INTRODUCTION
Today, doing business is crucial to the needs of every involved organization company and the way business integrates to their respected consumers and or buyers large in order to communicate with their business partners, to connect with their data systems and be able to transact the nature of such business successfully where the strength and reliability of business marketing process as well as marketing strategies will provide substantial emphasis to the implications of such differences in dealing between consumer and business to business marketing and in finding proper marketing concepts essential for growth and stability of the business per se. Moreover, many business managers are finding the time and commitment to develop business marketing strategies that could be difficult in the process of its actualization as it is tempting to push formal strategy development to the back burner and it can put the business at a disadvantage. Thus, marketing strategies help create towards the best marketing programs intended to give phenomenal success of their business because without such marketing strategies, marketing managers risk becoming unfocused in their marketing efforts, choosing programs that do not support useful and valid strategies by integrating strategies into relevant company plans in achieving better business objectives within a reliable decision making process throughout the organization.
MAIN BODY
There is a paradigm that merges the values with the core processes that involves the foundation of business, it is generally possible as it can be either business to consumer (B2C) and or Business to business (B2B) where transactions are between one company and another company. Thus, it is said that B2C applies to any organization selling products/services to consumers over the market for their advantage within the B2B sales then, B2C sales are expected to improve in the future as needed amicably to deliver enough value to the customers and the finding of ways in terms of generating revenues. The upshot for marketers has been the extension of the marketing mix from the product, price, place and promotion to include people, physical evidence and process for creating a differential advantage over competitors, with the inevitable dependence for differentiation and competitive edge on branding initiatives and personnel and marketers have argued there are relatively only minor differences between the marketing of consumer goods and industrial or business-to-business goods.
Business to Business marketing
The consumer business to business dichotomy was established in the marketing literature by a number of persuasive theoretical works essentially argues that B2B markets are different from consumer markets along a number of dimensions (, 1986;, 1987). As (1987) argues that Business to Business markets are unique due to their derived demand, long purchase cycles, and a varying and fragmented market structure. Indeed, (1987, p. 16) argues that any similarities that might be identified between B2B and consumer markets are superficial, concluding that the consumer based approaches will fail in most cases due to simplifying and naïve assumptions and he argues that B2B markets must be handled differently than consumer markets per se. Henceforth (1978, p. 24) argues that the ‘complexity’ of B2B markets calls for new approaches that must be different from those found in consumer marketing. Thus, the belief that marketing in consumer and B2B firms is fundamentally different appears to have been heavily influenced by strong conceptual arguments.
Moreover, arguments developed from a general understanding that consumer and business buyer behaviors are different, and this seems to have led to the assumption that consumer and B2B marketing practices must be different by finding few differences across executive perceptions of their firm’s marketing environment and its marketing strategies. Today, major changes are occurring within both the marketing environment and business organizations. Marketing is the process of maintaining and enhancing relationships with customers and other stakeholders, at a profit, so that the objectives of all parties involved are met. This is done by a mutual exchange and fulfillment of promises and the ‘’relationship management constitutes the heart of business marketing’’ (1998, p. 32), as this implies that any discussion or examination of marketing practices comparing consumer and B2B firms should extend beyond the simple marketing mix model that is prevalent in the literature, to incorporate relational view of marketing.
The consumer and Business to Business organizations will have a large number of similarities in their marketing practice across the three dimensions describing the intent of marketing decisions, the managerial planning focus, and the purpose of exchange. There are similarities within other dimensions such as resource investment, customer contact and managerial level of market planning that has argued for consumer/B2B marketing differences. The similarities in practice encompass views of marketing as the current business practices of both consumer and B2B firms involve managing the marketing mix to attract customers and utilizing technology to enhance customer relationships even if some differences do emerge across contexts and that marketing practices are different across consumer and B2B firms within the importance of marketing strategy in maintaining business as it enriches people in understanding business marketing in the context of firms serving consumer and business markets. On the other side, buyer market structure, demand patterns and buyer behaviors may be different across firms between consumer and B2B marketing practice in a business marketing environment.
The key differences between Business to Business and Business to Consumer in terms of Marketing
The Market Size
Consumer markets are measured in terms of ‘millions’ while there are only a few Business to Business firms have customer bases over ‘thousands’ that can be significantly high in the consumer market.
The Buying Process
In the business market the buying process is longer and involves many people, as it is not unusual to have a month buying cycle involving only a few people as both decision makers and influencers.
The Selling Process
Hence, business to business sales organizations are distinguished by well-paid sales people, distributors and business partners who are not only engaged in the selling but in the fulfillment of the product services.
The Cost of A Sale
A complex solution may require several calls to close a sale plus the advertising and marketing expense to generate inquiries and qualify such leads.
The Value of A Sale
Balancing out the cost of Business to Business selling is the value of the sale and that the initial transaction value is measured in hundreds of dollars and the likelihood of on-going sales is high.
Data Quality
In general, the quality of Business to Business data is below consumer standards as the research indicates that 72 percent of business people have changes in their business during a 12 month time frame.
Lead Generation vs. Sale
Most Business to Business campaigns are devoted to generation of an inquiry that is qualified to a lead. In consumer marketing only a small fraction of communications are for the leading generation while the majority is for direct sale having the emphasis on creating offers used in consumer programs.
The Differences Between business-to-business and consumer marketing
Here are some important factors that set business-to-business marketing apart from consumer marketing:
The business buyer wants to buy
Most consumer advertising offers people products they might enjoy but don’t really need but in business-to-business marketing, the business buyer wants to buy. Indeed, all business enterprises must routinely buy products and services that help them stay profitable and successful with the existence of the purchasing agent that functions in purchasing things.
The business buyer is sophisticated
Business-to-business copy talks to a sophisticated audience as the typical reader has a high interest in understanding of product and its use. This realization makes business-to-business researchers somewhat more humble than their consumer counterparts.
The business buyer will read a lot of copy
The business buyer is an information seeker, constantly on the lookout for information and advice that can help the buyer do the job better, increase profits, or advance his career.
A multi-step buying process
In business to business direct marketing, the concept of control is non-existent combined with the efforts of the sales people to turn a cold lead into a paying customer.
Multiple buying influences
Many people influence the decision – from the purchasing agent and company president, to technical professionals and end-users. Each of these audiences has different concerns and criteria by which they judge you. To be successful, your copy must address the needs of all parties involved with the decision. In many cases, this requires separate mailings to many different people within an organization.
Business products are more complex
Most business products and their applications are more complex than consumer products. In short, in business to business marketing, the rules are different in the ways of increasing response and profits in the exciting and challenging marketplace.
Furthermore, the key implications for marketing strategy in a business marketing organization are as follows. First, it is important to recognize that B2B marketing, is not fundamentally different from consumer marketing and it is important to understand both similarities and differences in marketing practice across contexts, including why different approaches to marketing are being practiced, how multiple approaches can be practiced simultaneously and how these practices might be influenced by other market characteristics.
Second, to accurately depict and understand contemporary marketing practices, theoretical frameworks in a full spectrum of marketing approaches and not rely on the relational paradigm as the marketing environment continues to evolve to reflect new developments in marketing strategy practice and research. Managers will have to be sensitive to the knowledge, resources and systems’ underlying each approach as it is likely that consumer and B2B firms might learn from one another in their ongoing development of broader marketing capacity with a narrow focus that will include marketing strategies and marketing programs to better build client business as well as build awareness and interest with consumers. by means of keeping business marketing strategies in mind as sectors will choose marketing programs, then making adjustments throughout in terms of providing better foundation from which the business can grow.
CONCLUSION
Therefore, successful business companies need to make certain that their customers are satisfied with the service they receive because; customers are the most important part of any positive outcome that the companies are experiencing and is essential in determining a successful business organisation in order to ensure that customers enjoy themselves, leave having enjoyed and return in the coming future. i agree that business ‘marketing is marketing’ with common objectives, and tools that can be irrespective of the market strategies being used per se. However, the basic business to business marketing process is applied differently in order to tackle the characteristics of many industrial business to business products, target markets as well as marketing managers respectively.
RECOMMENDATIONS
There needs to have the application of such principles in business marketing and be able to have tests with consumers in markets that are undergoing similar changes. The importance to adhere to such multi-country studies that can help to separate the effects of the level of consumerism development, cultural values, ethical philosophies, beliefs about business and other market and consumer characteristics and to identify other sources of cross-cultural differences such as possible response set biases. In the rapid development of marketing practices and consumerism movements in marketing economy, the evolution of consumer attitudes and beliefs and their implications for marketing management that gives continuous development of relevant strategies in business marketing despite the frequent ethical problems that involve consumers, few have considered the role of consumer perceptions in theories of business and marketing ethics. Thus, the effects of consumer attitudes toward marketing on their behavior and satisfaction need to be defined in a broader context with a theoretical framework that examines their relationships with other relevant concerns. Consumer perceptions of many specific marketing practices, such as sales promotions, are virtually unknown in the changes of economy (, 1998).
There needs to have further research to investigate whether consumer responses to evaluative questions about marketing are grounded in cultural values and beliefs (., 1990) and how cultural differences in idealism would influence consumers’ affective evaluations of marketing as it provides the fruitful avenue for future research.
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