Member Article

Rory Sutherland challenges the B2B sector to embrace behavioral science to unlock growth during tough times

Advertising and behavioural science guru Rory Sutherland, in collaboration with think tank The B2B Institute, publishes a new whitepaper challenging how B2B marketing is currently conducted. Research highlights huge scale of opportunity for B2B business, especially in the current climate.

In collaboration with Rory Sutherland, the B2B Institute has today released a whitepaper which explores decision making processes in B2B marketing and why current biases are making B2B marketing much less effective. This is the first time Sutherland has published a paper on the B2B sector specifically. The whitepaper titled ‘The Objectivity Trap: On the biases and misconceptions that cause us all to undervalue B2B Marketing’ is an entertaining and thought provoking essay from Sutherland designed to better understand and break down the biases of B2B, increasing marketers’ understanding of the psychology behind decision making , so they can grow their businesses. The whitepaper reveals there could be “billions of pounds” to be discovered if marketing and psychology were used together more often and more creatively. The key is developing businesses’ understanding as to how decisions are made ‘within’ organisations as customers make decisions about their products and services.

Widespread collective bias in corporate decision making The research highlights the presence of widespread bias in corporate decision making, arguing that collective bias may be far more significant than individual bias. In B2B businesses, group decision making will often compound inadvertent skewing rather than cancel out where individual decisions will. These unconscious motivations include: fear of embarrassment or failure, confusion/lack of understanding of the business, desire to fit in and second guessing colleagues.

Businesses can find advantage in better understanding how decisions about their products and services are made.

Rory Sutherland, Vice President of Ogilvy UK commented: “In modern marketing, behavioural biases are talked about a great deal with respect to consumer behaviour. What receives much less attention is the presence of widespread bias in collective, institutional, or corporate decision-making. Our work with the B2B Institute exposes these problematic patterns in thinking, while illustrating how embracing behavioural science can create competitive advantage from the inside-out.”

Jann Schwarz, Global Director of The B2B Institute commented: “In these trying times, Rory’s highly original report reminds us that marketing is a mindset, not a cost-centre; human beings are not rational, so magic is often preferable to reason when solving marketing problems. There is tremendous potential for innovation and reinvention for our industry in an improved understanding of behavioral science. As B2B marketers, we can all benefit from Rory’s wisdom and wit, and we all need more magic in our lives.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Pumpkin .