B2B_B2C

B2B versus B2C Marketing Paper Debora Proctor-McQueen University of Phoenix EBUS 400 Tarik Iles June 19, 2006 Workshop 4 Individual B2B versus B2C Marketing Paper The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast marketing of business to business and business to consumer websites. In addition, business to business and business to customer in the banking, and restaurant industry will be evaluated. Lastly, eBay and how it markets itself will be explored. B2B The Bank of America Website caters to business to business as well as business to customer client. On the business side, when logging into Bank of America’s business site, one of the features that they offer is called payroll direct and direct deposit. This enables the small business owner to manage his accounts payable with the feel of big business. The small business owner is also able to allow employee login with varied security levels. The client is also able to issue multiple credit cards to its employees and monitor its use through his or her business login. Ultimately, these offers are not available to the consumer level client. “Any company planning to seek out potential business-to-business customers will go where the action is: small to midsize businesses. They add up to a huge market for credit card companies offering business-use cards, insurance firms rounding out commercial portfolios, office furniture outlets with a sale on desks” (B2B Marketing Trends, 2006) It would be harder for Bank of America segment a business client as a result of the inability to build a profile. For example, multiple employees may have access to an account. It appears that it would be harder for Bank of America to build a profile based on the characteristics of the multiple users. The only way Bank of America could market to the small business owner is through the current marketing campaign targeted to the small business owner in general. B2B marketing are that business targets are harder to segment, they typically need far more details about a company's products or services prior to purchase and they usually take a longer time to reach a purchasing decision. Another key difference is that far more B2B purchases are finalized offline (emarketer, 2006). Another type of business to business online advertising would be the pay per click method. An example of this would be going to a search engine such as Google and typing in the search for cars. All of the links located to the extreme right column on Google are businesses that paid to be anchored there. The idea is that if a person is looking to purchase a car, and clicks on a sponsored link, the chances of that customer visiting that website and buying a car greatly increases. Pay per click advertising, the cost factor for this type of advertising is extremely small in comparison to other types, plus the ROI can be very good. There is research that shows there will be an increase in online spending and a reduction into Network TV ads (Professional Web Services, 2006). B2C B2C marketing campaigns are concerned with the transaction, are shorter in duration and need to capture the customer’s interest immediately. These campaigns often offer special deals, discounts, or vouchers that can be used both online and in the store (Vista Consulting, 2006). An example of this would be a customer shopping online for a restaurant. Some sites have an area where a customer can click a print a coupon that is redeemable in the restaurant for a discount. Another example would be an email direct marketing campaign. For instance, Papa Johns Pizza allows a customer to order online and have it delivered to the front door. By doing this, Papa Johns already has the customer’s email address and is in a position to market its campaigns to the individuals who order pizza online. EBay is another example of business to customer marketing. EBay seems to serve as a broker style website. EBay’s only inventory is its website. By eBay being a pure play website, their customers are the business owner and the client. Therefore, businesses that may not have a strong web presence are now able to compete and market their products to the world. This is due to the fact the eBay invests a lot of its revenue in keeping their web presence at a dominant level. “No matter what holiday product is hot--whether it's the Xbox 360 or iPod Nano--eBay wants people to know it's for sale at eBay, a site better known for hard-to-find collectibles and flea-market sales. That's the message of eBay's new national TV advertising campaign, which is only the third in the auctioneer's 10-year history and a relative rarity among surviving Web retailers” (Olsen, 2005). In conclusion, it seems that business to business websites especially banks target its market to the small business owner. Also, these offers are not available to consumers. In addition, pay per click is another method that business to business websites use which can have a significant effect on sales. On the other hand, business to consumer websites appears to be most concerned about the transaction and catching the interest of the consumer in a quick manner. Furthermore, business to consumer websites seems to offer more coupons and discounts than business to business sites. Reference: Emarketer. (2006). B2B Marketing: Making the Internet Integral in a Cross-Channel World. Retrieved June 17, 2006 from http://www.emarketer.com/Report.aspx'b2b_mktg_jul05 Hopkins, D. (2006). How to Put Direct Back into Direct Mail. B2B Marketing Trends. Retrieved June 18, 2006 from, http://www.b2bmarketingtrends.com/abstract.asp'id=214&groupid= Olsen, S. (2005, October 25). Ebay launches national TV ad campaign. Retrieved June 18, 2006 from, http://news.com.com/eBay+launches+national+TV+ad+campaign/2100-1024_3-5916234.html Vista Consulting. (2006). Marketing for B2B vs. B2C – Similar but Different. Retrieved June 17, 2006 from, http://www.vista-consulting.com/marketing-articles/b2b-b2c-marketing.htm