Markets Where

Although on the surface the differences between business and consumer marketing may seem obvious, there are more subtle distinctions between the two with substantial ramifications. Dwyer and Tanner (2006) note that business marketing generally entails shorter and more direct channels of distribution. (more…)

Business marketing is the practice of organizations, including commercial businesses, governments and institutions, facilitating the sale of their products or services to other companies or organizations that in turn resell them, use them as components in products or services they offer, or use them to support their operations. Also known as industrial marketing, business marketing is also called business-to-business marketing, or b-to-b marketing, for short.

Hutt and Speh (2001) note that “business marketers serve the largest market of all; the dollar volume of transactions in the industrial or business market significantly exceeds that of the ultimate consumer market.” For example, they note that companies such as GE, DuPont and IBM spend more than $60 million a day on purchases to support their operations.

Dwyer and Tanner (2006) say the purchases made by companies, government agencies and institutions “account for more than half of the economic activity in industrialized countries such as the United States, Canada and France.”

A 2003 study sponsored by the Business Marketing Association estimated that business-to-business marketers in the United States spend about $85 billion a year to promote their goods and services. The BMA study breaks that spending out as follows (figures are in billions of dollars):

Trade Shows/Events — $17.3
Internet/Electronic Media — $12.5
Promotion/Market Support — $10.9
Magazine Advertising — $10.8
Publicity/Public Relations — $10.5
Direct Mail — $9.4
Dealer/Distributor Materials — $5.2
Market Research — $3.8
Telemarketing — $2.4
Directories — $1.4
Other — $5.1

The fact that there is such a thing as the Business Marketing Association speaks to the size and credibility of the industry. BMA traces its origins to 1922 with the formation of the National Industrial Advertising Association. Today, BMA, headquartered in Chicago, boasts more than 2,000 members in 19 chapters across the country. Among its members are a new breed of marketing communications agencies that are largely or exclusively business-to-business-oriented.

While “other businesses” might seem like the simple answer, Dwyer and Tanner (2006) say business customers fall into four broad categories: companies that consume products or services, government agencies, institutions and resellers.

The first category includes original equipment manufacturers, such as automakers, who buy gauges to put in their cars, and users, which are companies that purchase products for their own consumption. The second category, government agencies, is the biggest. (more…)

In the broadest sense, the practice of one purveyor of goods doing trade with another is as old as commerce itself. As a niche in the field of marketing as we know it today, however, its history is more recent. In his introduction to Fundamentals of Business Marketing Research, J. David Lichtenthal, professor of marketing at the City University of New York’s Zicklin School of Business, notes that industrial marketing has been around since the mid-19th century, although the bulk of research on the discipline of business marketing has come about in the last 25 years. According to a study by SVM E-Business Solutions 45 percent of industrial manufacturers are using the Internet in their marketing.
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Business owners and entrepreneurs tired of paying through the nose for online information products from self-proclaimed gurus can now get priceless marketing strategies from true experts…free. Veteran sales and marketing consultant Charlie Cook has launched “Top Marketing Blogs,” a web page providing free access to cutting-edge strategies for marketers from experts currently working in the field (more…)

The more time people spend at your web site, the more time you’ll have to persuade them to buy your product or service. here are some powerful ways to keep visitors at your web site longer. People will feel more comfortable purchasing your products if you give them a little information about yourself or business. The information could be your profile, employee profiles, overall business history, education credentials, awards you’ve won, etc. Then you will also win your business marketing.