Business-to-Business Brand Pathos - Exploring Brand Fellowship in B2B Communication

Abstract: Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis was to explore, define and characterise the phenomenon of Brand Fellowship within business-to-business (B2B) communication by using the rhetorical appeals of ethos, logos and pathos. Brand Fellowship was observed to be the emotional relationship between man and machine that influences how heavy-duty machine companies construct their brand. This contradicts the overriding notion that B2B branding is predominantly rationally constructed. Rhetorical appeals have the ability to detect emotional attributes within advertisements, thus this technique was deployed to explore Brand Fellowship. Methodology: Phenomenological research and the epistemological stance of interpretivism was deemed as the most appropriate approach for this research as it focused on the exploration of an unidentified phenomena in an abductive approach. Deriving from our initial observation, an in depth longitudinal case study was applied with the aim of analysing print advertisements across the history of a B2B company. The heavy-duty machinery producer, JCB was chosen due to their idiosyncratic marketing activities and the salience in the markets that they operate in. Firstly, we collected the print advertisements from JCB’s archives. Secondly, a semiotic analysis was used to cluster the print advertisements into time periods. Thirdly, a rhetorical analysis was applied to analyse the content in depth. Finally, to triangulate and confirm our findings from the analysis, we conducted four semi-structured interviews with JCB personnel. Theoretical Contributions: This thesis discovered a five-stage brand-building process for heavy-duty machinery organisations. Furthermore, the thesis applied the first known framework to amalgamate knowledge on rhetorical appeals and B2B brand-building. Most importantly, this thesis proved that B2B branding is not always predominantly rationally constructed and that Brand Fellowship exists. Managerial Implications: This thesis explored, defined and characterised Brand Fellowship and provided empirical evidence that heavy-duty machine brands must deploy pathos attributes in their brand and marketing strategy. The Rhetorical Inventory provides a guiding framework for brand managers, advertising agencies and sales personnel in the process of building their brand and accompanying strategy. Originality Value: This study provides the first known framework to integrate rhetorical appeals with Keller’s (2001) CBBE model for the intended use of communication. Furthermore, this study explored, defined and characterised an otherwise unexplored phenomenon in the heavy-duty machinery.