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Marketing And Supply Chain Differences B2B & B2C

B2B vs. B2C Marketing and Supply Chain
Lorraine Scott
E-Business
EBUS 400
Raejean Kyle
May 21, 2006


What are B2B and B2C?
B2B and B2C are two of the major categories of Electronic Commerce, or E-Commerce. (Schneider, 2004) B2B is the term used to describe Business-to-Business transactions that take place electronically, more specifically on the World Wide Web. (Schneider, 2004) B2C represents the Business-to-Consumer transactions that take place on the Web. (Schneider, 2004) From what I have read, I believe that Business-to-Business is one business selling, or attempting to sell products to another business, while Business-to-Consumer is a company that sells directly to individuals.
With these two different types of customer bases, the marketing methods used to reach and attract businesses can be quite different than those used to reach directly to individual consumers. This is an important step in marketing, for if you do not cater to your specific customer base, your customers will not be able to find you when they need you. As with the marketing, the supply chain of these companies can also be very different when dealing with different types of customers. Each supply chain must ultimately meet the needs of your customers, and in order to do that, the company must know what each customer wants and needs.
What is Marketing?
All too often people assume that marketing is another word for advertising. In reality, there is much more to marketing than just a billboard or magazine advertisement. According to Scott Donaton's article titled It's time to take a fresh look at the definition of marketing, he suggests that we possibly look for new words to describe the new marketing world in which we live. (Donaton, 2004) Donaton feels that the current definition of marketing can not truly define what marketing is in this day and age. It encompasses more than just the way companies bring their products to the consumers. (Donaton, 2004)
Karen...