Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The most important difference between B2B and B2C marketing
The most important difference between B2B and B2C marketing
The most important difference between B2B and B2C marketing
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Marketing Differences Paper: B2b vs. B2c
In two distinct e-commerce business types, Business-to-business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C), there are many differences in the way they operate. Specifically in marketing, differences include how the marketing is driven and the values of the strategies, the size of the target market and length of the sales cycle, and even the buying patterns of the target consumers. Each of these differences will be better defined and explained in the following paragraphs.
Drive and Strategy Values
Business-to-Business
Business-to-business companies are relationship driven. They are offering another company a product or service that the company should use to their benefit, and in order to sell this product or service, they have to build a strong, working relationship between the two businesses. B2B companies have to maximize the values of the marketing strategy: relationships and trust. In order to be successful, these two businesses must be able to trust each other, work together, and form a working relationship that will benefit both businesses in the end.
Business-to-Consumer
In contrast, B2C companies are product driven. These products have to be highly in demand to the consumer market, and in order to be successful these companies have to sell the product or service in high volumes to make a profit. Therefore, the relationship between the company and the consumer is not nearly as maintained as that of a B2B company. The value of this marketing strategy is the transaction- as many as possible to cover the costs and make a profit. In a similar fashion, however, there is also the value of trust, as a consumer that trusts the company or the brand will often assist the company in increasing transactions (Murphy, 2008).
Target Market and Sales Cycle
Business-to-Business
In business-to-business companies, the company is seeking out a smaller, focused target market. B2B companies usually offer something to other businesses that help another company to increase productivity or offer another benefit that the company will need. Therefore, the company must target a smaller group of companies that will have a demand for this product. The target market can increase after some level of success has been achieved. However, because of the focus on relationships throughout the marketing strategy, smaller target markets are easier to approach and to continue building and nurturing that business relationship.
Also due to the value of the business relationship, the transaction cycle is often longer than that of a B2C company. Communication between the two businesses will start slowly, building up trust and demand for the product or service on offer.
Developing healthy associations with suppliers, distributors, accomplices and customers Marketing Strategy and
Relationship Marketing Many companies focus on building relationships with their customers instead of always exclusive trying to sell them something (transactional marketing). Customers who love your brand more will also spend more money with your brand. Many traditional retailers have found this to be true. Walgreens has seen that customers who buy from all of their purchasing channels (store, web, mobile, etc.) buy up to six times more than the average customer that only buys in their store.
Second, B2B Customers finds it more comfortable in purchasing and collaborating through remotely, they use the web to search for the product information and communicate with sellers through E-mail, social media, telephonically.
In the other hand, the appropriate marketing strategy to reach corporate buyers are different. This is because corporate buyers involving large contracts, larger compared with small businesses and individuals, and often longer-term. There are other methods can be use to reach corporate buyers;
Marketing involves activities to find right people for the business and then gaining their attention and retaining them for life. There are many theories marketers employed to stand their business out of crowd or at least make it visible. To make any business efficiency and effective, it is important to seek the target customer market. There are primarily three main areas to consider while identifying the target market. Those are as follows;
Although relationship customers also use the BAS system, it is more valuable for transactional customers. Since transactional customers emphasize more on quick delivery and low prices, but less on relationships, A/S focuses its efforts with the BAS system on providing the transactional customers with these values.
In marketing, there are two ways of selling products to consumers. One is the mass marketing or undifferentiated marketing, and the other is target marketing or differentiated marketing. The former is the traditional way of reaching out consumers by selling all of them the same products. The latter is the contemporary way of connecting with the consumers whereby companies choose select groups of people or organizations to sell to. Target marketing is the trend nowadays in selling products in which companies are creating customized sales approaches for every group of buyers.
Both from the customer and the company point of view, each customer interaction is part of an iterative learning process (Ballantyne, 2004). Further, Yau et al. (2000) advocated that the relationships between business firms and its customers have been constantly encouraged as successful business practices worldwide. The strategy of relationship marketing is of high relevance particularly in the service industries because of the intangible nature of service and their high level of customer interaction (Al-Hersh, Aburoub, & Saaty, 2014). Relationship marketing is defined as the process of engaging in proactively creating, developing and maintaining committed, interactive and profitable exchanges with targeted customers (Haker, 1999). Furthermore, Gronroos (1990) asserted that relationship marketing is to establish, maintain, enhance and commercialise customer relationship so that the objectives of the parties involved are met which can be done by a mutual exchange and fulfillment of promises. Moreover, the implementation of the relationship marketing concept at the operational level refers to relationship marketing orientation (Hau & Ngo, 2012). Relationship marketing orientation indicates the firms’ philosophy of doing business concerning relationship building by propagating developing trust, empathy, bonding, and reciprocity between a firm and its customers (Sin et al., 2005a, b; Tse et al., 2004). Trust is an important element for a successful relationship between the firm and its customers (Berry, 1995). First, trust is an essential component for a successful relationship between the firm and its customers (Berry, 1995). Trust It refers to a willingness to rely on an exchange partner in whom one has confidence (Morgan & Hunt, 1994). Empathy, as a dimension of business relationship, enables the two parties to see the situation from
B2B serves as the venue for all manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and retailers to convene all year long less of the hazards of travel and less of the expensive costs of traditional ways to make business. Through B2B portals, companies can exchange communications, information, and transactions as well as perform regular business processes like purchase orders, invoices, and payment.
Relationship marketing is a part of the marketing concept and strongly applies to this article. A company wants to build trust with its customers in order to build customer loyalty and a long-term bond. This gives the customer a value-added feature of doing business with a particular company. In marketing orientated companies, the customer's needs have to be targeted and different social classes or issues need to be taken into account. If a company does not take different sensitive and social groups into account when marketing, then they will not build a feeling of goodwill with the consumers. The consumer will think that the firm cares more about selling its goods than the consumer.
Business to Business (B2B) is a transaction which occurs between two companies, that is to say, the consumer is not involved in the transaction of a company. The term may also refer to the total information of the company that provides goods or services to another company (Investor Words, not dated).
Business to Business Application is the relationship between to businesses or companies. It is used to perform financial and commercial transactions over...
The types of relationships a company has with its clients help strengthen customer relationships. The target market of people a company aims to reach are customer segments. Value propositions can be defined as the quality of products or services that a company has in order to reach a specific target market. Key resources are resources that a given company can use to offer and create quality products for their consumers. Revenue streams are monies a company renders from its customers. Key activities are steps required by a company to operate successfully. Key partnerships are one of the driving forces to making the business model work. Lastly, the cost structure describes the costs incurred to operate a business model (Osterwalder & Pigneur,
The report also talks about the differences between, advantages and disadvantages of e-business and e-commerce. Recommendations and advice have been given in the end for businesses intending to adopt an e-business dimension.
The are two basic categories of business conducted over the internet, Business-to-Customer (B2C) and Business-to-Business (B2B), and they share one common key aspect - use of Internet technologies to manage all aspects of the business.