What is B2B Marketing?
In its simplest form, B2B marketing is selling to other businesses. In the past it was just called "marketing," but that name has been co-opted by a number of other disciplines which have more specific definitions. And so we have created a new term for selling goods and services to someone with whom you share some commonality besides being a consumer. If your audience were consumers, then it would be a B2C marketer.
"There are only two industries left in this country: cars and computers," says Mike Donoghue, president of Thorpe Worldwide's media division, who's been at this business since the early 1970s when he worked on car ads for BBDO. "Everything else can be classified as either consumer or B2B."
The fact that "everything else" seems to be growing faster than the auto and computer industries is testament to B2B's growth. According to Donoghue, about 70% of ad spending still goes toward selling cars, but it continues its descent while other categories are on their way up. Four years ago computers accounted for 37% of all ad expenditures; today they are at 7%. At least two-thirds of Thorpe's client business comes from consumer accounts, but more than half its gross income has come from B2Bs. And given the growth curve in this area , that figure could surpass 50% within a year or 18 months.
Understanding what makes your audience tick can help you market to them better. Be it a consumer product, consumer service or business-to-business hardware or software, you still have to find out what your audience is interested in and how they work. This is the responsibility of the market researcher and she needs to be on staff with any marketing department that wants its promotions to succeed .
Comments
Post a Comment