What B-to-C Marketers Can Learn From the B-to-B World†

Five Strategies Behind Smart, Complex Brand Models

Advertising Age, October 13, 2008 — In today's consumer economy, price is becoming a bigger driver of purchase decisions, elbowing its way past all the lifestyle attributes we've worked so hard to associate with our brands.

Maybe it's time to look at those who've lived — and learned to thrive — in such dire circumstances. B-to-C, meet B-to-B.

B-to-B marketers are instead building smart, complex brand models that are based on the very business behaviors that are changing their companies.

Social Networks Get Down to Business

Think of them as digital water coolers—surrounded by thousands of workers engaged in serious business conversations.

eMarketer, August 18, 2008 — Do business and socializing mix?

Apparently so. As the number of business users of social networks continues to increase, advertising expenditures will rise, too. In the US this year, advertisers will spend $40 million to reach a business audience on online social networks, and that is just the beginning. According to eMarketer projections, that ad spending will reach $210 million in 2012.

Regarding Media, B2B Marketers and Business Decision-Makers Don’t See I2I

Marketing Charts, November 14, 2007 — The media that B2B marketers rely on to sell products and services aren’t necessarily those that business decision-makers use to help them do their jobs, according to (PPT slideshow) a Forrester Research study conducted for American Business Media, writes B-to-B Magazine.

Use of new media between B2B & B2C

KenRadio, September 6, 2007 — While B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer) marketers are both embracing new media platforms, there are some marked differences in their usage, goals and, perhaps most important, budgeting for new media. B2B and B2C marketers plan to increase their new media budgets this year, with 78% of B2C marketers and 66% of B2B marketers reporting budget increases for new media. Only 3% of B2B respondents said they planned to spend less on new media this year, according to a new study by B2B Magazine.

Word-of-Mouth in B2B

C-level execs want to hear it in person.

eMarketer, May 17, 2007 — Word-of-mouth (WOM) gets executives to buy, according to the "Driving Word of Mouth Advocacy Among Business Executives: The Experiential Marketing Connection" report, conducted by the Keller Fay Group and sponsored by Jack Morton Worldwide. Half of those surveyed said that WOM would both get them to buy and pass along the word themselves.