Business Marketing

Business Marketing
Business Marketing has evolved to
indicate the marketing of any product or service to an organization that is
involved in the production of products and services for others, regardless of
ownership. 
Nature of Business Marketing:
The issues which business
marketers face are significantly different than those that face marketers of
consumer products or services.  The
fundamentals, of course, are similar. 
That is, all marketers are concerned with the selection of target
markets, with segmentation within these markets, and with decisions regarding
product, promotion, pricing and distribution.
The nature of organizational
buying, characterized by multiple influences, professional buyers and long term
relationships, is very different from that of consumer buying.  Because organizations buy in order to achieve
organizational purposes, there is more emphasis on functionality.  As a result, most products and services
produced to meet the needs of organizations find markets in many countries.  Selection of markets, the critical decision,
has the horizontal dimension of consumer goods plus a vertical dimension. 
Business Marketing Strategy:
At the heart of Business
Marketing is the formulation of strategy; strategy that takes into account the
nature of demand for the particular product or service, the industry in which
the firm competes and events and trends in the broader external
environment.  Marketing strategy,
however, is not conceived in an organizational vacuum.  Its purpose is to assist the firm to achieve
its objectives.  It must take into
account the capabilities and aspirations of the firm and it must work closely
and in harmony with other functional strategies.
Business Products and Services
Business marketing strategy is
also influenced by the characteristics of the product or service itself,
irrespective of the target market.  A
number of classification schemes have been developed to further identify the
nature of these goods and services, as a basis for better understanding the nature
of the purchasing process for them and thus developing marketing strategy.  Most classification schemes include the
following:
Raw materialsManufactured materialsComponentsservices
Marketing Strategy and Planning:
There is only one valid definition
of business purpose: to create a customer. 
Markets are managed by people not created by God, nature, or economic
forces. That want a business satisfies may have been felt by customers before
they were offered the means of satisfying it – but it remained a potential want
until the action of business people converted it into effective demand.
The marketing concept holds that
the purpose of a business is –or should be – to satisfy the wants and needs of
its customers better than its competitors and at a profit.  This requires the collective efforts of all
those in the organization.  Guiding these
collective efforts is the role of business strategy.  Marketing strategy may guide the development
of business strategy but it also supports it and work in harmony with other
functional strategies.
Typically, business strategies
establish broad business objectives, indicate the scope of the business, in
terms of products and markets, and identify the principal technologies and
source of competitive advantage.  The
components of business strategy are usually the functional strategies.  These include a marketing strategy, which
deals with target markets and the actions necessary to reach them effectively;
a manufacturing strategy, which deals with make or buy decisions, plant size
and manufacturing processes; a research and development or engineering
strategy, which addresses such issues