Question
What are the key differences between B2B and B2C marketing?
Answer
On one hand, Business-to-Consumer (B2C) marketing is the process of an organisation marketing its product or service directly to consumers, who are the end user of the product. On the other hand, Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing is where an organisation will market their product or service to another organisation, so that organisation can use the product in their production processes (e.g. raw materials), for general business operations (e.g. office furniture), or for selling to other customers (e.g. a wholesaler selling to a retailer).
Emotional factors can play a significant part in the consumer’s decision to purchase a product, however with business to business the purchasing decision does not involve emotional attachment as much, and are more task-oriented. Business consumers often search for specific product attributes such as productivity and quality. Business to business marketing usually requires shorter and more direct distribution channels in order to reach their target audiences, rather than business-to-consumer, which usually requires marketers to commit a large amount of their budgets via advertising.
