Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Marketing in a Consumer Market vs. Business Market


Markets fall into two categories: consumer markets and business markets. A consumer market consists of purchasers and household members who intend to consume or benefit from the purchased products and they do not buy products to make profits. Business markets consist of individuals or groups that purchase a specific kind of product for resale, direct use in producing other products, or use in general daily operations. One can imagine the marketing strategies for these two markets have to be different since the needs, wants and buying procedures are different for the markets. Generally business markets are more likely to be price driven and consumer markets are more brand driven. Therefore, a company selling to another business may want to focus more on promoting why what they have to offer is worth the price, and have the price be the focus of their advertising. Whereas a company selling to a consumer may want to focus more on promoting their brand name, making it the focus of their advertisements. Also, for consumer markets the customer is usually very distant from the manufacturer/company making the product therefore businesses in consumer markets need to use mass communication and distribution tools to market their products/services. In business markets on the other hand, the customer is much closer and the manufacturer has a lot more knowledge of the customer and may market through personal selling techniques rather than mass communication. 

Do you think companies in a consumer market spend more money on marketing than companies in a business market?

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