Business to business and business to consumer marketing types have
essentially the same fundamental principles. Both choose target markets
and based from them, they make their marketing decisions, such as in
coming up with prices of their service or good and selecting the type of
distribution and promotion they would employ.
However, in the way
the issues are addressed, there is a clear distinction. The nature of
business buying is largely dependent on the professional buyers,
multiple decision makers, and the potential of having long term
relationships. This is unlike the business to consumer marketing, which
depends on the single decision maker and has a short buying or sales
cycle.
The business to business marketing generally focuses on
functionality of the product rather than on anything else. It also has
the capacity and resources to buy from the international markets.
The
marketing does not focus on the emotional but rather on the logical
decision making. If the business has to deal with a business that sells
business, it if often that the business buyer has more knowledge about
the product or service that it is looking for than the business
marketing provider.
It is for this reason why the marketers must
be wise and intelligent enough as to how to market, promote, and
advertise their goods or services. Business to business marketing
employs wider and more complex tactics. Anyone who wishes to utilize it
must be patient and determined to learn the length of the ropes as there
are many things to be learned about before one can actually use the
methods involved in such.
They are appealing to a wider, more
intelligent buyer group after all. Anything that the business to
business marketer does will have to be based on what that intelligent
target group wants, but does not also necessarily mean forgetting the
end-users, which for this case, are the buying public or consumers.
You
have to remember that the business buyer is buying your service or good
because they believe that it will sustain their business, help improve
its sales and profits by having wide consumer group patronizing it, and
turn in more benefits for them.
What are the strategy differences?
In
business to business marketing, the supply and demand made on a certain
product or service is taken into account. The same is true in the kind
of industry that the marketer is trying to sell the business for. Others
to be considered are the trends in the wider market environment. It
also has to deal not only with the direct business clients but their
customers as well.
Business marketing targets comparably smaller
base of clients, but these are the big clients in the industry. And
because it is dealing with bigger clientele, it is expected that
personalized marketing techniques are provided, so that the business
buyer will no longer have to employ different techniques in order to
sell the product or service.
And since the clients differ in their
preferences, the business marketer might be required to tailor
technique to each. And because of this, deeper relationship with each is
expected to be developed between business to business provider and
business buyer to meet the demands of each big client as well as to
foster longevity in the industry.