There are often debates on the importance and role of brands in the B2B world.  Is brand perception driven totally by satisfaction with the customer experience?  Clearly more rational aspects such as product performance, experience and value are critical components, but in today’s procurement-led selection of suppliers and partners, is there a place for the softer, more emotional dimensions of a brand – and what implication does this have for the assessment of brand performance in the B2B arena?

At a strategic level, brands are brands, irrespective of the sector in which they operate, although with a seemingly more rational set of decision-making criteria, brands in the B2B world would appear to be built around rational benefits, value and service.  Interestingly though, one regularly-quoted brand saying from the 1970’s playing strongly in the emotional space is from the B2B arena:

‘No-one ever got fired for choosing IBM’

I am pretty convinced that the shiny new tablet PC I’ve been playing with in the shop around the corner from work will bring me a lot of satisfaction – just think of all the new things that I will be able to do…..and that new on-demand film service I signed up for at the weekend will make a family film night in easier and more enjoyable.  In fact, a lot of the purchase decisions that I make are because I think they will make me happier.   Our quest for future happiness seems to figure strongly in many technology purchases where consumers often make pricey investments in the belief that a new device or service will bring them happiness in the future.

This is typically relevant to discretionary purchases but the choices made within even non-discretionary purchases can be for this reason (e.g. by choosing this broadband supplier I will have greater peace of mind = happiness).

Think of your last holiday….did you put aside the camera in order to savour those special moments?  Or did you take numerous photographs to capture the memories?  When you returned home, how did those photos shape your memory of that holiday?

The reason I ask is because Behavioural Economics has recognised consistent differences between the way we report our experiences in the moment (such as whilst on holiday) and the way in which we subsequently recall our experiences (once we return from holiday). Daniel Khaneman, leading psychologist, calls these ‘two selves’ the ‘experiencing self’ and the ‘remembering self’ respectively. The distinction between the two selves has huge implications for consumer experience in areas such as service design and marketing.

(You can read the full version of this article in the latest edition of GfK TechTalk here.)

The importance of the User Experience (UX) is increasingly recognized for the crucial role it has to play in take-up and loyalty of devices & digital services. The consumer devotion to their product eco-system of choice, the way in which users are encouraged to explore and discover new service facets, the ease with which it is possible to execute the actions you want quickly and easily; all these are core drivers of adoption and loyalty driven by the User Experience.

This has not always been the case, with UX historically being considered a discipline that is often separate from overall marketing prerogatives; a stage undertaken as something of a hygiene factor to ensure ‘all is well’ before getting on with the ‘more important parts’ of the marketing cycle.

(You can read the full version of this article in the latest edition of GfK TechTalk here.)

Pleasure for its own sake is becoming as crucial to the effectiveness of digital operating systems as the fundamentals of UX design. We are seeing a new dimension for UX: discoverability – the joy of discovery for its own sake. Discoverability is about three key success factors: personalized discovery; game-like engagement and viral appeal. This new dimension is about understanding how to engage digital consumers – encouraging them in exploring, finding, trying out – ‘experiencing’ new digital stuff.

User Experience – or UX – has historically been the discipline that has kept technology design honest. When all around them are losing their heads about the next shiny new technology feature, the UX experts are there, soberly insisting that any new design must first and foremost be seen from the user’s point of view. Is it usable? Is it useful?

In the latest edition of The GfK TechTalk magazine, Richard Preedy looks at the issue of switching between smartphones (differentiated by their OS e.g. Android) and why it’s becoming increasingly difficult for consumers. When benchmarked against everyday services and utilities, consumers worry more about having to switch the type of smartphone they own than their insurance, home telephone or pay TV providers.

In this video blog, Richard Preedy explains why simpler, integrated user experiences are playing a huge role in driving this aversion to switching. These user experiences are no longer just device-specific, but relate to the wider ecosystem of digital content and devices.

You can read the full article by visiting the latest GfK TechTalk online magazine here.