Differences in Buyer Motivation for Marketing
Website Design Must Consider B2C vs. B2B Expectations
Jan 15, 2009
Electronic media are able to reach more people, at greater distances than ever before imaginable. Business-to-business and business-to-consumer oriented companies have a wide range of options when developing web-based marketing strategies.
Murphy’s (2006) article for Vista Consulting outlines these differences by analyzing the mindset of the respective buyers. The major points in Murphy’s article combine with insight derived from the Schneider (2004) text, Electronic Commerce, the Second Wave to provide an overview of the differences in buyer motivation.
B2C
- Murphy suggests that customers making purchases for personal reasons, and those making purchases for business reasons are motivated by different factors.
- Customers making personal purchases will look for brand names they recognize, feel they can trust and value. In other words they are “product driven”.
- The experience is more of an emotional one, tied to issues of social valuation and status.
- Providing educational tools as part of a marketing strategy can increase customer loyalty.
- Companies marketing to end consumers may use emotional subject matter to garner interest.
- Retaining customers is the end goal of understanding and utilizing the customer relationship life cycle and Funnel Model.
- Meeting customer needs means understanding what drives them to select a company over and over again.
B2B
- The business customer is primarily concerned with saving money and maintaining quality.
- Businesses look for ways to increase the efficiency of internal processes and increase the quality of their product or service.
- Businesses look to form partnerships, joint ventures and other relationships within the supply chain to meet these needs. In other words, they are “relationship driven”.
- The motivation for business purchases is not driven by a sense of loyalty, but rather a sense of the bottom line.
- Purchases are rational rather than emotional.
- Businesses that market to other businesses need to communicate on a professional level. That means being direct about how a service or product can directly meet the needs of the targeted company or industry.
Keep in Mind
Marketing is a complex issue for companies. Developing online marketing strategies is essential to giant corporations as well as businesses. Selecting specific advertising tactics must be done with consideration for the factors that motivate a company’s primary customer base.
Developing an understanding of the demographic characteristics of clients is insufficient. Competitive success in the age of technology requires understanding, on an intimate psychological level, the driving forces behind purchasing behavior.
Sources
Murphy, Debra (2006) Marketing for B2B vs. B2C – Similar but Different. Vista Consulting. Retrieved October 15, 2007 from http://www.vista-consulting.com/marketing-articles/b2b-b2c-marketing.htm
Schneider, Gary (2004) Electronic Commerce: The Second Wave. 5th Ed.
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