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Marketing Differences: B2B Vs. B2C

Marketing Differences: B2B vs. B2C
Marketing is an important part of any business whether the business is the traditional ‘brick and mortar' or web based. The term marketing usually summons images of consumer goods and advertising of products. (Oliva) In marketing to an individual customer or to another business, one of the most important things for a business to do is establish good relationships. An internet business owner needs to be able to determine how to best reach the customers and supply what the customers with what they want just like a traditional ‘brick and mortar' operation does.
The terms B2B and B2C were created to differentiate Internet commerce businesses that sell primarily to consumers those businesses that sell primarily to other businesses. The terms definitions have expanded to refer to any business who sells primarily to the customer (B2C) or to other businesses (B2B), both online and offline. Even though the marketing programs are the same for each type of business, the outcome of the marketing activities are different. (Murphy, D.)
B2B and B2C differ greatly from one another in many ways however the first step in developing a marketing plan for B2B is similar to the first step in a B2C plan: identify who the customer is and why they need to hear the message of the business. After that, the marketing plans differ.
Business to Consumer
Business to Consumer or B2C refers to buying and selling products or services online from the retailer to the consumer. The major characteristics of B2C are that businesses try to establish a direct relationship with consumers without involving distributors, dealers, or wholesalers. In B2C marketing the target customer is usually the public, the relationship will be generally non-existent and dealings will be completed online with out the use of a sales representative. A B2C site is usually set up like a store where the consumer can search through different products and purchase a...