Marketing to businesses is fundamentally different from marketing to individual consumers. Business to business (B2B) marketing usually involves a much longer and multifaceted sales cycle. Additionally, decision makers are usually highly involved as the stakes are high. Understanding the B2B process is vital for the success of businesses as there is increasing burden on managers to provide concrete results. Thus, decision making in the B2B context may be understood as individual psychology, small group psychology, or a large group psychology. Consequently, it is important to use apposite strategies to engage B2B customers.
Typically, B2B marketing encompasses marketing to both for-profit and non-profit businesses. Not-for-profit businesses include both government and non-government organizations. Thus, the B2B marketing process is longer and is largely driven by relationship marketing. Buying decisions are made more rationally as there are multiple influencers involved in decision making.
The demand can be for both B2B products and services. The B2B demand is both derived and joint, making it less elastic as compared to the demand for B2C products and services. Thus, B2B transactions are usually larger compared to B2C transactions, thus justifying a more direct and frequent contact between buyers and sellers.
The aforementioned existing difference between B2C and B2B marketing has led to the evolution of a new stream in marketing, i.e., B2B marketing. This book, B2B Marketing, eleventh edition, offers a comprehensive learning of various facets of B2B marketing and is meant to meet the requirements of management and commerce students of various universities across the country.
- A clear set of learning objectives provides a preview of the chapter material that follows.
- Discussion questions at the end of each chapter help in putting the theory into practice.
- Several real-life examples and cases from India and abroad are included in the chapters.
- Short illustrations present interesting B2B marketing issues around the world to demonstrate how marketing managers handle specific challenges from the global environment that are prevalent today.
- Research findings of learned scholars have been incorporated to provide support to the text, with special relevance to South-Asian context.
- Comprehensive case studies that illustrate B2B marketing ideas and problems confronted by actual firms are presented.
Chapter 1 A Business Marketing Perspective
Chapter 2 Organizational Buying Behavior
Chapter 3 Customer Relationship Management Strategies for Business Markets
Chapter 4 Segmenting the Business Market and Estimating Segment Demand
Chapter 5 Business Marketing Planning: Strategic Perspectives
Chapter 6 Business Marketing Strategies for Global Markets
Chapter 7 Managing Products for Business Markets
Chapter 8 Managing Innovation and New Industrial Product Development
Chapter 9 Managing Services for Business Markets
Chapter 10 Managing Business Marketing Channels
Chapter 11 Supply Chain Management
Chapter 12 Pricing Strategies for Business Markets
Chapter 13 Business Marketing Communications: Advertising and Sales Promotion
Chapter 14 Business Marketing Communications: Managing the Personal Selling Function
Chapter 15 Marketing Performance Measurement
Chapter Cases
Comprehensive Cases
Name Index
Subject Index
Michael D. Hutt
Michael D. Hutt (PhD, Michigan State University) is the Ford Motor Company Distinguished Professor of Marketing at the W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University. He has also held faculty positions at Miami University (Ohio) and the University of Vermont.
Dr. Hutt’s teaching and research interests are concentrated in the areas of business-to-business marketing and strategic marketing. His current research centers on the marketing–finance interface, particularly the application of financial portfolio theory to customer management. Dr. Hutt’s research has been published in the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, MIT Sloan Management Review, Journal of Retailing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and other scholarly journals. He is also the co-author of Macro Marketing (John Wiley & Sons) and contributing author of Marketing: Best Practices (South-Western).
Assuming a variety of leadership roles for American Marketing Association programs, Dr. Hutt co-chaired the Faculty Consortium on Strategic Marketing Management. He is a member of the editorial review boards of the Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and Journal of Strategic Marketing. For his 2000 contri¬bution to MIT Sloan Management Review, he received the Richard Beckhard Prize and in 2007, he was named the Outstanding Professor for Doctoral Programs by the W. P. Carey School of Business. Dr. Hutt has consulted on marketing strategy issues for firms such as IBM, Motorola, Honeywell, AT&T, Arvin Industries, ADT, and Black-Clawson, and for the food industry’s Public Policy Subcommittee on the Universal Product Code.
Dheeraj Sharma
Dr. Dheeraj Sharma is a faculty in Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India. He earned his doctoral degree with major marketing and double minor in psychology and quantitative analysis from Louisiana Tech University, USA. He has taught and presented research at numerous education institutions in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Dr. Sharma is American Marketing Association Doctoral Consortium Fellow and National Conference of Sales Management Doctoral Fellow. Dr. Sharma is also past associate editor of Journal of Marketing Channels. He is also past editor of the Academy of Marketing Science proceedings.
Dr. Sharma has over fifty publications in leading international journals, encyclopedias, books, and conference proceedings. Dr. Sharma’s publications have appeared and/or are accepted for publication in Advances in Marketing, Developments in Marketing, Business and Society Review, The Economic Times, Encyclopedia of Sports Management and Marketing, European Journal of Marketing, The Financial Express, International Journal of Emerging Markets, International Journal of Public Policy, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Journal of Marketing Channels, Journal of Marketing Education, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Product and Brand Management, Journal of International Business Strategy, Marketing Management Journal, New Technology Work and Employment, among other prominent publications.
Dr. Sharma has been involved in consulting projects or/and executive training with several multinational corporations such as ICI Paints, Globe Rangers LLC, Hero Cycles Ltd., First Merchants Bank of America, Ambuja Cements, Mahindra Navistar, Mahindra Truck and Buses Ltd., Tata Motors, Tata Teleservices Ltd., Tata Housing, Exide batteries, Central Warehousing Corporation, Life Insurance Company, Army Training Command (Ministry of Defense), Delhi Government, Gujarat Government, and Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs, among others. His expert views have been cited in many major international newspapers and TV channels.
Thomas W. Speh
Thomas W. Speh, PhD, is Professor of Marketing Emeritus and Associate Director of MBA Programs at the Farmer School of Business, Miami University (Ohio). Dr. Speh earned his PhD from Michigan State University. Prior to his tenure at Miami, Dr. Speh taught at the University of Alabama.
Dr. Speh has been a regular participant in professional marketing and logistics meetings and has published articles in a number of academic and professional journals, including the Journal of Marketing, Sloan Management Review, Harvard Business Review, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences, Journal of Business Logistics, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management, and Industrial Marketing Management. He was the recipient of the Beta Gamma Sigma Distinguished Faculty award for excellence in teaching at Miami University’s School of Business and of the Miami University Alumni Association’s Effective Educator award.
Dr. Speh has been active in both the Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC) and the Council of Logistics Management (CLM). He has served as president of WERC and as president of the CLM. Dr. Speh has been a consultant on strategy issues to such organizations as Xerox, Procter & Gamble, Burlington Northern Railroad, Sara Lee, J. M. Smucker Co., and Millenium Petrochemicals, Inc.
