Marketing: Helping Buyers Buy CHAPTER 13 381

FIGURE 13.7 COMPARING BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS AND CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR

Business-to-business Market Consumer Market

Market Relatively few potential customers Many potential customers

Structure
Larger purchases Smaller purchases
Geographically concentrated Geographically dispersed
Products Require technical, complex products Require less technical products
Frequently require customization Sometimes require customization
Frequently require technical advice, delivery, Sometimes require technical advice, delivery,
and after-sale service and after-sale service
Buyers are trained No special training
Buying Negotiate details of most purchases Accept standard terms for most purchases
Procedures
Follow objective standards Use personal judgment
Formal process involving specific employees Informal process involving household members
Closer relationships between marketers and buyers Impersonal relationships between marketers and
consumers
Often buy from multiple sources Rarely buy from multiple sources

example, of the many ways to use Facebook, Google, and other new technolo-
gies in marketing. As you read through the following marketing chapters, con-
sider whether a marketing career would interest you.

test prep help retain

Use LearnSmart toned. Access
• Can you define the terms con
terms
rm consumer
nsumer market and business-to-business what you have learonnect course to
market? your instructor's Cmart, or go to
• Can you name and describe five ways to segment the consumer check out LearnS ge.com for help.
market? learnsmartadvanta
• What is niche marketing, and how does it differ from one-to-one
marketing?
• What are four key factors that make B2B markets different from con-
sumer markets?

summary
Define marketing, and apply the marketing concept to both for-profit and
LO 13–1
nonprofit organizations.

• What is marketing?
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating,
communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for
customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
 382 PART 5 Marketing: Developing and Implementing Customer-Oriented Marketing Plans

• How has marketing changed over time?

ctor's During the production era, marketing was largely a distribution function.
A ccess you r instru k Emphasis was on producing as many goods as possible and getting them to
chec
Connect cou rs e to to markets. By the early 1920s, during the selling era, the emphasis turned to
go
out LearnSmart or m selling and advertising to persuade customers to buy the existing goods
produced by mass production. After World War II, the tremendous demand
ge.co
learnsmartadvanta for goods and services led to the marketing concept era, when businesses
for help. recognized the need to be responsive to customers’ needs. During the 1990s,
marketing entered the customer relationship era, focusing on enhancing
customer satisfaction and stimulating long-term customer loyalty. Today
marketers are using mobile/on-demand marketing to engage customers.
• What are the three parts of the marketing concept?
The three parts of the marketing concept are (1) a customer orientation,
(2) a service orientation, and (3) a profit orientation (that is, marketing
goods and services that will earn a profit and enable the firm to survive and
expand).
• What kinds of organizations are involved in marketing?
All kinds of organizations use marketing, including for-profit and nonprofit
organizations like states, charities, churches, politicians, and schools.

LO 13–2 Describe the four Ps of marketing.

• Ho do marketers
How m implement the four Ps?
The idea behind the four Ps is to design a product people want, price it
competitively, place it where consumers can find it easily, and promote it
so consumers know it exists.

LO 13–3 Summarize the marketing research process.

• What are the steps in conducting marketing research?

(1) Define the problem or opportunity and determine the present situation,
(2) collect data, (3) analyze the data, and (4) choose the best solution.

LO 13–4 Show how marketers use environmental scanning to learn about the
changing marketing environment.

• What is environmental scanning?

Environmental scanning is the process of identifying factors that can
affect marketing success. Marketers pay attention to all the environmental
factors that create opportunities and threats.
• What are some of the more important environmental trends in marketing?
The most important global and technological change is probably the
growth of the Internet and mobile marketing. Another is the growth of
consumer databases, with which companies can develop products and ser-
vices that closely match consumers’ needs. Marketers must monitor social
trends like population growth and shifts to maintain their close relation-
ship with customers. They must also monitor the dynamic competitive and
economic environments.

LO 13–5 Explain how marketers apply the tools of market segmentation, relationship
marketing, and the study of consumer behavior.

• What are some of the ways marketers segment the consumer market?
Geographic segmentation means dividing the market into different regions.
Segmentation by age, income, and education level is demographic
 Marketing: Helping Buyers Buy CHAPTER 13 383

segmentation. We study a group’s values, attitudes, and interests using psy-

chographic segmentation. Determining which benefits customers prefer
and using them to promote a product is benefit segmentation. Separating
the market by usage is called volume segmentation. The best segmentation
strategy is to use all the variables to come up with a consumer profile for
a target market that’s sizable, reachable, and profitable.
• What is the difference between mass marketing and relationship marketing?
Mass marketing means developing products and promotions to please
large groups of people. Relationship marketing tends to lead away from
mass production and toward custom-made goods and services. Its goal is
to keep individual customers over time by offering them products or ser-
vices that meet their needs.
• What are some of the factors that influence the consumer decision-making
process?
Factors that influence the consumer decision-making process include
learning, reference group, culture, subculture, and cognitive dissonance.

LO 13–6 Compare the business-to-business market and the consumer market.

• What makes
ma the business-to-business market different from the consumer
market?
Customers in the B2B market are relatively few and large. B2B markets
tend to be geographically concentrated, and industrial buyers generally
are more rational than ultimate consumers in their selection of goods and
services. B2B sales tend to be direct, and there is much more emphasis on
personal selling than in consumer markets.

key terms
benefit segmentation 377 geographic product 368
brand name 368 segmentation 377 promotion 369
business-to-business marketing 362 psychographic
(B2B) market 375 marketing concept 364 segmentation 377
consumer market 375 marketing mix 366 relationship
customer relationship marketing research 370 marketing 378
management (CRM) 364 market segmentation 376 secondary data 370
demographic mass marketing 378 target marketing 376
segmentation 377 niche marketing 377 test marketing 368
environmental one-to-one marketing 378 volume (or usage)
scanning 372 segmentation 377
primary data 371
focus group 371

critical thinking
1. When businesses buy goods and services from other businesses, they usu-
u-
ally buy in large volume. Salespeople in the business-to-business market
usually are paid on a commission basis; that is, they earn a certain per-
centage of each sale they make. Why might B2B sales be a more finan-
cially rewarding career area than consumer sales?

2. Industrial companies sell goods such as steel, lumber, computers, engines,

parts, and supplies. Name three such companies.