Functional or emotional values in B2B? : A study of marketing communication in the B2B healthcare market

Abstract To create value is a critical task for marketers and companies regardless of industry, and this study is focusing on the highly debated topic regarding functional and emotional values in business-to-business (B2B). Conventionally, emotional values has been perceived as irrelevant to B2B markets due to that business buyers have often been viewed as strictly rational decision makers. Other researchers however, argue that emotional values are essential since these values are the only sustainable ones, and this debate between scholars has created a research gap in the area. Some scholars therefore stress the importance of further research within this topic. This study aims to decrease the existing gap by analysing the customers perception and response of marketing communications in a B2B context by exploring the significance of functional and emotional values as well as what implications this has for B2B firms. This study has been made in collaboration with the Swedish state-of-the-art medical technology company Getinge, and in order to answer our research question and purpose we have conducted a quantitative study within the healthcare market in Turkey. The findings in this study indicate that functional and emotional values are both highly relevant in B2B marketing communication and that emotional values have a significant role when it comes to the perceptions of the customers.