How Can B2B Companies Improve Their Customer Experience.pdf

Final thesis How can B2B companies improve their customer experience How can B2B companies improve their customer experience By using sensory marketing in a digital context Author Caroline Hallgren &[.]

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How can B2B companies improve their customer experience-

By using sensory marketing in a digital context

Author: Caroline Hallgren & Paula

Mamusha

Supervisor: MaxMikael Wilde Björling Examiner: Kaisa Lund.

Date: 26 May 2021 Subject: : Business Administration III Level: Degree of Bachelor.

Course Code: 2FE67E.

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Sensory marketing is a broad concept that can be used as a marketing tool Thesensory marketing can be used in different ways and in different environments.The most common use for sensory marketing in a B2C environment where thecustomer can interact with their senses more.But how do B2B companies

comprehend sensory marketing in a digital environment The use of sensorymarketing is a hard marketing tool to use when applying it to the digital

environment Therefore, the purpose of this thesis has been to examine howB2B companies can implicate sensory marketing in digital marketing and how itcan affect their brand image

The research questions were to be answered by using qualitative case studywhere eight different industries within the B2B companies participated in

semi-structured interviews Using the qualitative method to get a more in-depthunderstanding of how different industries within the B2B companies use sensorymarketing is the right choice for collecting correct data Later in the theisi thecollected data is going to be analyzed and discussed with the theory for thepurpose to see similarities and differences

The conclusion of this explains to those B2B companies that were interviewedfor this thesis, that the use of sensory marketing is not a conscious decision Thecompanies use vision and hearing as a subconscious method of spreading

awareness about the companies Although the B2B companies feel it's hard toimply for the business the choice of using the other sense is not aucurrent fortheir business

Keyword

B2B company, sensory marketing, digital marketing, customer experience,brand image and touchpoints

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We would like to express our deepest appreciation to all the participants thathave dedicated their time and knowledgment to help us with completing thisbachelor thesis Therefore we would like to send a special thanks to all of theinterviewees that has taken place in this thesis without their help, knowledge andtime our research would have been completed

This bachelor thesis would not have been possible without the support, valuableadvice and nurturing of our supervisor MaxMikael Wilde Björling We wouldalso like to send a special thanks to our examiner Kaisa Lund as well as ouropponents for their time and constructive criticism during the seminars that havehelped us develop and improve the quality of our bachelor thesis

Linnéuniversitetet Kalmar, 21 May 2021

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2.2.4 Response and stimuli 9 2.3 Adapting sensory marketing in a digital environment 9 2.3.1 introduction to the subject 9 2.3.2 Advantages with marketing in a digital environment 10 2.3.3 Sensory marketing adapts in a digital manner 10 2.4 Brand Image & Expectation 11 2.4.1 Introduction to the subject 11 2.4.2 The experience economy 11 2.4.3 Image, expectations and touchpoints 12 2.5 Theoretical synthesis 13

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3.6 Operationalisation 18 3.7 Selection of Cases 18 3.7.1 Company and employees criterias 19 3.7.2 Table of cases 19

3.9 Quality of research 20 3.9.1 Reliability in qualitative research 20 3.9.2 Validity in qualitative research 21 3.10 Ethical considerations 22 3.11 Sustainability considerations 22

4.2 General strategies within marketing in case companies 27 4.3 Starting to know your customer 28 4.4 Stimulating the customers five senses 29 4.4.1 Sensory marketing in B2B companies 29 4.4.2 Barriers for adapting sensory marketing 31 4.4.3 Gain benefits and differentiation through Sensory marketing33 4.5 Brand Image & Expectation 34 4.5.1 General strategies within Brand image in case companies 34 4.5.2 Brand expectation in correlation with Brand image 37 4.5.3 Customer journey mapping and touch points 40 4.5.4 The value of understanding the customers expectations 42

5.1 Stimulating the customers five senses 45 5.2 Image & expectation 46 5.3 Knowing your B2B customer in a digital environment 48 5.4 Sensory marketing adapts in an digital environment 49

6.1 Answering the research question 51 6.1.1 How B2B companies use sensory marketing to enhance their

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6.1.2 The barriers for companies for using sensory marketing in a

6.2 Theoretical Implications 52 6.3 Managerial Implications 53 6.4 Social, Ethical and Sustainable Implications 53

6.6 Suggestions for future Research 54

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1 Introduction

1.1 Background

In this thesis, the authors have chosen to examine how B2B companies use sensorymarketing in a digital environment to improve their customers' experience Before thisstudy began, a prejudice existed, that it is mainly B2C companies that use the benefitsthat sensory marketing can contribute to organizations A curiosity was created aboutwhether this prejudice is true but also if and why B2B companies do not use this

opportunity to the same extent as B2C companies If it were the case that the prejudicesare not correct, i.e that sensory marketing is as common in B2B companies as it is inB2C companies, it may indicate that B2B companies are generally more discreet in theirmarketing Another possible explanation for whether the prejudice could be wrong isthat the authors are significantly more involved in B2C marketing than the authors are

in B2B marketing because the authors are currently not part of B2B companies' targetgroup This may mean that the current prejudice is unfounded and is a conclusion thatwill be reached after the end of the work

Webbstrategerna.se (2021) defindes that the B2B buying processes have changed overtime This means that companies 'sales strategies must change as the business

customers' buying behavior changes 83 % of all purchases made through B2B

companies are made on their own by consumers (webbstrategerna.se 2020) Only 17 %

of the purchases made involve a supplier or with a personal contact (ibid) This meansthat resources that have previously been invested in sales interactions between

companies and buyers must instead shift focus For the purpose of helping the customerwith consumption according to their new purchasing needs (ibid) Instead, companiesneed to shift focus to supporting digital consumption and educating the customer online(ibid) The companies who help and facilitate the customer's purchase journey are thenthe ones who succeed in attracting most of the customers (ibid)

Previous information is proof that further research on B2B marketing is necessary.Buying behaviors are constantly changing as society becomes increasingly digital Thetraditional B2B marketing largely consists of salespeople at the company who close adeal physically present with the customer According to the statistics above, this is proofthat there has been a shift At present, only 17% of sales are made through an

interaction (webbstrategerna.se 2020) As customers' buying behaviour changes, thesupplier needs to comply with this The interest in this thesis is based on how

companies can, with the help of sensory marketing, create a better experience for thecustomer online Since customer experience is a broad concept the focus in this thesiswill be on image and what expectations of a brand that a corporate image creates

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According to an article published on Linkedin.com, Williamson (2020) states that thecustomer's expectations of a brand's experience are the same regardless of whether thecustomer is at work or in their private role B2C companies seem to have come further

in their marketing in terms of adapting to the customer's needs (Linkedin.com,

Williamson 2020) 94% of all marketers in B2C use data and analysis to get to knowtheir customers' needs and to create an understanding of the experience for the customer(ibid) While B2B marketers are considered to have come shorter in this process ofswitching to a more customer-oriented view (ibid)

Forbes.com (2020) states that customer experience is an important and prioritized topic

in terms of B2C contexts But as far as B2B companies are concerned, this developmenthas lagged behind where customer experience is not prioritized to the same extent(ibid) It is believed that the reason for this is that B2C companies work with individualsand that it should be easier to personalize the marketing (ibid) Therefore, Forbes.com(2020) decbrice this view as B2B companies can make them fall behind in the

development (ibid) It is considered that B2B companies can become better at workingwith their customer experience by listening to their customers and clearly identifyingthe difficulties the specific person is facing at the time (ibid) It is pointed out that even

if it is a company you are targeting and not a private consumer, it is still people you talk

to and thus the relationship with the customer is important even in a B2B context (ibid).Forbes (2020) highlights that when working with B2B or B2C, the relationship andcreating an experience is important (ibid) Forbes.se (2020) suggests that regardless ofwhether you operate in B2B or B2C, B2P (business to people) the relationship andexperience is important (ibid)

After comparing different companies' websites, the authors can see that the commonthread around sensory marketing in a digital environment is that B2B companies

stimulate sense vision For example, a company called Bravura uses moving images onthe website to convey a feeling (Bravura.se) But what the authors of this thesis havenot been able to find is how B2B companies use other senses to create a multisensoryexperience A B2C company that is good at involving more senses is for exampleNelly.com, for their clothing they have a recorded video where a model shows theclothes (Nelly.com 2021) this can to some extent create a perceptual re-creation (Petit,Velasco and Spence, 2019) That is, replacing the need to feel and try a product byhelping the customer to visualize

The biggest obstacles that exist to using sensory marketing in a digital environmentcompared to a physical environment is that it is difficult to completely replace theability to feel, smell and taste goods (Petit et al., 2019) The solution to this problem is

to try to find new ways to virtually replace them with a visualization (ibid) To

circumvent the actual problem that the customer is not physically present, companies asmentioned above can use perceptual re-creation In turn this requires creativity to find

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new complements But from what the authors have seen, B2C companies succeed withthis but not B2B companies to the same extent What this depends on is difficult toidentify in this stage of research, but one thought is that B2B companies use physicalcontacts to sell and do not provide web shops to the same extent as B2C companies.

1.2 Problem discussion

When the authors started this research, the authors started exploring what has beenstudied so far The reason for this is to find a research gap so that the authors could beable to add new insights and conclusions to the subject The authors of this thesis wereable to conclude that there are some studies that have been done on sensory marketing

in both a B2C context and a B2B context What the authors were able to establish is that

no one has investigated this phenomenon based on digital environments

1.2.1 Theoretical problematization

A previous study by Hulten (2011) aims to investigate sensory marketing and its

importance for building a clear brand image (Hulten 2011) For the brand to create ageneral good experience, an important factor is sensory marketing, where the fivedifferent senses have a significant factor in creating sensory experiences and stimuli(ibid) An image is created and shaped based on how the customer receives the

impression of a company By raising awareness of the effect that sensory marketing cangenerate, companies can improve their marketing but succeed in creating a better

experience for the customer (ibid) The conclusions that could be drawn from thatarticle were that the more senses that the company stimulates, the better sensory

experience is created for the customer (ibid) This will then create a stronger bondbetween the company and the customer (ibid) What defines sensory marketing is aninvolvement of the customer's senses, which is vision, sound, smell, taste and touchwhich affects the perception, evaluation and behavior (Moreira, Fortes & Santiago2017) Sensory marketing has a connection to multisensory marketing where you as amarketer consciously stimulate more than one of the five senses of the consumer

(Hulten 2011) When integrating sensory marketing into the marketing mix, a marketercan create a better experience for the consumers Which in turn adds value to the

business and improves the consumer perception of the business (ibid)

Another study done by Dinet, (2014) addresses that digital marketing is a changingphenomenon where customers' buying processes are constantly changing What isknown today about the subject is that the use of digital marketing has a greater effect onthe consumer compared to, for example, traditional media such as newspapers and signs(Cowan, Spielmann, Horn & Griffart, 2021) When sensory marketing reaches

customers in a digital format, the customer experience tends to be perceived as better(ibid)

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B2B marketing is defined and described as a previously called concept ´industrialmarketing´ (Lilien 2016) This definition focuses mostly on transactions where theexchange of goods was important (ibid) One similarity that can be drawn is the

different paradigm shifts that have taken place where the start was from a transactionmarketing perspective Bodnar and Cohen (2012) suggest that B2B companies are moresuited for digital marketing than B2C companies are This is because B2B companiesare considered to know their customers better (ibid) This should mean that B2B

companies are considered to be more aware of which their habits are, what other

companies' needs are and their desires (ibid) However, it is not just a matter of havingknowledge to understand your customers but must be lore at creating relationships withother companies for B2B marketing to be successful (ibid)

Previous research for Achrol and Kotler (2011) states that the experience of a brand has

a significant role Customer experience is defined as an effective marketing strategythat enables differentiation both in physical environments and in online environments(Shobeiri, Mazaheri & Laroche 2018) Customer experience focuses on creating a goodexperience for the customer and not focusing on product attributes Customer

experience focuses on positioning and differentiating through the experience companiescreate for the customer rather than differentiating with the help of products (ibid) Bycreating an experience for the customer, it can generate more satisfied and loyal

customers (Achrol & Kotler, 2011) One way to improve and create a good experiencefor the customer is to work with Sensory marketing (Schmitt 1999) Including stimulifor the five different senses creates a mood in the consumer that provides a more

intimate and personal approach to a brand, this should lead to the differentiation toco-competitors becoming clearer (ibid)

1.2.2 Research gap

The knowledge gap that could be identified is the combination of the research areas andthe different contexts the authors have chosen to investigate There are studies thatfocus on sensory marketing in a digital context, but how sensory marketing can affectthe customer experience broadly and in general There are studies that focus on sensorymarketing in both B2B and B2C contexts What the authors of this thesis have

identified is that there are no insights into how sensory marketing can improve a B2Bcompany's image and expectations in a digital context There are studies conducted inall of the actual study areas but no study when all the factors are in the same study Theresearch gap is thus these factors combined The clearest research gap the authors canfind is the niche in customer experience where digital environments, B2B and sensorymarketing have not previously been analyzed in consideration of image and

expectations

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1.2.3 Managerial problematization

Why this is interesting to study is that the various components are described as

successful methods For example, a digital environment is described as a good way forpositioning, to be seen and to adapt the marketing according to the customer's needswith the help of digital platforms (Dinet 2014) Designing a good customer experience

is also considered to have a good effect on customers and in turn create more loyalty(Holbrook 1999) Image and expectations are considered valuable in creating a goodexperience for customers (Kellner 1995) Image and expectations as concepts contribute

a lot in marketing, but this thesis will generate insights and benefits of combining thesefactors with sensory marketing in a digital environment The objective for this thesis is

to understand how companies use sensory marketing to influence customers' perceivedimage of the company and what expectations that image creates in a digital

environment

It is argued that customers' buying behavior has changed over time as digitalisation is amajor reason for the change in customers' buying behavior (Dinet 2014) When itcomes to customer experience, it is a concept that has gradually come to the surface and

is being discussed more over time (Forbes.com 2020) Some companies are probablyaware of including the customer experience in their marketing mix, while many

companies probably do not have this in mind (ibid)

Why this research area is interesting in a corporate world is because a company's imagecontrols what a customer's expectations of a brand are (Glastein 2008) If the authorscould examine and come up with new insights on how companies can influence whichimage they convey digitally and how this image can be influenced through sensorymarketing Then the authors of this thesis can come up with new insights on how

customers' expectations can be affected and in this way a customer's perceived qualitycan be affected positively The authors of this thesis hope this could lead to insights onhow companies could create more loyal and more committed customers and that thiscan affect conversion rates for the number of satisfied customers

This study could help companies become aware of how they can influence their imagebased on a customer point of view It could help companies find new creative ways tointegrate sensory marketing into their digital presence It can provide new insights tocompanies that it is important to know what customers' views of the company are andthat it is important to know the expectations so that you as a company can meet them

1.3 Purpose

The aim of this thesis is to examine how B2B companies can use sensory marketing toimprove their image in an online environment The purpose is to investigate what effectand which value a sensory marketing strategy can have on B2B companies' marketing

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mix in a digital context This thesis also aims to investigate which barriers may exist forB2B companies to enable them to apply a Sensory marketing strategy in a digital

on the Swedish market, however, some interviewees are employed by companies

operating in an international market But since the participants are active in the Swedishmarket, the focus of this thesis will therefore be on the Swedish market Some of theinterviewees are employees of companies that work within B2B but then have

end-users This thesis will only focus on the B2B interaction and not the interaction toend-users This is not specified in purpose and thus needs to be clarified as a

delimitation

This thesis has not resulted in concrete examples of how companies could apply sensorymarketing in their marketing mix One delimitation that has been made is that this thesisonly examines whether companies use sensory marketing or not and how it could affectcompanies' brand image

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2 Theory

2.1 Relationship within B2B in a digital environment

2.1.1 Introduction to the subject

What defines B2B is an abridgement for ‘Business to business’ operates with otherbusinesses (Pfoertsch and Scheel 2012) Having to deal with B2B is a strategy to getbusinesses to buy from each other (ibid) The marketing within B2B is about

understanding and to meet the needs of their businesses (ibid) Therefore it’s important

to show that demand is the most important drive in the marketing of industrial goodsand services (ibid) Lilien (2016) states that B2B was called industrial marketing before.The focus was mainly in the transaction of different types of materials and tools thatwas used in the company (Lilien 2016) The researchers show that the term

business-to-business has now captured a broader range of value-generating relationships(ibid)

2.1.2 Relationships in B2B marketing

B2B companies are more suitable for digital content than B2C companies The

particular reason for this circumstance is because B2B companies know more abouttheir ‘customers’ than B2C companies (Bodna & Cohen 2012) The main focus is notabout gaining knowledge about the companies that are developing relationships withdifferent companies Within the B2B sales process, Bodna and Cohen (2012) states that

it is important to have a relationship with the companies When using the digital

environment, B2B companies have a faster way of building a relationship with otherB2B companies which can be a benefit for the companies (ibid)

2.1.3 B2B marketing in a digital environment

Zaif and Cerchia (2019) states that there are benefits and advantages of having B2Bimplemented in the digital environment (Zaif & Cerchia 2019) The communicationbetween customers and companies can be both one-way and two-way communication.The use of a one-way communication for a company can lead to having customerscreate their own perceptions about the company Although two-way communication canincrease the customer's trust and loyalty (Michaelidou, Siamagka & Christodoulides,2011) When a company appears to be receptive and open for communication, Zaif andCerchia (2019) states that it can benefit the company in having a stronger and betterbrand image Operating in a digital environment, companies can gain a larger

knowledge of consumers behavior, buying process or pattern Having a better

perception of how the identified and established target audience are, the company has

an easier way of directing their marketing towards them (ibid) Zaif and Cerchia (2019)states that elements that help the company to brand themselves toward customers is by:creating brand equity, brand awareness, brand image and recognition

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One thing companies are afraid of is giving the customers the wrong perception of whatthey are (Zaif & Cerchia 2019) Being aware that the digital environment is important intoday's society, it can be wrongfully used (ibid) The companies that uses one-waycommunication don’t have control over how their companies are being perceived (ibid).This can result in creating a negative brand perception (ibid) There are other factorsthat get affected when the perspective is damaged Factors like brand image, brandawareness and brand loyalty can damage the company and lead to difficulties for thecompany in the future (Lacka & Chong 2016)

2.2 Stimulating the customers five senses

What defines sensory marketing is an involvement of the customer's senses, which isvision, sound, smell, taste and touch and it affects the perception, evaluation and

behavior (Moreira, Fortes & Santiago 2017) Another definition of what sensory

marketing is that it is a marketing tool that engages the consumers without their consent(Krishna 2012) This affects their perceptions, judgment and behavior towards thecompany (ibid) This states that sensory marketing has a connection to multi-sensorymarketing which means that more than one of the five senses contributed to the

perceptions of sensory marketing (Hulten 2011) The multi-sensory experience occurswhen a company implicates one of the five senses into the consumer's shopping

experience or to others' experience This way the companies add value to the

consumer’s shopping experience while increasing the image the consumers have

towards the brand (ibid)

2.2.2 The four different elements in Sensory marketing

Sensory marketing contributes with the customers' subconscious stimuli (Moreira,Fortes et al 2017) This creates a perception among the consumers of a brief overview

of the product, factors such as sophistication, quality and modernity can be affected(ibid)

Research done by Krishna (2012) states that sensory marketing can be divided into fourdifferent elements The first basic elements are sensation and perception (Krishna2012) This means that in this stage customers are processing the senses (ibid)

Sensations are stimuli from the physical world that are received by something calledsensory receptors While the perception is when the customers become aware or evenstart to understand the sensory information (ibid) The third and fours basic elements arecognition and emotions (ibid) These are unattached but are linked with the perceptionsfounded on grounded cognitive and emotional theories (Nghiem-Phu 2017) The four

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elements are factors that affects the customers attitudes, memory and behaviors towardsthe brand experience (ibid)

2.2.3 The connection between Sensory marketing and Customer Experience

Using sensory marketing in a correct way could help companies to become memorableand give customers a better experience (Hulten 2011) The more activated sensorymemories are, the stronger the connection between a brand and a consumer becomes(Moreira, Fortes et al.2017) Hulten (2011) states that the mental conception and theperception of interactions in a process, can result in a multi-sensory experience

Furthermore Hulten (2011) states that the perspective the customers have is reflected onthe connection to how they feel and their opinions toward the brand (ibid) This is allbased on how their experience with the brand has been (ibid)

2.2.4 Response and stimuli

Stimuli and responses are elements that are being received from a senses organ wheninteracting with sensory marketing The perception is achieved by interpreting thesesensations (ibid) Research found from Erenkol and AK (2015),shows that

environmental stimuli can lead to an emotional reaction, which can affect customers indifferent behavioural responses (ibid) The approaching behavior is when the customershave a desire to stay and explore more While avoiding behavior is for those that want

to escape and ignore communication (Erenkol & AK 2015 : Helmefalk & Hulten 2017)

Erenkol and Ak (2015) states that there are different responses that can be experienced

in sensory marketing The first is a cognitive response which explains how customersrespond to sensory marketing in results of perceptions, attitudes and quality assessment(ibid) The other response that has been defined is emotional response (ibid) The

emotional response is triggered by stimulus and gives the consumers a feeling beforehaving experienced it (ibid) The last one is behavior response (ibid) Looking at thebehavior responses research shows that this response is connected to the attitude

towards a brand or a company (ibid) The behavioral response could be stated as a resultfrom the repeated positive attitude from a brand or business using sensory marketing(ibid) These emotions lead to behaviour responses such as spending more time ormoney in that particular brand or company for example (ibid)

2.3 Adaptation of sensory marketing in a digital context

Digital environments can be defined as digital technology such as telephones,

computers or tablets What defines digital systems or digital environments is that itstimulates the human cognitive and perceptual system (Roda 2011) The platform mustinvite an interaction and communication opportunity between the participants

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Previously, the design focused on digital environments to facilitate the human way offinding information, while the current focus is on facilitating the human way of

processing the information (ibid) This states that there has been a shift in recent years.With the help of digital environments, customers can effectively search for relevantinformation The reasons why you joined a digital platform can be many, some

examples are for finding information that is necessary to pass an exam or to stay

socially connected (Dinet 2014)

2.3.2 Advantages with marketing in a digital environment

Digital environments are seen as dynamic and a changing phenomena, this is due to thefact that purchasing behavior among consumers and the knowledge about users isconstantly changing (Dinet 2014) It has been discovered that when media go frombeing visual to virtual The information tends to be organized in a more detailed way,which in turn strengthens the offers online This leads to customers perceiving

marketing as more attractive when it tends to be virtual or digital compared to

traditional media such as product packaging or videos (Cowan, Spielmann, Horn &Griffart, 2021) When the customer experience adapts sensory experiences in, forexample, more dynamic environments online The consumer's experience tends to beperceived as more positive compared with, for example, static and traditional mediaenvironments (ibid) A conclusion that can be drawn is that VR (virtual reality)

technology can be a digital tool that helps the customer to a better digital experienceand that VR promotes the customer's sense of presence (ibid)

2.3.3 Sensory marketing adapts in a digital manner

Companies can influence the customer's buying habits and the customer's perception of

a brand by reaching the customer's various points of contact (Cowan, Spielmann et al.2021) This could be done by having an interaction between the customer and the

company in a digital context (ibid) Products are consumed in a higher demand in anonline context compared to a few years ago (ibid) This places higher demands onmarketers to create a better experience for the customer even online (ibid) Customerexperience in an online context has become a more debated topic as digital technologyhas evolved (ibid) One challenge that has been identified is how companies can workwith sensory marketing in a digital context (ibid) The challenge is based on the fact that

it is difficult to feel, taste or smell products through a screen (ibid) The senses that can

be stimulated in the traditional way are hearing and sight, as the screen and the

non-physical presence place obstacles in the way of stimulating other senses (Petit et al.2019)

Despite difficulties in stimulating all five senses in a digital context, cognition does notstop working (Petit et al 2019) However, companies can work with a perceptualre-creation (ibid) This means that in an online context you can replay the propertiesthat products can provide (ibid) For example, when you taste potato chips, there is a

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crunchy sound (ibid) These are properties that are difficult to play out in a digitalenvironment What could be done instead in the advertising is for example, reflect thesound given by tasting chips (ibid) This then gives a perceptual re-creation where themarketer could replace the real sound of chewing on a certain product with a recordedsound to try to create the same mood for the customer in a digital environment (ibid) Inthe same way, by inserting solid product images that give the customer a clear anddistinct picture of what the product looks like, you can replace the need to touch aproduct (ibid) This is an enabler to be able to stimulate the five senses in a digitalenvironment with the goal of offering the customer a multisensory experience (ibid).

The ability to zoom-in on product images has come to make it easier for customers toexamine the products and create an expectation of what they purchase There are twoother features that digital technology offers to facilitate the experience for customers,these are VR and 3D images This will help the customer to a more realistic experiencecompared to a regular 2D image (Petit et al 2019) 3D images are considered to givethe consumer greater enjoyment compared to traditional 2D images It has been shownthat this has generated a more positive impact on buying behavior, ie that the customerconsumes more It could create a better experience for the consumer in general The use

of virtual technological solutions promotes consumer attention and reinforces the

perception of reality of the physical environment, i.e that the digital environment isperceived as more real (ibid)

2.4 Brand Image & Expectation

Since customer experience is a broad concept, this thesis will focus on image Links thatwill be drawn to image are expectations and quality of experience that the customerexperiences (Glatstein 2008) Over time, there have been a number of different

paradigm shifts From the beginning, people believed in transactions and the exchangebetween products and compensation was important (Achrol & Kotler 2012)

Furthermore, it was realized that there was something to build on, it was realized thatthe relationship between the participants was important in a buying process (ibid) Thelatest paradigm shift that has taken place is further based on the relationship and

transactions with customers It has been seen that the experience of a brand has a

significant role (ibid) Experience marketing has for some time been recognized as aneffective marketing strategy to be able to differentiate, both in an environment fortraditional media and in an online environment (Shobeiri, Mazaheri & Laroche 2018).The paradigm shift that has taken place in marketing now promises an experience forthe customer rather than product attributes (ibid) The focus has thus shifted from

positioning their products and differentiating through them to positioning themselves bycreating an experience for the customer (ibid)

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2.4.2 The experience economy

The research into the experience economy led to the conclusion that experiences cancreate more satisfied customers, which in turn creates more loyal customers (Achrol &Kotler 2011) It is explained that you can, among other things, create an experience forthe customer by including stimulation of the five senses in their marketing strategy(Schmitt 1999) Including stimuli for the five senses generates a more personal andintimate approach of a brand, which promotes differentiation (ibid) The experience of abrand is closely rooted in the company's image and this is linked to expectations of abrand (ibid) The image of a company is defined as the perceptions the customer has of

a company (ibid) The customer perceives the company's image and this creates

expectations as to whether the company will, for example, deliver a product or service

as well as expected quality (ibid) If a customer's expectations are met, a satisfiedcustomer is created, while if the expectations are not met, a dissatisfied customer iscreated (ibid) This affects the customer experience of a brand (ibid) By using sensorymarketing, marketers can influence a company's image and thereby influence whatexpectations are created on the brand (ibid)

2.4.3 Image, expectations and touchpoints

Creating a good image around a company can enhance the experience of a brand (Pine

& Gilmore, 1999) It means that the ownership of a product or the experience of apurchase can be better (ibid) Nike is an example of making its customers pay more fortheir products through their image (ibid) While Pepsi and Coca Cola are another

example, their goal with marketing is to convince each other that their product provides

a better drinking experience (ibid) Harley Davidson is a good example of how to createcommitment by offering customers a good experience linked to image (ibid) Thisproves that having a good image followed by a good experience of the brand createsmore loyal customers who contribute with a commitment to the brand (ibid)

Sensory marketing can help a brand with its exposure and to create a clear and

recognizable image (Lindstrom 2005) Coca Cola is an example of this when theyturned Santa Claus from green to red (ibid) Coca Cola organized a campaign where itdressed Santa in the red color of Coca Cola (ibid) Today, Santa Claus is strongly

associated with Coca Cola and Santa Claus all over the world wears the same red colorthat Coca Cola has on his logo (ibid) The logo created a clear image that was

recognized by many around the world (ibid) This was achieved with the help of CocaCola contributing with the visual and creating recognition factors by applying theircolor to, for example, Santa Claus (ibid) This became an image that created a

recognition factor around the world (ibid)

All interactions or all contexts in which the customer comes into contact with a brandcan be described as touchpoints (Glatstein 2008) All touchpoints generate an

impression on the customer (ibid) The customer experience could be of an importance

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and there is a risk that if expectations are not met, customers will disappear and

dissatisfaction will be created (ibid) It is believed that customer experience should be

an obvious part of the marketing strategy (ibid) The marketing and the goal of

customer experience should be designed in such a way that it promotes the company'smarketplace image (ibid) The company's delivery must always follow what you

promise and this must match what the customer experiences in the various touchpoints(ibid)

The image that the company conveys to its customers creates expectations for an

outcome or a delivery (Glatstein 2008) The company's image communicates who youare and how you handle different situations and that it is a way to differentiate

companies from its competitors (ibid) For example, McDonald's image symbolizes lowquality and fast food that is easily accessible and cheap (ibid) While for example Roleximage symbolizes expensive, luxury and status (ibid) It can be said that a company'simage is a promise to customers and that image creates expectations among customers(ibid) If the company does not live up to these expectations, dissatisfaction is createdand the promise and trust in the brand is broken (ibid) Based on the image that thecompany has and the expectations that the customer creates, the customer experience isaffected (ibid) If the customer's expectations are not met, the customer experience isnegatively affected (ibid)

Important parts that are considered to create a good experience for customers are to find

a clear purpose for why the company exists (Glatstein 2008) But what stands out and isemphasized is that it is important that the company identifies which touchpoints areexisting (ibid) Because it is when you have identified the touchpoints that you canactually influence the customer's experience in the different situations (ibid) It is

mainly about raising awareness of which message you symbolize and which image thecompany emits (ibid) If you are aware of this, it is easier to influence the customer'sperception of the brand (ibid) Then it is considered important to identify the mostimportant touch points that create an influence among customers (ibid) If you haveidentified this, it is easier to be able to influence which image and what expectationsyou as a company want to convey to customers (ibid) If you succeed in communicatingthe image you as a company want and the right expectations of the customers are

created and that you as a company can live up to these expectations, a positive customerexperience will be created (ibid)

2.5 Theoretical synthesis

Digital environments can be defined as digital technology such as telephones,

computers or tablets What defines digital systems or digital environments is that itstimulates the human cognitive and perceptual system (Roda 2011) The use of a digitalenvironment can be seen as a platform that is available for customers to have access to

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in different ways A digital environment is a type of tool that helps the customer withtheir online shopping (Dinet 2014) The literature review provides the thesis about whencustomer experience adjusts sensory marketing in a digital context The customer tends

to have a more pleasant experience than they do in a traditional environment (Cowan,Spielmann, et al 2021) The power of digital marketing is being able to influence thecustomers' buying habits and the customer's perception of a brand by having the

customers various points of contact (ibid) This shows that the digital environment has aconnection to both sensory marketing and a customer experience There are somefeatures that digital technology can offer that facilitates the experience for customers.Being able to provide customers with VR and 3D images that customers can use theirimagination to how something feels and sounds for exemple (Petit et al 2019)

Research has shown that this has a positive effect on the consumers buying behavior(ibid) Being able to use a digital environment to make the customer experience morepleasant by adding sensory marketing shows its advantages in marketing Although ithas not been an easy task to take on, there is still one challenge that the thesis has notprovided us with, which is how companies can work with sensory marketing in a digitalenvironment (ibid)

Companies can contribute with sensory marketing to get a reaction and some sort ofresponse from a customer (Krishna 2012) Using stimulus and response creates a morememorable experience for the customer (Hulten 2011) Companies are now more

actively using sensory marketing to create perception for the purpose of beneficialcomponents (Hulten 2011).Working with perception makes it easier for both companiesand customers to know what works best for them and what doesn't This way the

companies can work with their image and perception on how they want to be perceived(Hulten 2011) All this leads to if the customer had a good experience with the company

or not Knowing that the customer experience has a significant role whether the

customer can make an approach about the company or not (Erenkol & AK 2015).Providing the best experience for the customer can be overwhelming for some

companies Therfur mixing the sensory marketing with the customer experience cangive a customer a memorable experience (Hulten 2011: Schmitt 1999) This way it gets

a personal and a more intimate approach of the band which gets the customer to

appreciate the promotion (ibid)

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3 Methodology

3.1 Research approach

Looking at the two general approaches that are currently existing is a deductive andinductive approach Hyde (2000) states that inductiv is an approach that is used whenhaving a theory A development of a theory that starts when having done observationsand seeking to establish generalisations about the ongoing Previous information isconfirmed by Bell, Bryman et al (2019) Within an inductive approach there is a

relationship between theory and research that generates theories that get developedthrough observation over time when doing the research

This thesis will be based on existing theory and collection of data will be done by aqualitative method This states that the right approach for this thesis will bea deductionapproach (Saunders, Lewi & Thornhill, 2009) Hyde (2000) states that combiningdeductive approach into qualitative research, can be an important step in convincing thereaders that the existing hypothesis is correct or not This is stated by Saunders andLewi et al (2019) Combining the two research methods together will help the

researcher to link hypotheses with reality much easier (ibid) Therefore, this thesis will

be based on a deductive research approach together with a qualitative method However,the thesis will be based on theory and after empirical data collection applied to reality

to be able to generalize the results after completing the study (Bryman & Bell 2011).While in a qualitative study, the goal is to be able to create a deeper understanding ofthe result and understand a specific context on a deeper level (ibid)

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Another difference between a quantitative and qualitative study is that a quantitativestudy tends to be more structured and a lack of dynamic, in addition, researchers arerequired to choose the right indicators to measure the chosen concept for the studypurpose (Gray, 2019) A qualitative study instead gives the researchers the opportunity

to be more unstructured when they carry out the study (ibid) The purpose of a

qualitative study is to understand a context or a phenomenon on a deeper level, whichgives researchers the opportunity to be more spontaneous in carrying out the collection(ibid) The opportunity to dig deeper during the empirical collection is available byhaving the opportunity to ask follow-up questions to the participants (ibid)

Research Questions for this thesis tend to be open about investigating a phenomenon,i.e how companies can use sensory marketing to improve their image and to examinewhat barriers exist for B2B companies to use Sensory marketing Based on the fact thatResearch questions for this work have an open-ended approach, a qualitative researchstrategy has been chosen Using a qualitative study opened up the opportunity to bemore flexible in the study and to be able to create a deeper understanding of how B2Bcompanies can apply sensory marketing in their marketing mix in a digital environment

A qualitative research strategy was preferable in this study as knowledge is currentlylacking about how the study's different concepts can be combined in a business worldand what effects it can generate

3.3 Research design

The research design is perceived as a function in the form of a framework The researchdesign helps the thesis with both collecting and analysing the collected data ( Bell andBryman (2019) The authors Durrheim, Painter and Terre Blanche (2006) explain thatthe research design is a type of framework for the action that will be seen as a bridgebetween the research question and the implementation Bell and Bryman (2019)

explained that there are different types of research design that can be conducted in theresearch There are : experimental design, cross-sectional or social survey design,longitudinal design, comparative design and case study design (ibid) Considering thatthe goal of this thesis is to go more in depth with the study, the perfect fit would be toapply the multiple case study design in the theis (ibid)

3.3.1 Multiple case study

As explained, a multiple case study is being perceived as an intensive investigation ofparticular individuals (Bell and Bryman 2019: Durrheim, Painter et al 2006) Both ofthe authors Bell and Bryman (2019) and Durrheim, Painter et al (2006) states thatmultiple case studies can be done on single families, unitis, organisations, organisation

An important note is that multiple case studies do not represent all of the selectedorganisations or people, they only represent a part of the selection that is selected (Bell,

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Bryman et al(2019) Although Durrheim, Painter et al (2006) states the multiple casestudy design could be difficult based on the research because it can not speak for all thecompanies or population The reliability in the validity of information section can be abit problematic to handle, therefore Durrheim, Painter and Terre Blanche, (2006)explains that in a multiple case study research audio use and videos that will help for abetter reliability of the data collecting.

3.4 Type of data

When doing this research there are two types of data collection alternatives, primaryand secondary The type of data collecting that is going to be used in this thesis isprimary data Primary data is data the researcher collects for the purpose of gatheringinformation about their research questions (Saunders, Lewi et al 2009) Primary datacan be performed in different ways, survey, interviews, observation (ibid) The primarydata collection in this thesis is going to be collected by several interviews The choice ofhaving to conduct primary data collecting is mainly because of the research gap that hasbeen identified and the lack of information that has been found regarding the researchquestions Therefore collecting secondary data is not relevant to this thesis

3.5 Research method

Research methods are defined as methods that are being used to gather information for

an upcoming research (Bell, Bryman et al 2019 Saunder, Lewi et al 2019) There aredifferent ways to gather information for an upcoming research, and two different ways

of collecting useful data to the research One of the methodes is qualitative researchwhich concludes methods like interviews that are between the questioner and

respondent interviews in larger groups (Bell, Bryman et al 2019 : Saunders, Lewi et al.2019) The other method is quantitative research, which concludes methods like surveyswhich can reach a larger number of respondents As for the qualitative method there aretwo types of structured ways to gather information One of them is called

semi-structured which means that the questions are more of a indeep information

seeking question (ibid) What the researchers are trying to do here is that they have aspecific subject they constantly need to think about throughout the interview (Saunders

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Lewi et al 2019) While the second is called unstructured An unstructured interviewstrategy aims that the researcher forms questions that are as much in detail as thesemi-structured strategy is What the researcher doesn't need to think about when

conducting unstructured research is that they don’t need to get attached to just onespecific topic, they can ask about different types of topics that are necessary for theirresearch (ibid)

3.5.1 Semi-structured interview

In this thesis there is going to be a semi-structured interview By conducting a

semi-structured interview the researcher can go more in depth on the topic that isrelevant for this research which is how B2B companies use sensory marketing in adigital context Saunders,Lewi et al 2019) states that commence with the set of theinterview theme but as researchers be prepared to change the order in the context of theresearch situation

3.6 Operationalisation

The authors of this essay created an interview guide based on the theory included inprevious chapters and the research questions that exist The purpose of this was to beable to conduct the interviews in such a qualitative way through a semi-structuredinterview technique so that the right information is provided to be able to answerresearch questions and to create a common thread throughout the work However, theauthors of this study point out that a semi-structured interview technique enablesfollow-up questions that are considered relevant to the purpose of the study, which hashappened in this data collection The interview guide is attached in two copies, one inSwedish and one in English (see Appendices B and C) The interviews were conducted

in Swedish but the essay is written in English Why the interviews were conducted inSwedish is because all the participants and authors of this work have Swedish as theirmother tongue The purpose was to minimize language barriers and misconceptionsduring the interviews To create clarity and justify the choice of questions, an

operationalisation table was made (see Appendix A) This table follows the theoreticalframework and intends to collect empirical data on all the selected theoretical concepts.The table aims to categorize which questions are intended to answer which concepts,thus ensuring that all relevant empirical data is collected

3.7 Selection of Cases

The researchers could not interview all the employees in companies, therefore a specialsampling is implemented This sampling strategy is called purposive sampling Thismeans that the researchers are going to collect employees that have knowledge in thecompany regarding how the B2B companies work with sensory marketing in the digitalcontext Therefore the sampling that is going to be shown in the thesis is going to be a

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purposive sampling (Bell and Bryman 2019) This way the researchers get a widerpicture of how the company contributes within the digital media and how they usesensory marketing as a marketing tool Bell, Bryman et al (2019) states that the mostcommon sampling in qualitative research is being done by purposive sampling Due tohow many people are going to be interviewed for this research, the best suitable

sampling is purposive This method fits perfectly when doing a small sample size(Saunders, Lewi & Thornhill, 2009) Which implies that the result that is being shown

in this thesis is not an accurint to all the B2B companies that exciset Bell and Bryman(2019) states that the sampling size should not be too small that it makes it difficult togather information

3.7.1 Company and employees criterias

Considered factors when choosing the case companies:

- Distributed within B2B

- Online presence within a website or online marketing campaigns.

Considered factors when choosing interviewees:

- Must have a decision-making role within the company or a specialist role.

- Focus is on marketing or the digital context.

By setting some citierar for the companies and the interviewees have made it an easiertask to search for the right type of company and interviewees for the thesis

The criterias that have been set has been established by a reason The authors want to beable to gather as much information as possible for being able to answer the thesisresearch questions Bell, Bryman et al (2019) states that criterares are a must when itcomes to having selected a sampling

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3.7.2 Table of cases

Company Position Interviewee Date Type Length

Company A Project manager- digital

marketing

Anonymous (Clara Carlsson)

Grant

Thornton

3.8 Data Analysis

Data is a form of raw material that has been collected for the purpose of answering theresearch questions for a thesis (Durrheim, Painter and Terre Blanche, 2006: SaundersLewi et al 2019) The different methods require different ways of analysing the data,for example the quantitative method requires to analyze the data by using a list of

numbers that represent the score on the variable (ibid) For this thesis, the authors havedecided to do a semi-structured interview For the purpose of gaining a larger reliability

in the thesis the interviews are going to be recorded What is required for the data

analysis according to Saunders, Lewi et al (2019) and Bell, Bryman et al (2019) is thatthe interview gets recorded, later transcribed and last coded

Therefore having a semi-structured interview for this thesis is required to have a

thematic analysis (Saunders, Lewi & Thornhill, 2009) The thematic analysis is a wellcommon method that is being used together with the qualitative research method

(Durrheim, Painter and Terre Blanche, 2006 ; Saunders, Lewi & Thornhill, 2009) Athematic analysis is a way of searching for patterns in the transcripted or as Saunders,Lewi et al (2019) defines, field notes Although thematic analysis is a way of findingpatterns and identifying themes in the transcript, it's important for the researchers to beable to answer the research questions by using the transcription and code over what hasbeen said (ibid) A semi-structured interview is going to enable the authors to identifytheir themes and easier to identify patterns in the transcripts Durrheim, Painter and

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Terre Blanche, (2006) states that an identified theme is an ongoing and often mentionedreason on why, how and when Which is confirmed by Saunders, Lewi et al (2009).The authors should pay attention to repetitions of words, some special occasions that areclassified as a theme (Saunders, Lewi et al 2009) A thematic analysis is implicated inthis thesis to be an easier process to answer the research question that has been

addressed

3.9 Quality of research

3.9.1 Reliability in qualitative research

When collecting and analyzing data, the concept reliability could be used as a measure

of how credible and how closely one's study is linked to reality (Saunders, Lewi et al.2009) The concept aims to investigate whether other researchers can use the study(ibid) It is believed that this is a concept that aims to investigate whether the study maygive the same outcome if the study is conducted several times (ibid) The purpose is thatthe research should be sustainable over time and that even if the study was done too farback in time, the conclusions should still be relevant (ibid)

Another measure of reliability is to minimize inaccuracies and possible prejudicesassociated with the study (Bryman & Bell 2011) It is emphasized that the researchersduring the ongoing study should be objective throughout the process in order to create

as fair a result as close to reality as possible (Kumar 2019) Interviews are advocated to

be conducted in a standardized way, but criticism has been directed as structured

interviews are most suitable for a quantitative study Hence, a semi-structured interviewtechnique is proposed to promote follow-up questions in order to obtain as much

information as possible in the context (Bryman & Bell, 2011)

To ensure that through the study the authors achieve maximum reliability, the authorshave, among other things, chosen to send out the interview questions before the time ofthe meeting to prepare the interviewee for what questions that will come The purpose

of this is for the interview participants to be able to reflect on answers to the questionsbeforehand in order to give as reliable answers as possible The authors have chosen tocarry out a semi-structured interview technique, partly to ensure that the right questionswill be asked in order to be able to answer these thesis research questions The strategyhas been chosen because the authors want to open up for other information that can belinked to the topic of conversation or to be able to ask any follow-up questions Thecomplete transcript is not presented in Empirical findings, only a summary of the mostimportant parts However, the complete transcript is saved and can be shared on request

so that the reliability of the study is maximized

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3.9.2 Validity in qualitative research

In terms of validity, this concept is considered to be one of the most important factorswhen it comes to completing a research (Bryman & Bell 2011) Why this is considered

so important is because the concept aims to take into account the accuracy of the studyand its data that is produced (ibid) It is said that there are two different orientations interms of validity in a qualitative study, these are internal and external validity (ibid).Internal validity refers to credibility while external validity refers to transferability(Bryman & Bell 2011) Credibility is considered to aim at whether the study takes intoaccount real life and how the social world is reflected, while transferability instead aims

to analyze how the study can be applied to other different situations and how the studyresults can be generalized (ibid)

In this study, the authors have reviewed the approach in order to critically analyze theoutcome of the study An advantage of the method is that the authors have chosen tobase the empirical collection on companies operating in different industries If theauthors had instead chosen to base the empirical collection on companies operating inthe same industries, the validity might have been weaker If the authors of this thesishad conducted the empirical research on companies operating in the same industry itcould have been difficult to generalize to other industries because each industry isunique This thesis is interesting because this thesis carries out data collection fromdifferent industries The purpose of that is to analyze whether similarities or differencesexist in different industries Another critical thought is that it could not completely bestated that the study reflects reality because the sample size of companies is low, thevalidity might have been higher if more companies participated in the data collection

Another critical and reflective thought is that the interviewees during the interviewsmay have embellished the image of the actual reality That is, the participants make adifferent statement for the company to announce a feeling that they are contributingwith the various concepts examined in this thesis even though they do not That couldgenerate that the authors could get a better picture of the company than the reality is.However, the authors of the thesis do not believe that this is the case in this study, as inconducting the interviews the authors have asked the participants to give practicalexamples from reality and exemplify how they work with these factors in practice

3.10 Ethical considerations

When conducting the thesis there were different ethical considerations to take in

consideration Based on what type of research the thesis is being conducted on,

guidelines from both Saunder, Lewi et al (2019’9 and Bell and Bryman (2019) havebeen followed With the help of Saunder, Lewi et al (2019) the authors have been able

to create interview questions that help answer the research question Being able to offer

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the interviewers a chance to answer anonymously, being able to share the informationwith them and the purpose of why this type of the interview was taking place This ismainly because of showing the interview respect and allowing them to stop the

participants whenever they would feel uncomfortable This is because the authors ofthis thesis want the participants to feel comfortable when sharing data with us This istaken into consideration thus the authors don't want to harm the participating

companies Informing the interviewer the purpose of the work will be presented and theinterviewees will be given the opportunity to take part in the questions that will beasked beforehand

When the authors have gathered information for the theory review, the authors havebeen careful to clearly show and refer to the source of origin This is to show respect forcopyright and the ownment of others' insight Sources are clearly referenced to theoriginal source after each sentence where the authors refer to previous research Adetailed reference list at the end of this thesis is provided (Saunders, Lewi & Thornhill,2009)

3.11 Sustainability considerations

Sustainability can be described from different perspectives Factors like economic,social and ecological sustainability are being considered when writing this thesis.Although sustainability is an important subject to the whole world (European

Commission.se 2021), the authors are trying to remain sustainable throughout theprocess of completing this thesis

Although the main focus of this thesis is not sustainability, despite this the authors willmake choices that hopefully have a positive effect on sustainability For this thesis, theauthors have done as much as possible to remain sustainable By using bicycles andpublic transportation to meet each other for minimizing the carbon dioxide emission.Another solution that has been taken into action is having meetings though online videochats such as zoom and facebook calls Due to the on-going pandemic, online meetingsare a way to decrease the risk of infection and spreading the virus to others When theauthors conducted the interviews with the B2B companies, they were conducted

through digital meetings and by phones due to health considerations that had beensuggested by FolkHälsoMyndigheten (Folkhälsomyndigheten.se 2021) When

collecting data for the thesis the authors have been using all academic papers and booksthat are being provided through the Linnaeus university digital database By conductingthis thesis on how B2B companies could implimicat sensory marketing in their

marketing mix, the authors believe that this thesis could gain a better profit to thebusiness companies in the long run In the event of a possible adjustment phase, it ispossible that costs for companies will increase since this is a consideration of an

investment The authors believe that this investment can pay off with better ROI as it

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will in the long run generate higher profits The conclusions of this thesis couldgenerate more satisfied customers and more loyalty to the company.

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4 Empirical findings

In empirical findings, the authors will introduce a summary of the empirical data that iscollected from the semi-structured interviews conducted in order to answer the researchquestions This chapter, the different interviewees will be presented under the followingsubheadings

4.1 Company cases

One of the companies that is participating in this thesis wanted to remain anonymous,therefore the company that will be presented will be referred to as Company A and theinterviewer will be referred to Carlsson

4.1.1 MilliFormis

MilliFormis is a B2B company that specializes in furniture and interior design forcompanies (Formis.se 2021) With the help of MilliFormis, it's able for customers tochoose furniture that is adapted to the customers' special needs and wishes (Formis.se2021) They offer special solutions with many products (Formis.se 2021) The

MilliFormis brand consists of three different areas, Formiscare, Klum Collection andFormis At present, the organization is small where today there are two employees, butdepending on workload, they take in extra resources to cover the organization's extraload

Eija Söderström's role in MilliFormis is that she owns, operates and manages thecompany's marketing Söderström says that she actually plans everything that has to dowith the company's three brands, both on a practical and strategic level (Söderström ).1

4.1.2 Advoco communication

Advoco communication offers cloud-based services such as: exchange solution, mobiletelephony and logbook (advococommunication.se 2021) Their goal is to deliver smartbusiness solutions in the cloud with a focus on high availability, quality and broadfunctionality (advococommunication.se 2021)

Jessica Nordengren's role in the company is that she is marketing manager Nordengren

is responsible for 3 different main areas which are the brand, the graphic profile and all

2 Jessica Nordengren, Marketing manager, Advoco Communication, personal interview 29-4-21

1 Eila Söderström, Owner and CEO, MilliFormis, digital personal interview 28-4-21

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4.1.3 MADE FOR

Made FOR is a company that specializes in recruitment, interim management andtraining (MadeFOR.se 2021) Made FOR is hired by entrepreneurs who need to fillbusiness-critical positions or develop their employees (MadeFOR.se 2021) Theirability to contribute value in customer dialogues, as well as in their deliveries of

competent candidates and through the skills development their training efforts leadto(MadeFOR.se 2021)

Kristofer Blixt's role in the company is that he works as marketing manager, Blixt hasbeen employed at MADE FOR for five years Blixt started as consulting manager andthen changed direction as digital manager He has had the role of marketing manager for1.5 years (Blixt ).3

4.1.4 Company A

Company A is a company offering a multitude of services in architecture, IT for

community development and industry building construction, installation (CompanyA.se2021) Company A works with planning and design for the society and cities of thefuture more sustainably (CompanyA.se 2021) Company A operates together with itscustomers on developments and solutions to manage urbanization and take advantage ofthe possibilities of digitalisation (CompanyA.se 2021)

Carlsson, who is an employee at Company A, is responsible for launching the newcompany group site (Carlsson ) The person is hired as a consultant to assist their4

expertise to be able to raise company A's digital profile (Carlsson).5

4.1.5 Grant Thornton

Grant Thornton is one of Sweden's fastest growing companies in auditing and

consulting (GrantThornton.se 2021) The company provides services in auditing,

financial services, tax and consulting (GrantThornton.se 2021)

Johan Ek who is employed at Grant Thornton works within the marketing departmentwhich has a more focus on digital marketing Ek is titled as marketing specialist (Ek ).6

consists of creating graphical material, marketing communication and having to pursuemore digital marketing strategies such as how the company should communicate certainservices and package it and have digital campaigns linked to it (Ek )8

8 Johan Ek, Digital marketing specialist, Grant Thornton, digital personal interview 03-05-21

5 Clara Carlsson, Digital marketing specialist, Company A, personal interview 6-5-21

3 Kristofer Blixt, Marketing manager, MADE FOR, digital personal interview 30-4-21

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4.1.6 Tellit/ Finansia

Tellit is a corporate telephony that is adaptable for everyone, regardless of company(Tellit.se 2021) With their mobile exchange, their customers see incoming calls, easilyconnect to their colleagues and take care of their customers smoothly (Tellit.se 2021)

Maja Mattsson that is employed at Finasia has the title head of marketing which meansthat she has responsibility for all of the marketing and CRM strategies at the company.She is responsible for the digital channels and customer communication strategy

role have been contributed over the different departments, she says that is the perks ofbeing a marketing director (Mattsson )10

4.1.7 WiseIT

WiseIT is a company that operates with IT consultants and IT recruitment solutions(WiseIT.se) WiseIT are experts in competence solutions in IT (WiseIT.se) WiseIT is apart of Wise Group which is a company group of specialist companies in recruitment,consulting services and digital products that help companies reach their full potential byputting people at the center (WiseIT.se)

Ida Åqvist who is employed at WiseIT is a digital marketing specialist within the

explains that she and another colleague are responsible for producing the marketingplan She reports to the brand and marketing manager (Åqvist ).12

4.1.8 Stokab

Stokab is a fiber network company offered in Stockholm and their customers are

companies in all industries, it could be anything from internet operators and data centers

to banks and property owners (Stokab.se 2021) They own, build, rent and maintainfiber networks in the city of Stockholm (Stokab.se 2021)

a sales and marketing coordinator, she manages all of their marketing channels bothexternal and internal Evans later says that she works in a department that is called15

15 Maria Evans,Marketing coordinator, Stokab, digital personal interview 30-04-21

12 Ida Åqvist, Digital marknadsspecialist, WiseIT, digital personal interview 03-05-21

10 Maja Mattsson, Marketing Director, Tellit/Finansia, digital personal interview 30-04-21

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VD-stab and in a unit called a communication unit They work both aktiv and proaktivwith what their colleagues need help with.

4.2 General strategies within marketing in case companies

they deliver to their customers (Evans ) There are around 120 employees and all of17

them have contact with customers in different stages (Evans ) By enabling this form of18

communication with the customers, it's possible for the company to make changeswithin their internal process When the company makes improvements ,the company ingeneral places their marketing although it is not in front of an audience (Evans ) By19

that she means that their marketing does not show to the customers that has nothing to

do with the company, for example an stokab advertising does not appear for those whoare watching TV (Evans ) What they do instead is talk about their customer and that is20

the operators which in turn deliver telephony, broadband and TV

Finansia has a strategy for their social media in purpose is to create likeness with theuse of creating user-friendly content that is fun to read But when it comes to havinginspiring content that is useful for companies in general the purpose is to make thecustomer feel comfortable within the brand Something that is mentioned in the

interview is that it's important to create security for the service offered so the customerfeels comfortable working with Finansia (Mattson ).21

The strategic WiseIT use for their marketing activities is something called inboundmarketing (Åqvist ) The purpose of this is that the company creates awareness about22

the company at an early stage and makes them feel comfortable with the competencethat is being presented in the company (Åqvist ) Åqvist explains that when the23

customer is aware of WiseIT and forms a safety, the customer comes to WiseIT whenthey feel like they have a desire that needs to be filed with the help of the company.WiseIT does not contribute in the traditional way by calling customers that are in needfor recruitment and consulting activities (Åqvist ) Åqvist explains that they instead24

want the customer to reach out to WiseIT The company works by having content thatattracts customers to read about them and for them to be participating in WiseIT website

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(Åqvist ) The company uses marketing email, automation workflows because the25

customer will have a positive experience of who they are and then when they need toget in touch with WiseIT (Åqvist ).26

Creating value for the customers and combining it with marketing, Grant Thornton used

to have business seminars Due to the COVID-19, the company turned it into a digital

prospects to their premises But instead, now it's broadcast from Stockholm to everyonewho wants to watch (Ek ) Ek explains that they hold lectures and tell news within the28

industry But the company has managed to still offer everything even when in the digitalseminars This way the company creates and combines marketing and value for theviewers, and creates a better perception of the company (Ek ).29

4.3 Starting to know your customer

Stokab does not do research before a customer meeting occurs Evans explains thatStokabs customers are aware of what the company offers She says that those whocontact the company aren't random people Most often, those who have a propertyportfolio or started a business as an operator in Sweden get in contact with Stokab

sellers within the Stokab do research before meeting with a major international operator(Evans ) But Stokab does not do larger external analyzes to find customers, it is rather32

that customers find them (Evans ).33

For Finansia the company does research before a customer meeting accoirs

“Knowing the customer is very important in a marketing

context, it's important to know what to say, how to say it

and when to say it”- Maja Mattsson 34

It's important for Finansia to know as much as possible about the customers that want tocontribute with them The beneficial part of doing that is to not waste the customers

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time and as well be able to quickly decide if it is relevant for both parties to include in acollaboration with customers and get a win-win situation from it (Mattsson ) Mattsson35

states that the company always does research in their sales- marketing- and

administration organization It is important to get to know the customers and the targetgroup (Mattsson )36

Åqvist says that they do research before a customer meeting occurs (Åqvist ) Åqvist37

explains that they have sales people that research a company and look at their financialplans and everything there before they interact in meetings (Åqvist ) Åqvist tells us38

that she believes that you can't do so much research linked to a company Meaning thatthe customer must identify their challenges and their point of view of how they see theirown company, from there do a needs-analysis to understand what the challenges are(Åqvist ).39

Although Ek does not work in that field ,he states that he is sure that they do research

later tells us that the company itself has very high demands and criterias on whichcompanies they can work with Ek says that the legal department handles such types ofquestions on which can be customers to Grant Thornot and not Therefore there aredifferent types of indulgences required to start up new customers (Ek ).41

4.4 Stimulating the customers five senses

4.4.1 Sensory marketing in B2B companies

Söderström tells us when it comes to sensory marketing, it is a big part of their brand, atleast when it comes to how the interior is designed (Söderström) She means that theirown office stimulates all five senses where they work a lot with the visual mind Thegoal of designing their office was to be able to touch as many senses as possible What

is important for them is that the customer should be able to see a potential solution forthem in an actual environment

Nordengren says that Advoco does not work with Sensory marketing at present morethan that they care about having an attractive graphic profile, films on the website inorder to liven things up (Nordgren ) She further explains that Sensory marketing could42

be of great importance in the company if they had the opportunity to collect more data

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about what happens when the customer is inside the app (Nordgren ) If these insights43

existed, Sensory marketing could generate a large effect on the customer experience.The sense that stimulates them in their marketing today is only the sight with the help offilms and a nice graphic profile In other words, their marketing is more about creatingrelationships from person to person (Nordgren ).44

Blixt says that MADE FOR currently does not work much with Sensory marketing, thesense that actually being stimulated at present is sight (Blixt ) This is done through45

stimulating images under each sub-tab on the website as well as some film material.Blixt points out that in his role he tries to be innovative and to look at what is current inmarketing (Blixt ) The participant further says that he takes inspiration from the46

company Klarna, which he considers to be very good at creating a feeling in the

customer and is good at differentiating with the help of it Blixt points out that Klarna is

a digital company that operates in B2B and still markets itself a lot in channels that areactually linked to B2C marketing (Blixt ).47

Carlsson does not believe that there is any strategy linked to sensory marketing today,48

however, Carslsson says that the new websites have taken several steps forward anddeveloped the graphic profile The senses that Carlsson can identify that are currentlystimulated are sight and hearing, this through videos and images on the website

Carlsson further explains that companies must succeed in adapting depending on whatkind of channel one is to reach out in

When asking Evan on how sensory marketing is an important part in Stokab she

explains that it's not so much (Evans ) Evans mentions that having sensory marketing49

implicated in the digital context is difficult but having it implicated in the personalconnection is easier

Mattsson explains that in the company, Finansia, sensory marketing is something thatthey don't work with consciously but subconsciously She explains that Finansia doesn'twork with sensory marketing because of their product Having to implimicat sensorymarketing in their product are some steps far away from using that marketing tool(Mattsson ) Mattsson claims that the only thing that is preventing them from using50

sensory marketing is imagination

Tiêu đề	How Can B2B Companies Improve Their Customer Experience By Using Sensory Marketing In A Digital Context
Tác giả	Caroline Hallgren, Paula Mamusha
Người hướng dẫn	MaxMikael Wilde Bjửrling, Kaisa Lund
Trường học	Linnéuniversitetet
Chuyên ngành	Business Administration
Thể loại	thesis
Năm xuất bản	2021
Thành phố	Kalmar

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