marketing b2b and b2c

1. It is important for marketers to understand the consumer buying process for their good, because to do so will put the marketer in a better position to influence the decision at key inflection points, and to remove barriers to purchase. Some purchases are low involvement, and gas is one of them (Radder, 2008). The product is a commodity, and I cannot genuinely differentiate between gasolines. Thus, price and convenience are the two most important variables in determining where I purchase gas.

Price only matters if gas prices are high, or if I’m feeling broke. Convenience is the most important to me, because I dislike going out of the way for gas. I know that as the tank gets low, I establish my need, but that I have a fairly long window with which to address the situation, and my need for optimizing convenience will be met. A new home entertainment system is a high involvement purchase. It costs a lot of money, and I make this purchase very seldom.

A really good system can last years, and that would be my underlying logic. One could definitely take the approach of buying cheaper electronics, and replacing them more frequently, but a home entertainment system will still be an infrequent and expensive purchase, relative to most purchases. I would have a fairly high stake in the purchase since I will be interacting with the home entertainment system almost every day, and the quality of the system will affect the quality of those interactions.

So this buying process will likely involve a lot more research, and it will involve a longer time frame. This decision could take a while, because I would want to get it right. There are not that many similarities between the purchases. The level of product differentiation, the cost, the frequency of purchase and the stake that I have are all different, and that means these two things have very different buying processes. I am struggling to think of what similarities there might be between the two.

There are exceptions – people who know a lot about gasoline, or people who have so much money they just spend on the most expensive entertainment system without really knowing what they are buying – but I feel that my buying process for these two products is actually representative of how it will be for most people. 2. The B2C market for laptops is very different than the B2B market. The B2B market is characterized by accounts (Linton, 2018).

You build relationships with the buyers for companies, and the IT people who influence the buying decision. The sale will typically be multiple units initially, with new units ordered incrementally as new people join the customers’ companies. The B2B buying process is quite long, and there are several reasons for this (Cohn, 2018). First, most companies have a complex system of approvals – for Lenovo this would be purchasing, accounting/finance and IT at the very least.

But purchasing laptops for a company is also something that pertains to the entire ecosystem in which the laptop will operate. Each company has its own software stack with which it works, and the choice of laptop will be reflected in what tech is needed. Some companies need a fairly minimal stack, and can maybe use weaker laptops. Other companies might have demand for powerful computers. Road warriors within a company might need sturdier computers.

There is also the dynamic of whether a company has such a range, and to what extent it can meet the demands of its customers for a wide range of products. This high degree of customization is one of the reasons why B2B buying relationship-driven, and the buying process can be very long and complex. The B2C market is entirely different. Consumers have relatively simple needs, and relatively short buying processes. Consumer reviews online matter, as does advertising to consumers.

So the way that the consumer market is reached is quite different. The B2B market takes deliveries direct; consumers will often go through intermediaries. With shorter time cycles, less opportunity for upselling, less concerned about ecosystems, consumers have much simpler needs, a shorter buying cycle and they are relatively easy to reach. For Lenovo, just selling the exact same computer to these two markets requires an entirely different approach to pricing, distribution, product (including warranties and service), promotion and other elements of the marketing mix.

The product might be similar, but the marketing and sales processes for B2C and B2B are almost entirely different. 3. A university probably has a number of different factors that will guide its decision. For servers, the ability of those servers to work with the rest of the university’s technology is going ot be the biggest decision. The university wants to know that the servers are going to work, work well, and that they can be serviced easily. Minimizing downtown is critical.

Price is a factor, but should not be the biggest factor. If I’m selling, one thing I want to really hammer home is security, and the other is uptime. I feel that uptime is something that is a “must have” for the university, and that elements such as performance and security are things that can be differentiated. Performance for servers is measured in terms of their capacity, and that means that comparisons across companies is easy.

Security is something that IT buyers care a lot about, but typically have little knowledge in. This is an area that a sales rep can really hammer home the value prop. IBM’s reputation is a big one – it’s an American company, the products have strong records for security and are leaders in the field. The critical choice is trust. Trust is built by highlighting product attributes, IBM’s reputation, and by showing the buyer that you understand their needs, and are responsive to them.

They won’t buy from you if they do not trust that you know what you’re talking about – how can you service the servers if you seem clueless. So being able to speak to the VP, IT as a computer person to another, is essential. Building trust is also important in that you have to demonstrate that your servers are aligned with the rest of their network tech – routers, switches, monitoring and documentation software.

If you can demonstrate that they can trust that buying from you is a worry-free situation, that everything will integrate smoothly, and that the product itself is high quality, secure and reliable, then the sale can be won. It is important to remember that trust is not just about product specs, but the people behind the products,.