Business-to-business (b2b) marketing is a situation where an organisation market its products or services to other businesses, to use either in the production of their final products or to support their operations. By differentiating this from consumer marketing, you can better understand the unique demands of business-to-business marketing and increase the likelihood of success.
Business marketing may appear to be a small niche within the larger field of advertising. However, it is an area of surprising significance. This is because, more money is spent daily by companies in this area to support their operations.
Arguably, the potentials of business marketing exceeds that of consumer marketing – the purchase made by businesses, government agencies and institutions account for more than half of the economic activities in industrialised countries. As a discipline, business marketing has seen an impressive growth in popularity, with more than half of marketing majors now choosing to begin their careers in business marketing rather than consumer marketing.
To achieve success in business marketing, it is useful to understand how its methods differ from those of traditional consumer marketing: With b2b marketing, you are likely to be much more effective at every stage of the sale if you understand in detail, your customers’ priorities and business.
Whereas consumer marketing favours the mass media to appeal to large target demographics, business marketing relies on smaller, more direct channels of distribution to reach a specific audience.
A higher level of specialist industry knowledge is required when orchestrating a business marketing campaign, to target and appeal to the individual needs of a niche market. Personal and long-term client relationship are of particular significance when seeking to maintain lucrative supplier contracts.
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