For years, marketers have repeated the line: “we’re not selling to businesses, we’re selling to people.”
Yet, much of marketing – especially in B2B – still sounds like it’s written for boardrooms, not for the humans sitting inside them.
While the discipline prides itself on logic, data and ROI, the brands that break through are those that remember one simple truth: emotion drives decisions.
Trust. Confidence. Belief. These are what make people choose you, whether they’re buying software, shoes or office space.
Why B2H Matters
At the heart of every marketing decision lies a human being, not a business or a job title.
Someone simply looking for something that makes their life, task or business easier, better, or more successful.
That means your campaigns and messaging must resonate on a human level and be clear, relatable and emotionally engaging – regardless of whether you’re selling to a consumer or a professional.
Empathy isn’t the opposite of commercial thinking. It is commercial thinking.
Because when people feel understood, they act with confidence.
And confidence converts.
The Problem: We’ve Mistaken Intelligence for Impact
Somewhere along the way, marketing became obsessed with sounding clever instead of connecting clearly.
We write for approval, not emotion.
We obsess over touchpoints, not turning points.
And we wonder why even the smartest campaigns struggle to land.
This is especially true in B2B, where brands have confused complexity with credibility. But it’s a trap plenty of B2C marketers fall into too – trying so hard to be clever, they forget to be clear.
When everything sounds the same ‘trusted partners’ ‘innovative solutions’ ‘delivering excellence’ – people simply stop listening.
Your buyer isn’t a “decision-maker.” They’re a person trying to make a decision – probably after five meetings, two coffees and one existential crisis about budget cuts.
That’s where empathy comes in.
The Shift: From B2B and B2C to B2H
B2H isn’t about being more emotional for the sake of it. It’s about understanding the emotion that drives logic.
Because behind every rational decision is a very human motivation – to look capable, to feel confident, to make something work better.
When you shift your thinking from what we sell to what they feel, everything changes:
your tone becomes warmer, your content becomes clearer, and your brand becomes more trusted.
The smartest brands don’t just understand their audience – they feel them.
The most rational thing you can do in marketing is connect emotionally.
Make Empathy Commercial
Empathy doesn’t mean being fluffy. It means being focused on the human factors that actually move money.
Here’s how to make it pay off.
- Understand the person behind the label
Forget “IT Director.” Think James, who’s terrified the new system will crash on launch day.
Forget “busy parent.” Think Emma, who’s juggling three tabs, two kids and one cold cup of coffee.
Empathy isn’t a mood. It’s a map of their mental load. - Design for their reality
From how you structure your website to how your sales team or social feed shows up, design around how people actually think and feel.
Less product-speak, more plain speak.
Less “solutions,” more “what this actually helps you do on a Monday morning.” - Tell stories that connect
From software to sneakers, storytelling gives meaning to your message. It turns features into human benefits and facts into feelings.
People remember stories, not specs. - Keep it simple, clear and human
Complexity isn’t credibility. Straightforward, honest language cuts through noise and builds approachability, because nobody wants to decode your marketing. - Build trust, not just traffic
Proof beats promise. Case studies, reviews and testimonials translate empathy into evidence, showing that you understand not only what your customers want, but what they need to believe to buy.
Proof It Works
The best proof that empathy pays off is the brands already doing it.
In B2C, the examples are everywhere. Nike, Apple, and Dove have shown that connecting to emotion doesn’t just sell products, it builds movements. They make people feel something first, then buy into what comes next.
And even in B2B, the most successful brands do the same thing.
Salesforce built its empire on trust.
HubSpot built a movement around help, not hype.
Even IBM made “Let’s put smart to work” feel like a rallying cry for people, not just software.
Then there’s Xero, who made accounting beautiful.
By stripping out jargon and simplifying design, they turned an emotionless category into an empowering one. Accounting went from stress to self-belief – that’s empathy, commercialised.
And Bruntwood gets it too.
They don’t just sell offices – they create places people genuinely want to be.
They understand that employees want to feel inspired, connected and part of a community, while businesses want environments that help them grow.
They’re not in the property business. They’re in the possibility business – helping people and companies thrive by creating spaces that spark progress, purpose and belief.
These brands prove that when you translate empathy into brand behaviour, you don’t dilute commercial value – you multiply it.
Our BIG Takeaway
It’s not B2B. It’s not B2C. It’s B2H.
And making empathy commercial might just be the smartest business decision you ever make.
Because when you understand what people feel, you understand what they’ll value, choose, and champion.
Every brief, buyer and business decision starts with a person – so stop marketing to job titles. Start marketing to human beings with hopes, fears and inbox fatigue.
Ready to make your business more human and your marketing more impactful? Contact the team at BIG.
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