INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

NEW DELHI

[ASSIGNMENT]
Business To Business Marketing

SUBMITTED BY:

GAURAV SHARMA

BATCH: FW/2013-2016

SECTION: FWUG

ID NO: DL1316FWCHE-UGPC15025(GGN-2-GA-59447)
Subject-Business To Business Marketing

Max Marks:100

General Instructions:
The Student should submit this assignment in the
handwritten form (not in the typed format)
The Student should submit this assignment within
the time specified by the exam dept
Each Question mentioned in this assignment
should be answered within the word limit specified
corresponding to each question.
The student should only use the Rule sheet papers
for answering the questions.
The student should attach this assignment paper
with the answered papers.
Failure to comply with the above Five instructions
would lead to rejection of assignment.

Specific Instructions:

There are four Questions in this assignment. The

student should answer all the four questions.
Marks allotted 100.
Each Question carries equal marks (25 marks)
unless specified explicitly.
The answer should not exceed the world limit of
200 words
Q1. Discuss six ways of segmenting B2B Markets.

Answer:

1. Geography: global, national, regional, local

Some companies sell worldwide while other sell locally. This criteria is
generally a starting point for creating your B2B segmentation. Once you
decide where your target market is you can go into more details. Things
to consider as well as additional variables when considering geographic
segmentation are language and culture. For example, you can decide to
focus on targeting globally only to the English speaking countries.

2. Company profile: number of employees, revenue size, years in

business, industry, credit rating, ownership, technology used.

Depending on the purpose of your market segmentation you can segment

your customers based on company profile criteria. Go through the
customer profile variables and consider how important and relevant is
each to your business. For example, revenue size can be relevant in some
cases but not in other cases.

3. Purchasing process: price based purchase, approved vendor

process, bid process.

Based on your business strategy and the way you do business you want
to consider organizations with certain purchasing process in place.

4. Risk: risk takers, risk averse

The risk variable is important for some products especially when selling
brand new products, technology driven products, new industrial
equipment, outsourcing solutions and consulting services.

5. Product adoption stage behavior: innovators, early adopters,

laggards.
When you are selling new products you want to target the innovators
these are the companies continuously looking for ways to adopt new
products, processes and services and find new ways to improve their
business. On the other hand other businesses may focus on selling the
proven product and service concepts to the laggards.

6. Company organizational structure: centralized (corporate

decision making), decentralized (branch decision making).

For selling big ticket items in most cases you need to deal with corporate
buyers while in other cases you may want to target local buyers through
company branches and local offices.

For new businesses and new products / services it takes a certain degree
of experimenting with various segments and combination of segmentation
criteria and of course continuous improvement in your lead generation
and sales. While there is no right way and wrong way in creating
customer segmentation in business to business, it takes time, analysis,
tracking results, testing and monitoring outcomes and ROI to develop
your ideal customer profile.

Q2. Discuss the difference between business to

business markets and consumer markets.

Answer:
BUSINESS TO BUSINESS BUSINESS TO CONSUMER
MARKET MARKET
Relationship Driven - Business in Product Driven - Whereas in
B2B markets are driven on case of B2C markets primary
relationship basis to carry on for objective is restricted to sell the
future and are not limited for product to the consumer
single transaction. assuring best services.
Maximize the value of the
Maximize the value of the
relationship - Focus here is to
transaction - Here Focus is
maximize the value of
to maximize the value of
relationship to carry on the
current transaction to increase
relationship for a longer period
sales.
of time.
 Large target market - In
Small, focused target market
B2C market focusing on
- With B2B markets the focus is
consumer the target market
limited to only a small target
becomes really large, to
group which is used for
gather maximum consumers
repetitive sales.
possible.
Multi-step buying process,
longer sales cycle - B2B
markets have a longer sales Single step buying process,
cycle including multi step shorter sales cycle
buying process transaction carry
on even after the sale is done
Brand identity created on Brand identity created through
personal relationship repetition and imagery
Educational and awareness Merchandising and point of
building activities purchase activities
Emotional buying decision
Rational buying decision based
based on status, desire, or
on business value
price

Q3. Explain 5 factors that affect success of new industrial

product in the market.

Answer:

New Product development Process

BUSINESS STRATEGY
Step
Exploration
1
Step
Idea Generation
2
Step
Concept Development
3
Step
Business Analysis
4
Step Screening &
5 Evaluation
Step
Development
6
Step
Market Testing
7
Step
Product Launch
8
Step
Post Launch Check up
9
COMMERCIALIOSED
PRODUCT

5 Factors that affect the success of a new product are :-

Matching Customer Needs

High Value to Customers

Innovation

Products Market Share

Government Regulations

Matching Customer Needs :- The Prime objective of any new

product development is to understand your customers wants and
matching their needs

Companies operate without clear and well defined understanding of their

customers need can affect the success of the product. Clearly we can
forget about profitable products if we do not understand our customers.

High Value To Customer:-A strong product management is

required to develop a product with high value to customer. At times the
lack of proper organizations and well defined product management
process is an extremely typical cause of inability.

Price is one of the most common objective, customers have. A high value
product is something that is worth more to customers than generic or
commodity product. The first step is selling high value products or
services are articles, blogs, and sales pitches have to speak directly to the
customers immediate need and concerns.

For a customer value is the difference between a prospective customer

valuation of the benefits and cost of one product when compared with
others. For a firm to deliver value to its customers they must consider
what is known as the total market offerings. Value can be thus, defined in
the relationship of a firms market offering to those of its competitions

VALUE = BENEFIT/COST

Innovation:-Innovation is a new idea, more effective device or

process.Innovation can be viewed as the application of better solutions
that meet new requirements, inarticulate needs, or existing market
needs.

This is accomplished through more

effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are
readily available to markets, governments and society. The term
innovation can be defined as something original and more effective and,
as a consequence, new, that "breaks into" the market or society

Every customer who is paying for a product expect it to be innovative,

better than the existing products in the market.

Products Market Share:- As the total market for a product or

service grows, a company that is maintain its market share is grooving
revenues at the same rate as the total market. Products market share
reflect the Revenue oh the firm. Higher the share higher revenue and visa
versa. A company that is growing its market share will be growing its
revenues faster.

The percentage of an industry or markets total sales that is earned by a

particular company over a specified period of time. Market share is
calculated by taking the companys sales of the industry over the same
period. This metric is used to give a general idea of the size of a company
to its market and competitors.

Company should aim at increasing their product share with higher sales.

Government Regulation :- Businesses can choose many different

models, styles and types of growth, but they are still structured and
directed by government regulations. A large number of laws affect
businesses, defining illegality and misconduct or setting financial and
operational codes for a business to follow.

The many business laws can be divided into several primary groups,
depending on what aspect of the business they affect.

Q4. Discuss the unique characteristics of B2B product

promotion?

Answer:
Business marketers generally avoid mass market broadcasts,
preferring instead communication channels aimed at specific
industries and business audiences.

B2B marketing promotional method differ from B2C brands use to

the specific needs and variable comprising the industrial business
market

Social media is fast becoming a promotional tool used to position

B2B brand in digital sphere

B2B companies also ensure their brands are represented at industry

events where potential customers meet B2B sellers.

Extensive research and budget analysis are conducted to determine

if specific promotional elements will achieve short term or long term
 marketing goals and contribute to the financial performance of the
organization.

B2B business use promotional methods unique to the industrial

business market. Like marketers and sales professionals use white
papers and product broachers to educate prospects and customers
about products or services

In addition, to trade shows and public conferences ,seminars and

workshops may also be held for potential and existing customers

Relationship building is a key aspect in B2B marketing as brand

loyalty and commitment tend to be higher among business
customers compared to consumers.

Hosting these seminars creates an aura of exclusively and presents

an intimate forum where individuals from B2B organizations can
voice concerns, submit feedback, and view product demonstrations.

B2B organizations tend to be more cautious than B2C brands in

using social media, more and more B2B companies are using sites
such as Facebook and LinkedIn to connect to customers

Moreover, B2B organizations also use social media for internal

communications to increase collaboration and productivity among
workers. Internal and external communications via social media can
also work concurrently, as employees often share information on
events, product releases, and industry and with other colleagues.