Customers buy products, such as machinery, chemicals and raw materials in industrial products; and acquire personal computers, furniture and other products in consumer markets. Therefore, instead of differentiating industrial markets and consumer markets based on the type of product sold, it is more useful to differentiate by customer being served and how the product is used. Marketing can apply to consumers, and in this case it comes to marketing B2C (business to consumer), often referred to simply as marketing or may apply to the business market, and in this case takes the name of marketing or industrial marketing B2B (business to business). The paper discusses the differences between both the types of marketing, in context of information technology industry.
Discussion
Business Marketing and Consumer Marketing
It is important to note that, with the passage of time, the vision of the Marketing has been extended and is no longer intended only as a body of techniques for specialists nor as the set of rules at the basis of the operation of the commercial function of an enterprise, but as a "philosophy" that must be internalized by all members of the organization based on the principle of sovereignty of the customer (marketing orientation) (Fawzy & Dworski 2011, pp. 120 - 156).
Industrial marketing is defined as the marketing to other businesses (companies, professionals, businesses, etc.) or organizations (government, public agencies, hospitals, associations etc.) as opposed to marketing to consumer, which is open to the general public.
It consists of all the organizations that acquire goods and services for other goods and services to others. The turnover of trade between companies account for nearly 70% of all trade. Business Marketing is therefore more important than that achieved on the retail market from consumer marketing. It is the use of the product rather than its nature that distinguishes good industrial commodity. Industrial marketing is therefore defined relative to markets not in relation to products or services.
Business marketing is a discipline that relates to the exchange of goods and services that intervene between organizations. Buyers, therefore, may be enterprises, non-profit, or public bodies that use the purchased goods and services to produce other goods and services to be transferred to third parties. In the marketing of consumer goods, the buyer is the final consumer and the benefits perceived by the customer directly derived from consumption of the product.
Business markets have some characteristics that imply a different approach to marketing policies and some interpretative models as those used for the markets consumer.
The first element is that the aggregate demand is of derivative nature that depends on the demand for the products of the purchasing that occurs downstream. From this follows the need to consider not only the immediate customer, but also the customer's account or even the end user, which can be much further down the supply chain. Therefore, the analysis of markets and policies of communication and promotion should be directed also to the markets of final products (Gillin & Schwartzman ...