How Different is Marketing in B2B Trade Model?

Wikipedia describes B2B as, "...transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer." The volume of B2B trade is much higher than the other trade models like business to customer, business to government etc.

Generally people don’t know the dynamics of B2B trade because they just don’t directly come in the trade process. For example, an automobile manufacturer makes several B2B transactions such as buying tires, glass for windshields, and rubber hoses for its vehicles. The final transaction, a finished vehicle sold to the consumer, is a single (B2C) transaction.

How Marketing assumes a different aspect in B2B?

Marketing aspects are different in B2B than in other forms of trade like Business to Consumer transactions. In Business to consumer trade, for example, the consumers and the advertising media are more easily identifiable. A cosmetics manufacturer can promote business by splash the attractive advertisement across the print, electronics and online media. Lots of research has also been done in the B2C domain so as to help the companies in formulating the marketing strategy. However B2B does not have the advantage of such insight. Marketing the B2B products assumes different aspects. Other factors setting the B2B business apart are as follows:

In B2B business there are "Fewer Buyers". Though market may actually depend on the type of product but in general terms it can be said that there are fewer buyers for such specific B2B product. Owing to this and other reasons like competition, a B2B marketer has to be on look out for other Geographic markets for his products. This may not be as easy in case of SMEs.

For a B2B Customer the "Buy decision" assumes much more importance than that for a B2C customer. This is because of various reasons like high product costs, volume of purchase, reliability of the product or service or technical products e.g. heavy machinery. All these reasons make the B2B buyers to adopt a more stringent purchasing process. Most B2B companies have a dedicated team of specialized / technical personnel handling the purchase department. The decision of such teams is not affected by the same factors affecting B2C buyer. For example factors like "Impulse", "Packaging" may not have a role to play in a B2B transaction. In B2B transaction factors like technical specifications, quality, and service assume a more important role. All these factors make B2B transactions more particular.

B2B sellers also don’t operate in the same way as B2C sellers. The pricing assumes different role. The prices may vary for differentB2B buyers. The degree of customization is also higher. In addition to these B2B sellers have to make different strategies depending on different type of customers. The B2B customers can be other SMEs, Wholesale distributors, Dealers and other partners in the supply chain.
These are just a few ways in which B2B marketing may differ from the conventional B2C marketing. Further we will be discussing about the various ways and new ideas to market B2B businesses specifically SMEs. For more information on B2B marketing ideas the best B2B Trade Directory.