Marketing for B2B vs.

B2C – Similar but Different

New your Institute of Technology

School of Management

Marketing Management

Marketing for B2B vs. B2C – Similar but Different

(Business to Individual vs. Business to Organization)

Prepared By:

Mohammed Mater Al Sheikh Qasem

Prepared for:

Prof. Dr. Naji Mualla

New York Institute of Technology

January 19

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 Marketing for B2B vs. B2C – Similar but Different

• Introduction

• Customer in business and consumer

• Buying Behaviours:
• Buyer Decision Process:

• What they are locking for

• Channels in dealing with them:
• Conclusion

• References

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 Marketing for B2B vs. B2C – Similar but Different

Introduction:

Once a decision is made to develop a business, whom the customer will be is

the next decision to be made. Whom will the company target as a customer?
Will it be a business? Or will it be a consumer? Business-to-business (B2B)
marketing has differences from business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing
practices.

So Business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing is

different. Some people think marketing is marketing and whether you are
marketing to consumers or marketing to businesses, you are still just marketing
to people, right?
According to this the challenge key that face every marketer is explaining and
identifying the target market, customer, since it's the first step when any firm or
marketing management want to enter the market, even new one or new develop
of available of product, that will effect over the market planning which reflect
the customer needs and market situation according to identify market and
customer, whose will be in usually individual as consumer or business and
organizations and both group require specific strategy and planning

A person buying a product for themselves verses buying for their company is a
very different, emotional experience. In fact, there are many differences that
you must remember when developing or doing marketing activities with
individual or business .for example B2B depends on relationship building
marketing efforts. Using consumer-focused strategies and CRM (customer
relationship management) to market your B2B business will.
So first we need to define the meaning of both B2b and B2C that are: B2C
describes activities of businesses serving end consumer with products and /or
services, such as a person buying a pair of shoes from a retailer, or a person
buying from any market.

The terms B2B and B2C were invented to decipher the difference in internet
commerce business that has a predominant customer base versus those whose
market specifically to businesses. Although the marketing programs are the
equivalent for most type of business (events, direct marketing, internet
marketing, advertising, public relations, word of mouth and alliances),
B2B: Business marketing is the practice of individual, or organization, include
commercial business, governments and institutions, facilitating the sale of their

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 Marketing for B2B vs. B2C – Similar but Different

products or services to other companies or organization that in turn resell them,

use them as components in products or services they offer, or use them to
support their operations.
Our study of B2b and B2C if similar or not as many articles say we will study it
through examine different view point under:
1- Customer in business and consumer.
2- Buying Behaviours that effect directly over the marketing strategy and
tactics that marketer should apply when deal with them.
3- Promotion: the way to do promotion for both of them.
4- The buying decision process:
5- Price consideration if it's sensitive to the or not.
6- Product what they locking in the product and how they make choice.
7- Channels in dealing with them.

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 Marketing for B2B vs. B2C – Similar but Different

Customer in business and consumer

Business market customer B2B:
Business market customer can be classified in to three categories (1)
commercial enterprises- that is, business; (2) Institution- as for example,
universities; and (3) Government. As Dell, Inc; the firm serves both the business
market B2B and B2C. (Michael. Hutt & Thomas W. Speh B2B)
On other hand business market consists of all the organizations that require
good and services used in the production of other products or services that are
sold, rented, or supplied to other. And the major industries making up the
business market are agricultural, forestry, and fisheries, mining, manufacturing,
construction, transportation, communication, public utilities, banking; however
business markets have several characteristics that contrast sharply with
consumer market that are
• Fewer, larger buyers: business market normally deal with far fewer, much
larger buyers than consumer market dose, as in aircraft and defence
weapons
• Close supplier-customer relationship: since the smaller number of
customer and the power of them, suppliers are frequently expected to
customize their offerings to individual business customer needs.
• Professional purchasing
• Multiple buying influences
• Direct purchasing
• Inelastic demand
• Derived demand
(Marketing management; Philip Kotler, Kevin Lane 13edi)
Business to Consumer B2C:

Business to Consumer or B2C refers to buying and selling products or services

online from the retailer to the consumer. The major characteristics of B2C are
that businesses try to establish a direct relationship with consumers without
involving distributors, dealers, or wholesalers.

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 Marketing for B2B vs. B2C – Similar but Different

In B2C marketing the target customer is usually the public, the relationship
will be generally non-existent and dealings will be completed online without the
use of a sales representative. A B2C site is usually set up like a store where the
consumer can search through different products and purchase a product when
convenient for the consumer. The price is usually a fixed price and not
negotiable. Sometime B2C are often packed with a great deal of information
and use many colours, flashing words, and sometimes even sound to attract a
consumer. Some business-to-consumer marketing features include:
Transactions through the dealer to the end consumer, Value determined by end-
consumer perception, Focus on brand management, Large number of generally
similar consumers, Small transactions. (Murphy, D. (2006) Marketing for B2B
vs. B2C, Similar but Different. Vista Consulting)

Also, B2B are all businesses that operate in industrial markets acquire goods
and services to use in the production of other product or services which are sold,
rented, or supplied to other businesses, and the main differences of business
market compared to consumer market are found in the nature and complexity of
industrial products and services the nature and diversity of industrial demand,
the significantly fewer number of customer, closer and long- lasting supplier-
customer relationships.B2B direct marketing; Philip Kotler, Waldemar
Pfoertsch, Ines Michi)

However in both market B2B and B2C similar it's easy and we can apply the
same marketing concept and principle but if we say that everyone has specific
characteristics so the marketing way and strategy should deferent if we do to
consumer from if we do for business and for business one the marketer should
demonstrates a high level of expertise in all of its interaction with target
business since they are more knowledgeable buyer and multifaceted. This refers
not only to product knowledge, but also to the technical and other back-up that
the buyer will receive throughout the life of the purchase. The marketer must
also show diligence and patience when negotiating the decision making unit and
assuaging the fears of finance, production, technical and other decision-makers.
(Why Is Business-to-Business Marketing Special? By Matthew Harrison, Paul
Hague and Nick Hague of B2B International Ltd)

Buying Behaviours:
Consumer behaviour: the way of how individual, group, and organization
select, buy, use, and dispose and goods, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy
their need and wants that are influenced by many factor like: cultural, social,
and personal factors
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 Marketing for B2B vs. B2C – Similar but Different

Organizational behaviours: The decision-making processes by which formal

businesses establish the need for purchased and services and identify, evaluate,
and choose among alternative brands and suppliers, that are influenced by
complexity of the problem being solved, newness of buying requirement,
number of people involved, and time require. Also there are three types of
buying situations are the straight rebuy, modified rebuy, and new task.
What makes you decide whether or not to buy certain product or even buy into
certain services mainly depends on inside or outside influences. These
influences are internal or external. The internal influences that guide through
certain buying decisions (Armstrong & Kotler 2005) can be attributed to direct
marketing or influenced by a friend, a relative, a colleague, or even society.
External or environmental influences can also be attributed to social class,
family or friends. These influences are part of our buying schema, what buying
behaviours we have learned taught by parents or siblings, even friends, this is a
type of blueprint in the recesses of our minds. We buy on impulse at times
because it is the right price and although the product or service is not what we
intended to purchase; we buy because of ideas we have already been given
through ads, or previous sale experience, or word of mouth.

Buyer Decision Process:

Even the end result for buying in both individual and business are the same to
satisfy the need, and want. And buying itself began from the same point that
problem recognition, and most of other steps in the buying process are the same
for both of them but they deferent in the way to complete each step and the
result for them.

Buying process for individual:

• Problem Recognition: it's the first step which involved the recognize the
need as a reflect to internal or external stimuli

• Information Search: which usually for limited amount of information, the

major information sources are personal( family, friends, neighbours),
Commercial (web sites, advertising, salesperson ), Public( mass media),
Experiential( handling, examining, using the product)

• Evaluation of alternative: in this stage the consumer trying to satisfy

need, and certain benefits from the product solution, which usually
consumer Beliefs nad attitudes have a lot effect in this stage.

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 Marketing for B2B vs. B2C – Similar but Different

• Purchase decision: the consumer form preferences among the brands in

the choice set

• Post purchase Behaviour: which may be satisfaction or not, that lead to

many action in the future and regarding the product and its company.

Buying process for Organization: usually more complicated in steps, even that
will result the same end as individual and share many steps in it:

• Problem recognition: its the first step as in individual

• Determines the needed item general characteristics and required quantity

through needed description and product specification

• Supplier search: identify the most appropriate suppliers through trade

shows, trade advertisement, and internet

• Proposal solicitation:

• Supplier selection

• Order- routine specification

• Performance review

Even in most cases for both individual and business don’t go through all of this
process and make decision directly according to need and to financial issue and
alto of people say there is not differences between them, as both have the same
end and many share step.

On other hand many new study show that there is a lot of differences in two
cases since everyone has its core principle

The B2C buyer is usually looking for the best price and will research the
competition prior to shopping.B2C marketing needs to convince the person to
buy and build trust and loyalty with their customers.
Where the purchase of a consumer product requires little expertise (perhaps
nothing more than a whim), the purchase of an industrial product frequently
requires a qualified expert. Where consumer products are largely standardised,
industrial products are often bespoke and require high levels of fine-tuning.
Even relatively complex consumer products tend to be chosen on fairly simple

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 Marketing for B2B vs. B2C – Similar but Different

criteria. A car might be chosen because it goes fast and looks nice, and a stereo
might be purchased on the grounds that it is tremendously loud.

Buyers of consumer products are generally not interested in the technical details
of what they are buying. The vast majority of car buyers are far more interested
in what speed the car will reach than in how it will reach that speed. Similarly,
the buyer of a chocolate bar is likely to be far more interested in the fact that the
item stops them feeling hungry and tastes nice than in the technology and
ingredients that make it so. As a result, consumer products are frequently
marketed in ways that are superficial or even vacuous.

also the B2C buying behaviour are effecting by individual cultural factors
which have the broadest and deepest effect on buying like family effect, roles
and status, reference group, but there are many other factor like personal factors
like age for example middle age needs deferent from elder age group in colour,
shape, and even more in taste and preference, also occupation and economic
circumstances that effect directly over consumption patterns, on other hand
personality and self concept that deferent among individual and effect over
buying behaviour, also take in mind lifestyle and value.

All of this factor have direct effect over individual buying behaviour and effect
over the way that consumer made his decision but all of this factors even its
look complicated but as marketer you can solve it and provide to your customer
what he or she need and according to his preference, and by applying the
marketing concept and principle like price issue, quality, services, after sale
services, even delivery to home or work, all of these way may create loyal
customer without any added effort, since the consumer need just low price and
availability of product, as we know the consumer is easy to satisfy.

The business buyer is sophisticated, understands your product or service better

than you do, and wants or needs to buy products or services to help their
company stay profitable, competitive, and successful. Marketing copy must talk
to a sophisticated audience. Your typical reader has a high interest in – and
understanding of – your product (or at least of the problem it solves). Therefore,
ensure you deliver the necessary information to the buyer

Both buyers are interested in quality customer service. B2B customer service
comes into play prior to ever making that first sale and begins with a customer’s
very first contact with your company, whether you call them or they call you.
B2C customer service helps build customer loyalty where customers will be
willing to pay a slightly higher price to know that they can return the product
easily and can trust the source they are dealing with. In other words, customer

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 Marketing for B2B vs. B2C – Similar but Different

service is critical and although may not be considered “marketing”, bad

customer service can render all of your marketing efforts useless.
The key for the B2B marketer is to be fully informed in relation to the product
or service being sold. This understanding must cover not only the ‘technical’
details of the offering, but also the extended offer including after sales service,
problem resolution, client management team, etc. As a result, the B2B sale is
often a ‘technical sale’, meaning that salespeople in business-to-business
markets are often extremely experienced and originate from a technical
discipline within their organisation. The success or otherwise of an entire
business-to-business product line can be largely dependent on the abilities of a
small team of salespeople

In the Business to Business (B2B) marketing as well as Business to Consumer

(B2C) marketing, many of the same techniques and methods of marketing are
utilized. For example internet advertising, television, mailings, hosted events,
print media and word of mouth are some of the popular methods of marketing
that will be utilized regardless of rather the end customer is a business or
consumer. What will be different is the message that is contained in these
forms of advertising not the methods of delivering the advertising.

In dealing with both B2C and B2B, both of them are locking for the best price
with quality, and locking for many alternative before make the decisions what
to buy which usually deferent in length between both but still both of them need
from marketer to be more understanding for the product or services that will
provide to hem, since they need to covens them in the characteristic of the
product over the other competitor.

On the other hand, not all individual consumer ask about the technical details
when buying sample products but in case of high price product like car or
anything that involve high price and especially of the buyer are educated, he
will ask a lot about the technical details like business buyer, which also in the
case of buying sample issues will not ask about any technical details just the
price and other information about delivery

B2B marketing will be more relationship driven since the goal is to build a
longer-term relationship with that business that will yield business on an
ongoing basis. B2C marketing is usually more products driven that is
appealing to the immediate sale of the product with appeals to the emotional
side of the consumer that will result in that immediate sale. Price is also a
prevalent part of the marketing information since that is a large factor in the
buying decision of the consumer (Murphy D. 2007)..

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 Marketing for B2B vs. B2C – Similar but Different

What they are locking for

The buyer from both the B2B and B2C methods needs to be examined in order
to better understand why the marketing content is so different. Typically the
B2B buyer is more sophisticated because it is typically their business in which
they already have an in-depth understanding. The marketing of the sales
company needs to show this educated buyer why the service or product they
offer will truly benefit customer's business in an educated way. The B2B buyer
is primarily looking to make their operations more profitable. Therefore the
marketing of the sales company must be geared for how the customer will
improve their operations for their long-term benefit (Murphy, 2007).
The buyer in a B2C relationship is typically looking for price and information
on the product.

As both of them locking to satisfy the need and want, which related to
individual or business both are locking for product and services that can meet
these need and go beyond of them.

Channels in dealing with them:

The way to deal with consumer and business market:
Although marketing activities concentrate on similar issues in B2B and B2C
marketing there are significant differences in internal and external, customer
behaviour is different along the supply chain depending on who the customer is,
a business or a consumer.
Therefore characteristics of marketing activities deviate, B2B and B2C follow
similar objective covering customers in order to increase turnover and profits
the major different customer needs. (B2B versus B2C marketing; Hauke
Barschel).
The marketing approach for business-to-business is based on building
relationships. While the marketing approach for business-to-consumer is much
more aggressive. Although business-to-business and business-to-consumer have
different marketing strategies, but they both have a common goal; convert
prospects into customers
When marketing to a B2B you will realize these businesses work hard to steam
line the buying process in order to save time and money. The most effective
marketing message will focus on how your product or service saves the other
company time, money, and resources. This often explains why a B2B purchase
is based more on logic and why a consumer’s purchase is based more on
emotion.

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 Marketing for B2B vs. B2C – Similar but Different

B2B is relationship driven whereas B2C is product driven. B2B focus on

building a long-term relationship and communication using marketing activities
that generate leads that can be nurtured during the sales cycle. (Murphy 2006).
B2B uses a multi-step buying process, longer sales cycle, which often means the
companies, has to educate various players in their small targeted audience.
In contrast B2C focus on consumer’s emotion. Marketers’ advertise try to
appeal to the consumers emotions. B2C employ more merchandising activities
like coupons, displays, store fronts (both real and internet) offers to entice the
target market to buy.
Business buyers are using more rational thought when selecting a product or
service for their company. They are motivated by saving money, increasing
productivity or raising profitability. Consumers are motivated by desire, style
and prestige. For consumers, brand plays into the equation since we are more
apt to buy "status" brands, such as BMW, Lexus, Rolex or Nike even though we
most likely will pay more for the brand. (Murphy 2006)

Marketer’s tactics is to focus on larger target markets, maximize the value of

the transaction, and focus on single step buying process, which create shorter
sales cycles. In today’s economy no single thing matters as much for your sales
and loyalty as building a great customer service brand. The goal of the B2C is
to continuously get consumers to buy product that appeal to their wants (very
often their needs).

That is the point in which marketing activities began to diverge. Below is a list
that illustrates the differences among B2B and B2C marketing.
Business to Business
• Relationship driven
• Maximize the value of the relationship
• Small, focused target market
• Multi-step buying process, longer sales cycle
• Brand identity created on personal relationship
• Educational and awareness building activities
• Rational buying decision based on business value
(Marketing)

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 Marketing for B2B vs. B2C – Similar but Different

Business to Customer
• Product driven
• Maximize the value of the transaction
• Large target market
• Single step buying process, shorter sales cycle
• Brand identity created through repetition and imagery
• Merchandising and point of purchase activities
• Emotional buying decision based on status, desire, or price.
(Marketing)

Conclusion
In conclusion, we can see there is a lot of differences between B2C versus B2B
even there is a lot of same concept and principle.

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 Marketing for B2B vs. B2C – Similar but Different

Also the way the marketer should deal with every one of them deferent as
example for business you may do may calls and interview with all people
involved in the purchasing, and us all resources that can be just to make the deal
since its ones or not and your relationship with target customer extremely
deferent, in individual you may need to develop relation with you customer but
will be simple and not deep and efficient like business since in business the
decisions of buy from one producer or not may affected by the relationship and
past experience.

And the major difference among B2B and B2C marketing is based upon the
buyers' feelings toward the purchase. Consumers make the decision to purchase
based on the status, security, comfort and quality of a product. Business buyers
make the decision to purchase based on the ability to increase profits, reduce
cost and enhance productivity. A B2C business must understand what
motivates a buyer and the emotional aspects that influence the buying decision.
Both business types have the responsibilities to create compelling materials that
will build awareness of the brand, increase comfort in making a purchase, and
project quality services at the best price. Whoever the target audience may be a
B2B and a B2C must remember what is important to potential prospects and
create marketing programs that speak to them.

References:

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 Marketing for B2B vs. B2C – Similar but Different

• Armstrong, Gary and Kotler, Philip (2005) Marketing: Managing

Profitable Customer Relationships. Marketing/An Introduction 7th
Edition, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458. Pearson Prentice Hall.
Retrieved March 21, 2006.

• Michael D. Hutt and Thomas W.Speh: Business Marketing Management:

B2B/9th Edition. Thomson. South-Western.

• Marketing Management, Russell S.Winer /3ed Edition, Pearson Prentice

Hall 2007.

• Why Is Business-to-Business Marketing Special? By Matthew Harrison,

Paul Hague and Nick Hague of B2B International Ltd

• Phili Kotler, and Kevin Keller, Marketing Management/ 13th edition,

Pearson Pretice Hall 2009.

• Zell A., 2006. Is there a difference between selling to B2B and B2C
customers? Ambassador of selling. Retrieved 09/16/2006 from
http://sellingselling.com/articles/btbb.html

• Murphy, D. 2006. Marketing for B2B vs. B2C – similar but different.
Vista Consulting. Retrieved 9/15/2006 from http://www.vista-
consulting.com/marketing-articles/b2b-b2c-marketing.htm

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