Differences in Marketing
Tony DiVito
University of Phoenix
E-Business
EBUS 400
Keith Hopkins
Jun 11, 2006
Differences in Marketing
Introduction
Marketing practices depend greatly on the intended audience. Business-to-business (B2B) marketing requires knowing the business needs, its current situation, and its competitors. Business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing also requires knowing the wants and needs of the intended audience but it also requires an in-depth understanding of the company's internal dynamics, including: competitors, costs, supply chains, distribution, technology and trends. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that there are differences in marketing between B2B and B2C business enterprises. This paper will outline and provide examples of the differences between these two e-commerce business transactions.
B2B Marketing
B2B businesses sell products and services to other businesses for use in their daily operations or for making other products and services (Wikipedia, 2006). B2B marketing is quite an extensive process. It requires companies to focus on building relationships and communication techniques that generate leads, which will ultimately be converted into customers. Because decisions in purchasing typically require the approval of multiple decision-makers, B2B companies need to develop marketing materials to educate a variety of different business professionals. The marketing materials will need to meet the specific needs of the customer. For example, a B2B company will most-likely need to have technical marketing pieces for engineers and marketing pieces that speak to the bottom line, cost and revenue, for top-line executives (Murphy, 2006).
B2B businesses use their marketing dollars to develop ...