b2b mkt

1. Purchases typically involve dozens of interested parties and may be influenced by social goals.
2. Most federal government purchases must go through a complex bidding process governed by the Federal Acquisition Regulation.
3. GSA Advantage allows government buyers to make purchases online at preferred government prices.

1. Include schools, hospitals, libraries, foundations, and others.
2. Multiple buying influences can affect buying decisions, such as conflicts between professional staff and purchasing departments.

1. Marketers must consider buyers’ attitudes and cultural patterns.
2. Local industries, economic conditions, geographic characteristics, and legal restrictions must all be considered.
3. Foreign governments are also an important market.

Conventional: face-to-face events, print advertising, customized magazines, Telemarketing

Digital: Email, Webcast, Articles & Blogs, Podcast (audio/video), Search Advertisements, Social Networks, E-news Letters, Webinars, White Papers

1. Problem Recognition
2. General Description of Need
3. Product Specification
4. Supplier Search
5. Acquisition & Analysis of Proposal
6. Supplier Selection
7. Selection of Order Routine
8. Performance Review

1. Straight buy
2. Modify buy
3. New task

1. Environmental Forces
2. Organizational Forces
3. Group Forces
4. Individual Forces

1. Complex decision making units
2. Limited number of buying unit
3. Long term buyers
4. Less innovation
5. Personal relationship
6. Rely more on packaging
7. Sub-brands are less effective

1. Ignoring social media reach of your business
2. Posting Regularly On Social Media
3. Not Trying To Generate Lead
4. Blabbering About Boring Products
5. Hiring the Same Old Marketer

1. Contract purchasing
2. Spot purchasing
3. Multi-tier supply chain
   • Complex series of transactions between firm and thousands of suppliers, supplying thousands of goods

Broadly defined communications protocol for exchanging documents among computers. EDI provides for exchange of critical business information between computer applications supporting wide variety of business processes.

Collaborative Commerce (C-Commerce) is considered to be the replacement of E-Commerce and hence the next stage in the development of electronic business solutions. It is defined as ´”an application of an interorganization information system for electronic collaboration between business partners and organizational employees” 1). Among all parties that are participants of the Value_chain (customers, suppliers and trade partners), a C-Commerce solution forms a joint platform to design, create, manage and administrate real-time data.

1. Net marketplaces:

• Bring together potentially thousands of sellers and buyers in single digital marketplace operated over Internet
• Transaction-based
• Support many-to-many as well as one-to-many relationships

1. Private industrial networks:

• Bring together small number of strategic business partner firms that collaborate to develop highly efficient supply chains (Procter & Gamble’s Private Industrial Network)
• Relationship-based
• Support many-to-one and many-to-few relationships
• Largest form of B2B e-commerce

1. Concerns about sharing of proprietary, sensitive data
2. Integration of private industrial networks into existing ERP systems and EDI networks difficult, expensive
3. Requires change in mindset and behavior of employees and suppliers

–All participants lose some independence

Business-to-business (B2B) describes commerce transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer. Contrasting terms are business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-government (B2G). B2B branding is a term used in marketing.

The overall volume of B2B (Business-to-Business) transactions is much higher than the volume of B2C transactions.The primary reason for this is that in a typical supply chain there will be many B2B transactions involving sub components or raw materials, and only one B2C transaction, specifically sale of the finished product to the end customer. For example, an automobile manufacturer makes several B2B transactions such as buying tires, glass for windscreens, and rubber hoses for its vehicles. The final transaction, a finished vehicle sold to the consumer, is a single (B2C) transaction.

B2B is also used in the context of communication and collaboration. Many businesses are now using social media to connect with their consumers (B2C); however, they are now using similar tools within the business so employees can connect with one another. When communication is taking place amongst employees, this can be referred to as "B2B" communication.

Before Internet:

• B2B transactions called trade or procurement process

Total inter-firm trade:

• Total flow of value among firms

B2B commerce:

• All types of computer-enabled inter-firm trade

B2B e-commerce:

• The portion of B2B commerce enabled by the Internet

The main difference between B2B and B2C is who is the buyer of a product or service. The purchasing process is different in both cases and the following is a list of key differences between them.

B2B: Marketers can use industry jargon

B2C: the voice must be at least relatable to the majority of consumers, simpler language.

B2B: purchase process tends to be rationally and logically driven

B2C: typically emotionally triggered

B2B: audience is seeking efficiency and expertise

B2C: consumer audience is more likely to be seeking deals and entertainment

B2B: detailed content is required for marketing

B2C: to meet the basic needs of being useful

B2B: wants information and the ability to build a close relationship with brands

B2C: isn’t necessarily looking to build a close relationship with it

B2B: much longer chain of command to deal with since superiors often need to approve purchases

B2C: individual typically makes their own speedy B2C purchase choices

B2B: decisions are meant to complete long-term goals, buying cycle is often much longer.

B2C: B2C buys tend to satisfy immediate needs

1. Market

• B2B: Geographically Concentrated and Relatively Fewer Buyer
• B2C: Geographically Disbursed and Mass Market

2. Product

• B2B: Technical Complex and Customized
• B2C: Standardized

3. Price

• B2B: Competitive Bidding and Negotiated Prices, List Price for Standard Products
• B2C: List Price or MRP (Maximum Retail Price)

4. Promotional

• B2B: Emphasis on Personal Selling,
• B2C: Emphasis on Mass Media (Advertising)

5. Service

• B2B: Service , timely Availability extremely Important
• B2C: Somewhat Important

6. Channel

• B2B: More Direct, Fewer Intermediaries
• B2C: Indirect, Multiple layer of Intermediaries

7. Buying Behavior

• B2B: Involvement of Various functional area from both the ends, Purchase Decisions are performance based and rational, Technical Expertise, Stable Interpersonal relationship
• B2C: Involvement of family members, Purchase decisions are mostly based on Physiological/social/psychological needs, Relatively less technical expertise is required, Non- Personal relationship

Some characteristics of organizational buying / selling behaviour in detail:

• For consumer brands the buyer is an individual. In B2B there are usually committees of people in an organization and each of the members may have different attitudes towards any brand. In addition, each party involved may have different reasons for buying or not buying a particular brand.
• Since there are more people involved in the decision making process and technical details may have to be discussed in length, the decision-making process for B2B products is usually much longer than in B2C.
• Companies seek long-term relationships as any experiment with a different brand will have impacts on the entire business. Brand loyalty is therefore much higher than in consumer goods markets.
• While consumer goods usually cost little in comparison to B2B goods, the selling process involves high costs. Not only is it required to meet the buyer numerous times, but the buyer may ask for prototypes, samples and mock ups. Such detailed assessment serves the purpose of eliminating the risk of buying the wrong product or service.

One of the characteristics of a B2B product is that in many cases it is bought by a committee of buyers. It is important to understand what a brand means to these buyers. (Note: Temporal) Buyers are usually well-versed with costing levels and specifications. Also, due to constant monitoring of the market, these buyers would have excellent knowledge of the products too. In many cases the purchases are specification driven. As a result of this, it is vital that brands are clearly defined and target the appropriate segment.

As explained above, every one product can only be associated with one brand. Because of this, it is vital that companies find a white space for their brand, an uncontested category to occupy space in the minds of the buyer.

In differentiating one’s brand, companies can use various strategies, often referring to the origin of the goods or the processes used to manufacture the product(s). Some have identified up to 13 such strategies. Depending on the company’s history, the competitive landscape, occupied spaces and white spaces, there could be one or many strategies that any one company could use.

Ultimately, a strong B2B brand will reduce the perceived risk for the buyer and help sell the brand.

Content = Something Expressed

1. Article
2. News
3. Video
4. Game
5. Web site
6. Micro Site
7. Digital Magazine
8. Blog & micro-blog
9. Forum
10. Comment
11. eNewsletters
12. eBooks
13. Webinars
14. Case Studies
15. Surveys
16. App

Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and  engage  a clearly defined and understoo d target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

1. Selling
2. Advertising
3. Interrupting marketing (Telemarketing, direct mail, Spam ads tv, radio)
4. Media buying (Tv, radio, newspaper)

Content marketing is PULL a rather than a PUSH strategy

Because Content Marketing will...

1. Generate Targeted Traffic
2. Increase Audience & Reach
3. Engage Audience
4. Increase on-the-spot Conversion
5. Build Connections & Relations
6. Help Prospects understand You
7. Provide Thought Leadership

Build trust and increase WOM

1. Website
2. Emails and Newsletters
3. Social Media
4. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) --> Web syndication
5. Podcasts
6. SEM Searchengine Marketing
7. Digital Press
8. Online Events

A marketing strategy that directly engages consumers and invites and encourages them to participate in the evolution of a brand.

1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Linkedin
4. Google+
5. Youtube
6. Blogging
7. Reviews
8. Web Forums
9. Case Studies
10. Q/A websites
11. How to Guides

1. Who is my buyer -> Research
2. I do not have enough content & content creator -> Outsource
3. There is a lot of channels, which should I use -> Your Buyer