Business Article

Article for a Business Magazine



Article for a Business Magazine

The majority of the budget for business-to-business marketing is typically spent on personal selling activities. Face-to-face contact is necessary in order to establish the trust and familiarity necessary to build customer relationships. The majority of promotional activity expenditures for business-to-business promotions are on trade show participation requirements, followed by internet and electronic media costs. There are also costs associated with providing dealer/distributorship support materials. Business consumers are characterized as being educated about their product purchases and therefore seek specification-based information. There is a need for rational justifications and therefore it seems more likely that attributes relating to service, quality, price, reliability, and performance would be stressed in the advertising for a product or company.

However, advertising in specialized trade journals is an important tactic that is playing a greater role in the overall business-to-business marketing communication plan. Business-to-business advertising tends to feature people less often, be less emotional, be facts-and features-focused, and have more informational content than typical consumer ads. The industrial ad has been described as being more rational than the consumer ad. Ads for industrial products also contained more copy discussing product benefits and performance. Informational appeals found in business-to-business advertising center around the needs for removing problems, avoiding problems, reducing incomplete satisfaction, or alleviating normal depletion. Informational advertising seeks to change attitudes or beliefs based on the rational presentation of information concerning the product.

R. Lohtia, W. J. Johnston, and L. Aab have identified four dimensions of a successful business-to-business ad. The dimensions identified were characteristics of the ad, the reader's feelings about their relationship with the ad, the selling proposition, and the company's visibility. The importance of explaining the product and the benefits of using the product in the industrial ad are stressed, as well as providing information concerning product performance and quality. For example, if the product is one that clearly has technical performance advantages, such as a computer, and the audience is an engineering community, then the advertising should encourage information and arguments that make the consumer actively think about that product over the alternative.

On the other hand, if marketing the computer to an audience that does not understand the technical differences, then the advertisement should focus on peripheral cues, such as the spokesperson and the image of computer ownership. For example, Nike uses Tiger Woods as a spokesperson for its golf balls so that the consumer buys Nike golf balls because they want to play golf like Tiger. The golf balls may be made of the same materials, same compression, and same hardness as other balls, but Nike wants the consumer to buy without too much thinking. The golf ball manufacturer is concerned about whether the raw materials it is purchasing will provide the performance necessary to meet the needs of Nike. Given the reported sophistication of industrial buyers and the high financial and operational risk associated with purchasing decisions, one would expect an advertising strategy for industrial products to consist of producing high involvement, informational ...