Questions and Answers of Business To Business Marketing

Why do we not differentiate between business markets and consumer markets on the basis of the type of product purchased?
Draw up an elementary chain of derived demand for the laptop computer industry.
What is the accelerator effect and why is it important in business-to-business markets?
Are business markets fundamentally different from consumer markets?
What is a four-firm concentration ratio? What difference does it make to the business marketer whether this ratio is 30 per cent or 70 per cent?
There are probably still a lot of people around who think that the famous British engineering company Rolls-Royce is a car maker, but that has not been true for many years.Rolls-Royce cars today are
How do the buying and procurement orientations differ? How will this affect the way in which an organizational customer might deal with suppliers?
How will total cost of ownership affect the way in which a business marketer prices its products?
Describe the decision-making process enacted by organizational customers, identifying how and why this process might vary.
How can digital technology facilitate the tasks of organizational buying and what are the consequences of this for the B2B marketer?
Healthcare systems around the world vary in terms of the mix of public sector and commercial operators and the way in which medical care is structured. This structure and mix will continue to evolve
Why is an understanding of the buying behaviour of the customer insufficient for successful business marketing?
Explain the uncertainties and abilities that buyers and sellers bring to an exchange situation.
Explain how principal–agent theory can help our understanding of exchange risk.
Identify the three factors that affect the level of transaction costs and how they do so.
Why does a stronger exchange partner not always exercise its power?
To what extent are parties to exchange only concerned with economic value?
What are the four main elements of the IMP interaction model? What has it got to offer that other perspectives may not?
Why does a business marketer need to have a network view?
The global headlines said it all: for several months during the first half of 2013, the whole of Europe was rocked with the news that unapproved horsemeat had found its way into the food chain and
How can customer value be defined?
What are the key differences between the resource-based view of business marketing strategy and the conventional strategic market planning approach?
What kind of ethical issues might a business-to-business marketer or salesperson have to take into account when engaged in: (a) a major account sales negotiation; (b) a substantial international
You are a sales executive for an engineering company. Yesterday one of your clients told you – in confidence – about an important government initiative that could revolutionize their industry.
There is now widespread awareness of the hypothesis that we are in the midst of a gradual, general increase in global temperatures – what is commonly known as ‘global warming’. Although gradual
In what ways does the practice of business-to-business marketing research differ from consumer marketing research?
Imagine that you are describing the use of the internet/World Wide Web/email/social media to a business marketing manager who retired over a decade ago (and who has had a particularly sheltered life
While studying for an MBA part-time, sponsored by your employer, your boss asks you to ring up a competitive rival, posing as a university student undertaking a course assignment, to try to obtain
1: There was a puzzled look on the face of Jan Smeets, European Marketing Manager for Liqui-Gas Gmbh, who was pondering the latest market research report to arrive from its research agency. In
What are the benefits of segmentation? What are the drawbacks?
List four macro-segmentation variables and explain their value in business markets.
List four micro-segmentation variables and explain their value in business markets.
How might a company making and distributing kitchen equipment segment the marketplace?Compare this with a company making kilns for the manufacturing process in the ceramics industry.
What criteria are used to select target markets?
Wavin Group (www.wavin.com) provides plastic pipe systems (the name derives from a contraction of the words WAter and VINyl chloride). Its products are used in the building industry for all aspects
Explain what is meant by brand identity and the importance of this to the business marketer.
To what extent is the business marketer able to present an integrated communications message to target audiences?
Explain the role of a company website in shaping a customer’s experience of a business brand.
The facility to place marketing content online in a variety of forms and on numerous sites means that potential and existing customers have a wealth of sources and material with which to inform
Describe how a business marketer might use search engines to guarantee being found and recalled by potential customers.
Trade shows can be prohibitively expensive for some companies to participate in, as well as being time-consuming for visitors. In what alternative ways might participants and visitors access the
The global firm Bayer has been in operation for over 150 years, with the growth of its business in that time driven by the development of ‘new molecules for use in innovative products and solutions
What role does digital technology play in relationship communication?
During the customer/order acquisition process, at what stage(s) is the sales rep’s contribution most critical?
Value has assumed considerable prominence in marketing theory and practice. How is this reflected in selling?
Explain the part played by culture in shaping an individual’s negotiation style.
What challenges does the business marketer face in trying to coordinate relationship communication activities internally?
The oil and gas industry consists of different activities including upstream exploration and production, midstream transportation (via, for example, a pipeline or an oil tanker), storage of crude
Explain the process of portfolio management and its value.
Compare and contrast the use of financially derived criteria for portfolio analysis with those relying on the judgement of the analyst.
For a company that you know well, describe four criteria that you would use for analysing its portfolio of relationships.
Should all customers be key accounts?
O2 is the customer brand name of Telefonica UK Limited, provider of the second biggest mobile phone network in the UK (the biggest provider is EE, a subsidiary of BT plc). Originally a spin-off joint
What are the elements of a product offering and why do we need to identify them?
Describe the product offering life-cycle stages for an industrial offering with which you are familiar, and indicate how you would have managed the offering through the stages.
Choosing a mature business offering, indicate how you propose to manage it to avoid decline.
What is the value of a portfolio analysis approach such as the Boston Box?
What characteristics facilitate innovation within an organization?
The business brand ‘Caddie’ has existed for some time, yet it represents one of many companies that most people have never heard of, despite the fact that products sold under the ‘Caddie’
How might supply chain management affect the business marketer’s design and operation of routes to market?
Compare and contrast the tasks performed by distributors and agents.
Are franchise operations a suitable route to accessing business customers?
How are market- and firm-specific factors affecting routes to market?
How might a company go about recruiting intermediaries?
Does the growth in partnerships mean that channel conflict is a thing of the past?
Established in 1982, the German toy group Simba-Dickie realized a turnover of €616 million in 2018 (Spielwarenmesse, 2019). Although organic growth had a part to play, acquisition has been key to
Discourse Products makes electrical components that have multiple uses in industrial manufacturing. The marketing director is considering whether or not to implement a price cut, and has asked for
What is the break-even sales volume at the current price of £2.50 per unit? If Discourse Products cuts the price to £2.25 per unit, by how much would sales need to increase for profits to be
What are the characteristics that differentiate an oligopoly from a perfectly competitive market and from a monopoly? What difference does this make to pricing strategy?
Explain why, in an oligopolistic industry that faces inelastic demand and in which there is no acknowledged price leader, it is inadvisable for a firm to pursue a price-cutting strategy aimed at
What are the arguments for and against giving salespeople a high level of price discretion during their negotiations with customers?
From the point of view of costs, prices, revenues and profitability, what are the pros and cons of engaging in long-term partnerships with major customers?
A business colleague to whom you have shown Nagle and Holden’s (2002) ‘five ethical levels’ (see the final section of this chapter) simply cannot understand why any of them is relevant except
Adam Smith (1723–90) was a Scottish philosopher and one of the most famous economists who ever lived. His work is often cited today as the place where many of the ideas of modern economics were