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What are the biggest differences between B2B and B2C marketing?
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5 Answers
Dear Craig,
* For B2B marketing the prospects are always business firms where as B2C marketing prospects are either individual customers or business firms.
* Psychology of the corporate buyer is always different from individual customers, so B2B requires high degree of professionalism than B2C.
* The scope and width of B2B marketing is limited where as B2C, it has more wider scope and width.
* B2B products or services may be having high risk involved due to manufacturing of tools and equipments for making other equipments etc. So same risk factor will be there in marketing.
* Tools and techniques used for B2B campaigns might be different from B2C and vice verca.
* If we consider profit margins, B2B marketing may have less margins than B2C as B2B product or service may a production feed.
* For B2B marketing obviously more skilled professionals needed where as with same momentum, B2C need less skilled professionals (This is not always true).
* B2B involves credits, so the establishment of relations and getting trust etc are time consuming. Where as in B2B, credits are normally not present in a business context.
* In B2B corporate user's taste may not change frequently, but in B2C end consumer's taste may change any time.
* Product standards and versions might (not necessary) require changes or upgrades as per the industry behavior and consumer taste, which is a challenge in B2C. Since the change in taste is not frequent in B2B, it might not require upgrades frequently.
* In B2B money can be floating due to uncertainty in invoicing and bill payment. But in B2C money is stable (most cases).
More differences are there...
Regards,
Najeem M Illyas
Enterprise Architect,
Ed Ventures
Hi Craig,
First, I've not done a lot in B2C, so I want to be transparent about that. I have done a lot of B2B marketing, and as I move into content and social media, I find myself comparing the two more frequently. Some observations I have regarding the differences:
1. B2B marketing is about finding and connecting to a very specific type of person. This makes it easier in some ways, because the more narrow your market, the fewer places you have to look. The better you get at defining those places, the better you will get at finding the prospect(s). Some B2C marketing can be included here, like makers of golf or ski equipment, who market to a consumer, but one with a well-defined profile. To use a metaphor, B2B marketing is looking for a needle in a haystack. As for B2C, I think the metaphor (analogy?) is throwing mud against a wall! Some of it is bound to stick, and the faster/better you get at figuring that out, the more effective you will be. Are you throwing the 'right mud' (the right messages, offers, etc.) and is it the 'right wall" (age / gender / income / whatever).
2. B2B marketing is very much about 'me, me, me' and B2C marketing is more about you, you, you. Just look at B2B marketing materials: Invariably the language will be 'Our products', 'Our people', 'We are good at this', 'We do that', etc. Then look at/listen to consumer marketing, which is more like, 'You want to look good', 'Aren't you tired of this?', 'You need that', your desire, your concern, etc.
3. The goals/objectives are different. Primarily, I think B2B is about fulfilling needs and B2C is about fulfilling wants. There is overlap, and it's not SO black and white, but I think that's the biggest difference. Businesses aren't likely to buy on a whim, but consumers often do!
4. A B2B customer rarely if ever makes a purchase based solely on marketing, while a B2C customer often makes a purchase based solely on marketing. In B2B, a sales person is usually involved. In B2C a sales person is usually just somebody who completes the transaction. Again, this is not always the case, and increasingly the lines are blurring - I think the innovators on both the B2B and B2C sides are the companies who are looking at/trying ways to cross over.
As a B2B marketer myself, I'm trying to adopt more B2C behaviors - especially in social media and content marketing, there's a lot of good to borrow from!
Regards,
Cate Houdek
www.contentb2b.com
@Catherine: Your 4th point is very very valid one.
Hi Craig!
BtoC
Two parties: seller, individual or household
Budget usually is “binary” yes or no
Involves real money
Risk is personal loss and/or dissatisfaction
BtoB
Minimum three parties: seller, direct contact, “the company”
Budget usually is analog: timing, allocation, approval
Involves budget, not real money
Risk is embarrassment or loss of job
I often wonder if we'd be more successful at B2B marketing if we thought of it more like B2C. In the end, we're selling to people, not businesses. People make the decisions, based on a mix of personal interests, professional aspirations, politics, etc. Yes, there's value for the business and the end-customers in a B2B decision. But that's still driven by personalities, individual needs, human translations of a business concept or potential outcome.
And it goes both ways. Nobody likes to get an email from a company. We'd prefer to get an email from a person AT that company. Open rates in emails between the two instances prove this again and again. But in so many cases, we still pretend that a building is selling something to another building. Doesn't always work too well that way.
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