spending with your brand and cut it with a competitor?

B2B brands like SEAT are helping their customers by reminding them of easily background risks and offering guidance to help reduce them, such as the risk posed to businesses by moth-balled company cars. Accountancy software provider, Sage, has pulled together a content hub offering practical advice – from a daily webinar on UK Government help for businesses to guidance on making a claim under the “Job Retention Scheme”.

If B2B brands can hold their nerve in the face of pressure to cut budgets and consider the timely needs of their audience, they will be in a very strong position to thrive when we return to the “new normal”.

Not all friction is bad

 There’s been plenty of talk recently about what can be learned from Amazon’s obsessive focus on removing “friction”, i.e. any potential sticking points for a customer along their path to purchase. However, when it comes to marketing, can friction also be a good thing?

The first thing to note is that there are actually two types of friction. Static and kinetic. Static friction is a force that keeps an object at rest. So, this is the focus when seeking to remove obstacles from the customer journey. Kinetic friction is a force that acts between moving surfaces, so similar to the tension that can occur between Sales and Marketing is their agendas differ or between Client and Agency if each is working to a different understanding of the brief.

When it comes to briefs, I’d argue that the best briefs aren’t simply written, they’re re-written. The internal debate that comes from a healthy tension can help take the thinking to a deeper level just as a constrained budget can act as the catalyst for creative thinking. Looking more broadly, often where there is tension, there is also magic. Take the cello. The wood that goes into making the curved body, as well as the neck which joins the strings to the tuning pegs and body are under immense strain. In addition, skilled cello players will squeeze the instrument between their knees and tense their muscles to affect the overall tone.

When it comes to celebrating magical moments in our everyday lives, we often open some champagne. It’s a lot more time intensive to produce than other forms of wine and, thus, it’s more expensive. The Champagne region itself is located near the northern limits of the wine growing world along the 49th parallel. The high latitude and mean annual temperature of 10 °C creates a difficult environment for wine grapes to ripen, but the extra effort and friction justify the price premium.

Friction can force us to stop and reconsider our actions. If we embrace it in campaign development, we can potentially find a more engaging narrative that cuts through the clutter. Pearls grow from grains of sand and nasty parasites caught inside an oyster’s shell, but they’re rare. In B2B marketing, content that is recalled after 48 hours is almost as rare. Recent research has shown that more than 90% of messages are forgotten within 48 hours. By working a bit harder on the briefs you write and content assets you create, you'll ensure resultant messaging is more memorable and actionable in the future.