How B2B seller firms can leverage the power of brands with end users

Abstract

Current research explores the drivers of business-to-business (B2B) customer engagement for end users of products in customer firms. Although sometimes overlooked in the selling process, end users can be a key stakeholder group for selling firms when brand engagement is generated. Using insights from both qualitative interviews and a survey-based experiment, this research illustrates how a certain type of engagement initiative—namely, a request to share advice with a peer group—is more likely to nudge end users toward engagement behaviors than either a request for product feedback or a more general question about overall job challenges. In addition, results highlight the importance of end users’ sense of meaningfulness from their work for brand attachment and engagement behaviors in a B2B buying context. More concretely, seller firms should implement peer advice-type programs to most effectively influence behaviors of end users who are key value creators in the B2B ecosystem.