MBA 640 Conduct a Research

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Business Buying Behavior

Business suppliers and their customers are using more vertical coordination and are

exploring ways to create more value from their relationships. Customer loyalty is largely

driven by early supplier involvement, supply-chain management, and purchasing alliances

(Kotler & Keller, 2015). For example, the Renault-Nissan Alliance led by Chairman Carlos

Ghosn is able to secure preferential prices from its suppliers. Neither Renault nor Nissan

would be able to get the same prices when buying alone. Although vertical coordination of

this type may foster strong customer-supplier relationships, it may also involve risks (e.g.,

limited flexibility).

Business to business (B2B) marketers use every available marketing tool to gain and retain

customers. They bundle valuable services with their product offerings, use systems selling

(i.e., buying a total-solution package from a single vendor), and capitalize on online and

offline communications. Furthermore, B2B marketers are increasingly borrowing

marketing practices from business-to-consumer markets to create and enhance their

brands (Kotler & Keller, 2015). These marketers routinely rely on long-term personal

relationships with their major customers, providing useful information and establishing

trust to secure big contracts (Zhang, Watson IV, Palmatier, & Dant, 2016).

While B2B companies recognize the disruptive power of technology, many have been

cautious in anticipating the impact of advances such as the internet, social media, and

crowdsourcing on corporate buying behavior. These companies have also been slow to

adopt marketing analytical tools and big data, even though these developments could

change existing company-wide business practices and models. Changes to company-wide

operations require a closer alignment between the business marketers and other

functional units within the company. For example, several B2B companies increasingly rely

on social media to incorporate the voice of the customer (VoC) to narrow the gap between

sales, marketing, and innovation (Spekman, 2015).

Much of the B2B sector is in the service business (e.g., hotels, banks, airlines, hospitals,

and repair companies), just as many employees in the manufacturing sector, including

accountants, lawyers, and IT professionals, are actually service providers. As B2B

Learning Topic

11/23/2020 Business Buying Behavior

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companies struggle to differentiate their physical products, they are increasingly striving

for service differentiation by providing faster customer response, faster complaints

resolution, and timely delivery (Kotler & Keller, 2015).

References

Kotler, P. & Keller, K. L. (2015). Marketing management (15th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:

Pearson.

Spekman, R. E. (2015). The Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing at 21 and my

perspective on the field of B to B marketing. Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing,

22(1–2), 87–94. doi:10.1080/1051712X.2015.1020245

Zhang, J. Z., Watson IV, G. F., Palmatier, R. W., & Dant, R. P. (2016). Dynamic relationship

marketing. Journal of Marketing, 80(5), 53–90. doi:10.1509/jm.15.0066

Resources

Reading: Business Buying Behavior

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