The role of branding in B2B purchasing context of heating, ventilating and air conditioning sector

The marketing literature suggests that decision making units in B2B markets are influenced by rational arguments rather than emotional arguments although those emotional arguments are suggested to influence the buyers in B2C markets. But recently, that old way of thinking has started to change and some researchers now has a new approach suggesting that these two markets have more similarities than previously assumed. The aim of this study is to analyze whether the perceived ideas about the strict differences between B2B and B2C marketing is correct or not on HVAC market. Some past perceptions about this difference may still hold true today, but some new researchers have already reached to the suggestion that there is no particular need to separate those two approaches. This study also analyzes the possible correlations between buyer characteristics and perception of branding importance and also between the perception of product/service importance and perception of branding importance. Another aim of this analysis is to find out the main variables that influence the perception of branding. In the model of the study, the buyer characteristics enter into the model as the dependent variable where perception of branding importance is the independent variable. The influence of product and service importance on the branding importance is also analyzed. The correlations of branding importance were analyzed for two products which are Variable Refrigerant Fluid (VRF) and Air Handling Unit (AHU) used in HVAC sector.