Page 139 - 100 Great Business Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

58 BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS
MARKETING

An organization marketing products or services to other
businesses (to use either in the production of their final products or
to support their operations) is known as business-to-business (b2b)
marketing. By differentiating this from consumer marketing you
can better understand the unique demands of b2b marketing and
increase the likelihood of success.

The idea

Business marketing may appear to be a small niche within the
larger field of advertising. However, it is an area of surprising
significance—more than $60 million is spent daily by companies
such as GE, DuPont, and IBM to support their operations. Arguably,
the potential of business marketing exceeds that of consumer
marketing: the purchases made by businesses, government agencies,
and institutions account for more than half of the economic activity
in industrialized countries. As a discipline, business marketing has
seen an impressive growth in popularity, with more than half of
marketing majors now choosing to begin their careers in business
marketing rather than consumer marketing.

In practice

To achieve success in business marketing, it is useful to understand
how its methods differ from those of traditional consumer
marketing:

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