B2B vs B2C Marketing

In a column titled "The 7 Key Differences Between Business-To-Business (B2B)And Consumer Marketing,(B2C)" Robert W. Bly described the six key factors that set business-to-business marketing apart from consumer marketing

They are:

The business buyer wants to buy.
The business buyer is sophisticated.
The business buyer is an information seeker who will read a lot of copy.
Business-to-business marketing involves a multi-step buying process.
The buying decision is frequently made by a committee and not by an individual.
Business products are generally more complex than consumer products.
The business buyer buys for his company's benefit - and his own.

A Full Version of this article may be found at http://www.nmoa.org/articles/dmnews/7differencesofbtobandconsumermarketing.htm.

Some of my comments coming from an Asian perspective are:

1. The buyer is sophisticated is often not true. More so they are bureaucratic, and are sticklers to procedures. The point about multiple decision makers is certainly relevant. Relationships need to be built with these joint decision makers..especially those in the user groups.

2. Whether business buyers are looking for a lot of information is situational. Often they may already have a a well developed specification and only need the technical specifications to make a decision.

Whether its a B2B or b2C the higher level of homework of research done the better the chances of closing a deal. The larger the potential deal the more the homework. They are flow business ie small deals, made without much consideration in both B2B and B2C businesses. The selling process for these may be fairly close.

Ultimately the selling process may be determined more by price and product complexity rather than BB2B or B2C.
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This article is written by Alex Har . Email; alexhyl@gmail.com. URL: http://www.one1.com.sg