Business

Branding can make a difference in B2B markets

By D. Murali and Raj Menon
Business-to-business or B2B marketing may not be visible to most of us, happening as it does, away from the barrage of
ad spots on primetime TV.
For starters, B2B means business that sells products or provides services to other businesses, as
www.marketingterms.com defines. For example, a company that makes chicken feed would sell it to a chicken farm,
another company, rather than directly to consumers, explains Wikipedia. A business-to-consumer (B2C) transaction, in
this example, would be a consumer buying grain-fed chickens at a grocery store. Business-to-government or public
administration is B2G.
B2B marketing is generally considered to be more complex than B2C marketing, as there is often more than one
decision-maker involved in a B2B sale on the buyers side, notes http://en.wikipedia.org.
What then is the most influential factor in B2B marketing strategy? It would be easy to say something like personal
selling excellence, or managing your distributors effectively, or other similar things, say Ross Brennan, Louise E.
Canning and Raymond McDowell, the authors of Business-To-Business Marketing (www.sagepublications.com).
These things are certainly important. But in a sense they are all part of one and the same basic thing, namely that
success in B2B markets can only be achieved through and with other businesses, they add, in an email interaction with
Business Line.
The more successfully you develop and exploit your relationships with a whole range of other businesses, the more
effective your strategy will be. So the fundamentally most important factor has to be the ability to manage relationships
between businesses effectively.
Excerpts from the interview.
How important is branding or brand management in B2B marketing?
There is some evidence that branding can make a difference in B2B markets. For example, even in a so-called commodity
market like steel, most people would rather buy from Tata than from anybody else certainly they prefer the Tata brand
to a medium-sized family steel mill that theyve never heard of. But this is not the same kind of branding that you find in
B2C markets, where people want Nike shoes because of the fashion statement.
This is because the B2B brand stands for quality, reliability, and performance. And, of course, if you are selling to a
company that is itself selling to final consumers, then branding can become even more important. People want to buy
computers built with Intel chips, and they want to buy cars with Goodyear (or Pirelli, or Dunlop) tires on them. So you
mustnt neglect branding in B2B marketing.
How would you differentiate B2B marketing from consumer marketing?
We have addressed B2B marketing in two important ways. First, as a variant of consumer marketing, so that B2B
marketing is much the same as B2C marketing but with adaptations to the various elements of the marketing mix for
example, less emphasis on mass advertising and more emphasis on personal selling.

Secondly, we have addressed B2B marketing as quite a different kind of activity from B2C marketing, with a central focus
on the inter-firm relationships and business networks within which firms have to operate.
Generally, the first of these views is associated with the American approach to marketing, while the second is associated
with the European approach. We argue that, in fact, your B2B marketing strategy must take into account both of these
perspectives. There is no single right way to do B2B marketing. You need to think about the marketing mix, and you need
to think about relationships and networks as well.
What metrics are the most relevant for B2B marketing?
We have a great deal of sympathy for the value-based marketing movement, which was pioneered by the late Professor
Peter Doyle. Marketers have often neglected corporate goals and have focused on metrics such as sales growth and
market share, without necessarily demonstrating that these metrics contribute directly to shareholder value growth.
Marketers should not forget about the traditional marketing metrics, but they must also be aware of shareholder value
(that is, the long-term value of the business to its equity-holders), and the relationship between marketing metrics and
shareholder value.
How effective is B2B approach in services?
The service sector is growing worldwide. Service industries are making up a larger and larger part of the worlds gross
domestic product (GDP). In many countries the service sector is easily the largest sector the economy this is even true
in countries which you might think were manufacturing countries, like Germany, or agricultural countries, like Ireland.
So we emphasise throughout our book that the ideas and techniques we use are designed equally for service companies,
just as much as for manufacturing companies. Service companies need to adopt a systematic approach to their B2B
marketing, just as much as manufacturing companies.
What are the challenges faced by the B2B marketing method?
There are two main challenges. First, marketing in B2B markets is really about engaging the whole of the company it is
a truly strategic activity. For example, in order to manage your relationships with your top customers as effectively as
possible, you have to hire the best key account managers well, it isnt the marketing department that does the hiring,
is it? But the marketing department needs to be plugged into the human resource department to say, look, here is the
marketing strategy we are trying to implement, and so we need this kind of person to do it.
Second, and this is a related point, often in B2B companies the marketing function is held in fairly low esteem. This
makes it difficult for the marketers to have the influence that they need to have at the top management level, in order to
achieve the strategic level. So marketing is relegated to a few leaflets and the web site, rather than being engaged in
the top-level strategy of the company.
Now, marketers have to do something about this themselves. One thing that they can do is to use the right words if the
top managers want to hear about the impact of marketing strategy on shareholder value, then make sure you can tell
them!
Is there potential for B2B marketing in Indian markets?
Oh, for sure there is! Absolutely! Whether we are talking about exporters trying to sell to overseas businesses, or
importers who are selling to Indian businesses, or companies that deal only with Indian companies, they all need to think
about a systematic B2B marketing strategy.
It is perhaps most obvious when you are exporting from India to overseas countries whether you are exporting
manufactured goods or services. When you are trying to enter overseas markets, success is all about establishing the
right business relationships and networks. Now, of course, the way people do business in Germany, or the UK, or the US,
is not always the same as the way people do business in India.
How can you establish an effective working relationship with a German agent or distributor? Or, if you are a software
company, for example, how do you go about building trust with a potential client from America who wants to know if you
can really deliver high quality software to tight deadlines and on budget? Even if you know that you have excellent staff,

with terrific qualifications, who work tremendously hard to meet the clients brief, how do you convince the guys in
Chicago that you can do it?
Does B2B marketing call for skills different from B2C marketing?
Yes that does seem to be the case. B2C marketing is very largely about managing the marketing mix. Even in recent
years, with the development of relationship marketing in B2C markets, the truth is that most of the marketing that takes
place is impersonal and at arms length. And you are dealing with people who buy what they like, or want, often on the
basis of the current fashions. But in B2B marketing you are often dealing with a small group of professionals
professional buyers, professional engineers, professional quality managers, and so on who are not terribly impressed by
the latest fashions, but only want to know how what you can do for them is going to improve their companys bottom line.
Have there been major failures in B2B marketing? And what have been the lessons therefrom?
The most prominent failures in B2B marketing have occurred where companies have acted in unethical ways. For
example, the explosives industry in the US in the 1980s, when a number of very prominent businesses were fined heavily
for engaging in price fixing.
Now, the quick lesson from that is dont do price-fixing, or maybe if you do price-fixing, then make sure you dont get
caught! But there is a deeper lesson as well, which goes to the heart of B2B marketing, and it is that there are no quick
fixes in B2B marketing.
The point is that developing enduring relationships with other firms is time-consuming, frustrating, and just downright
difficult. You cant do good B2B marketing by sitting round a table having a fun brainstorming session. Do the
brainstorming if you want, but success will only come from a great deal of hard work. Anyone who has worked in the B2B
field, as we all have, knows that it takes time, hard work, experience and maybe a bit of luck to succeed.
Short bios of the three authors of Business-To-Business Marketing:
Ross Brennan, PhD (Manchester), MSc (London), BA (Cambridge), is Reader in Marketing at Middlesex University Business
School. He obtained managerial experience in marketing and strategic management in the telecommunications industry
before entering the academic profession. Ross research interests include B2B and strategic marketing, marketing
pedagogy, and the academic-practitioner divide in marketing and management.
Louise Canning, PhD (UWE Bristol), MBA (Bradford University), BA (Portsmouth) in French studies, is Lecturer in
Marketing at Birmingham University. She held international sales and marketing positions in the steel and engineering
industries before embarking on a career in higher education. Her research interests include environmental issues as well
as various aspects of relationship management in B2B markets.
Ray McDowell heads the Marketing Department at Bristol Business School. His industrial background in collaborative
research projects sparked an interest in B2B relationships that remains at the centre of his research and continuing
professional development focus. His current interest is in how companies organise themselves for the relationships they
pursue with counterparts.