B2B World Fest: Oxford-style debate asks whether logic or emotion drives B2B choices

It’s a debate, in other words, but one not often had out in the open. Until today, when four leading marketers met on the stage of The Drum’s B2B World Fest for an Oxford-style debate on the motion that ‘This house believes that, in 2025, B2B buying decisions are driven by emotion, not logic and rationality.’

Here: the arguments in favor and against, followed by the verdict from the room.

1. For the house: ‘Logic plays a part, but emotion drives decisions’

Alex Kurth, head of planning and strategy for agency-consultancy hybrid Marketbridge Europe, sets out the stall for the house’s motion, on the side of emotions: “As much as we like to believe that B2B is rationality- and data-driven, the simple truth is that it’s not. If we forget that, we risk losing marketing’s power to shape perceptions and inspire behavioral change.

“We must remember that behind every metric procurement checklist is a human heart – the heart of a person who is ambitious, uncertain and fearful, not a binary procurement robot. So yes, logic plays a part, but emotion drives decisions.”

The case for the house can lean on some well-trodden points: that, according to an estimate of Harvard Business School’s professor Gerald Zaltman, 95% of human decisions happen in the subconscious mind; that “the brain processes around 11m bits a second, but we can only consciously handle about 40”; research from the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology that suggests that, in Kurth’s words, “every decision, even those that we label rational, begins, in the emotional center of the brain: the limbic system.”

That’s not to say, of course, that rationality isn’t involved in the buying process. “We buy on emotion and justify with logic,” says Kurth. “Every algorithm, every recommendation, reflects human judgment and human emotion decides what gets acted upon. So yes, logic might run the system, but emotion still leads the decisions.”

To give logic the credit, Kurth says, is like letting a fellow student turn up at the end of a group project and take all the glory.

2. Against the motion: ‘Feeling creatures who think’

Arguing on behalf of what is sometimes spuriously thought of as the left-brain, Amelia Torode, group head of strategy, made the case that principles of emotion-led decision-making may apply to consumer purchases, but the gap between the B2B and B2C purchasing environments is big – and widening.

“My learned friend said that 95% of decisions were made in the subconscious,” said Torode. “That’s fine when we talk about Diet Coke. It’s not so fine when we’re talking about software; when we’re talking about systems; when we’re talking about multi-million dollar, possibly billion-dollar purchases. I’m not sure that 95% of those are made in the subconscious.”

There’s a contrary battery of stats that the dissenting party can appeal to, on behalf of reason: “74% of B2B buyers say that they conduct detailed ROI analysis before decision-making purchases. 68% say demonstrating ROI is absolutely critical. According to LinkedIn, 95% of people say that data and insight are needed to make B2B purchase decisions and 65% say that they trust B2B brands that provide data-driven insights, according to the Edelman’s Trust Barometer.”

The world of B2B, Torode says, demands an elaboration of a useful maxim from behavioral psychology: “humans are feeling creatures who think.”

“That’s absolutely right, but when it comes to B2B, we need to double-underline, put little stars on and highlight the thinking bit, because when it comes to multi-million-dollar, career-defining decisions, it’s facts, facts, facts and the wrong decision can break a career.”

Torode’s picture of B2B buying is almost the inverse of Kurth’s: “Emotion sparks attention, but facts seal the deal.”

3. For the house: ‘Fear, fear, fear’

That “nobody gets fired for buying IBM” line isn’t just smart marketing copy; it leans on a deep emotional truth for many B2B buyers: their careers can be made or broken by their purchasing decisions.

In her argument for the house’s motion, Jenny Sagström, co-founder and chief executive at B2B creative agency Sköna, argues that fear around those high stakes is what makes B2B far more emotional than that data cited by Torode might indicate.

“The stakes are high, the contracts are long and the decisions are supposed to be rational,” says Sagström. “‘Supposed’ is the key word here: that’s where the logic falls apart. Because when careers, reputations and livelihoods are on the line, decisions aren’t made from spreadsheets. They’re made from the gut. They’re made from fear, from emotion.”

Sagström cites research from the likes of neuroscientist Antonio Damasio in support of this argument: when studying people playing card games, body responses like sweaty palms can come in before the brain can formulate any logical reasoning. “Emotion doesn’t cloud judgement; it enables it,” says Sagström.

When fear’s at the door, safety becomes a key emotional driver, says Sagström.

4. Against the motion: Can a buying group feel an emotion?

A final argument against the motion came from Adam Azor, executive vice-president of global marketing at sports technology company Sportradar.

There was perhaps a time, Azor says, when a B2B buying decision could be made based on the emotions of an individual – in the 1980s, say, when the buyer was a single individual who could be convinced with steak dinners. But those days are long gone: “That way of business is dead,” he says; that single individual “has been replaced by a numerous group of people and buyers – of millennials and Gen Z, digital natives that look at that buy in a very different way. They’re not afraid to go and do their own research. They’re not afraid to look at those other areas. There is a reason why content marketing and unbranded search became the most effective strategy in B2B marketing over the last decade and it’s not driven by emotion; it’s driven by algorithms.”

The individual you’re selling to, in other words, is now a group – a group with diverse influences, interest and requirements. The question thus becomes “How are we getting the right facts and figures into the buying cycle and capturing that person and getting them there to buy substantial, material purchases? It’s not just an individual; it’s a group.”

That group, Azor says, may be up to 40 people for publicly listed companies. “Compliance, data, privacy, purchasing: everyone is involved. You think they’re all being swung by emotion? Who are the people that tell you emotion is [everything]? Agencies! Why do they tell you it’s important? Because they’re trying to sell you a brand strategy full of emotion!”

The room’s verdict? Split right down the middle. A coin flip gives the win to the house.