How Business Markets Compare to Consumer Markets

The main differences between B2B and B2C are:

1. More decision-makers are involved. In the marketing literature those associated with the purchase decision are known to be part of a Buying Center, which consists of individuals within an organization that perform one or more of the following roles:

• Initiators, who first recognise the problem (determine that a need exists).

• Users, those who will actually use the product.

• Deciders, those who have real decision-making powers (have the power to make the final purchase decision).

• Influencers, whose opinions are listened to but who are not directly involved (has the ability to affect what is ordered such as setting order specifications (e.g., engineers, researchers, product managers).

• Buyers, who have the task of negotiating a final deal (responsible for dealing with suppliers and placing orders (e.g., purchasing agent).

• Gatekeepers, who control the flow of information (anyone who controls access to other Buying Center members (e.g., administrative assistant).

It is worth noting that the members of the decision-making unit are not necessarily mutually exclusive – a user can also be an influencer, or a gatekeeper can be an initiator, for example.

2. Professional buyers: in fact this can be misleading (оманливий) – although obviously industrial buyers are trained, and have great experience of buying within the product categories they deal with.

Unlike consumers, who often lack information when making purchase decisions, professional buyers are generally as knowledgeable about the product and the industry as the marketer who is selling to them.

3. Fewer buyers in most markets: an industrial sales rep might only have 20 or 30 regular customers, whereas (say) a home-improvement salesman might meet hundreds of customers in a single year.

4. Greater order sizes: businesses buy in much larger quantities(кількостях) than do individual consumers.

5. Demand (попит) is derived from consumer markets, and fluctuates (коливається) more as a result. If consumers are not buying, firms run their stocks (запас, асортимент) down and so they buy less than usual; when demand picks up, they not only have to supply consumers, but they also build stocks again, so they buy even more than usual.

6. Buying to specific requirements: industrial buyers often work to a detailed specification of what the firm needs, and cannot be persuaded otherwise: for example, if a buyer is sourcing components for a machine, they will have to fit with other components.

7. Risks: decision-makers risk more than just the money involved; they also risk their careers, or even their jobs.

8. Negotiation tends to be much more common. Negotiations may be about price, specifications, delivery, quantity, or payment terms.

9. Reciprocal (взаємний) buying: in some cases, firms are able to negotiate a deal whereby the selling firm agrees to buy some of the end product from the buying firm.

Besides there are:

· Decision Making Time:

Depending on the product, business purchase decisions can drag on (затягуватися) for an extensive period. Unlike consumer markets where impulse purchasing is rampant(шалений, невтримний), the number of people involved in business purchase decisions results in decisions taking weeks, months or even years.

· Promotional Focus:

Companies who primarily target consumers often use mass advertising methods to reach an often widely dispersed (розсіяний) market. For business-to-business marketers the size of individual orders, along with a smaller number of buyers, makes person-to-person contact by sales representatives a more effective means of promotion.

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