IntroductionMarketing is an important part of any business, whether on the World Wide Web or not. Basically marketing is the linking of a producer (or potential producer) of any given service or product offered with customers, both existing and potential. This is also true for all online businesses that conduct between businesses to consumer (B2C) or business to business (B2B). Marketing research is formed thru several social sciences, particularly psychology, sociology, and economics. A creative minded person, generally one who has studied creative arts in a higher education institution handles the advertising aspect of marketing (nowsell.com 2005). Along with a marketer having gr ...view middle of the document...
Once this has been determined, the B2B and B2C marketing programs diverge (Murphy, 2002).B2B Marketing PlanThe B2B marketing plan normally tries to convert potential prospects into actual customers. This marketing campaign tends to be a long and very involved process. The B2B will focus on building a solid relationship with leads of the prospective business that can eventually be converted into a customer and an actual sale. The B2B marketing programs attempt to educate many different groups in the target audience since in a B2B the decision to purchase products normally involves many individuals from a company. As an example, in an email campaign the object is to have prospects go to the B2B's website to learn more about the product's features, benefits and the B2B's services that can be provided. (B2b Vs B2c Email, 2008).B2C Marketing PlanThe marketing plan for a B2C will focus on turning a shopper into a buyer. The B2C marketing plan tends to be aggressive and consistent in order to always covey the same message to the consumer. The marketing tools used consist of coupons, offers and web displays in order to sway the consumer into buying the B2C's products. An email marketing campaign for a B2C would be directed at getting the customer to buy the product immediately. Normally a B2C email marketing campaign would direct the consumer to a website designed to see and easily purchase the product. (Murphy, 2002).The major characteristic of B2C is that companies try to create a direct relationship with consumers without the involvement of intermediaries such as distributors, wholesalers and dealers. In B2C marketing the target customer is generally the public and a product or service is trying to be sold. The relationship will be generally non-existent and transactions will be done online without consulting a sales representative. The B2C site generally is set up like a store where the end-user can browse thru products, get a description, see a picture (in most cases), and ultimately purchase the product at their leisure. Usually (with exception to auctioning sites) the price stated on a site is fixed and cannot be negotiated, there are exceptions to this. These sites are often busy and packed with information, flashing icons, colors and other tactics to attract a potential buyer to an item for sale.Customer TypesThe type of customer of a B2B as compared to a B2C is also different. The buyer at a B2B tends to be more sophisticated and they tend to know the product better than the B2B themselves. These customers also require the product in order to be able to sell their product. The B2B customer is interested in the product because this customer wants to be profitable and successf...
