B2B Marketing

How to Provide Promotion of Brands

Olga Bleykhman

Abstract: This article deals with the current state of

brand promotion in market demand where real-life ex-
amples of best practices in the market are discussed. Ad-
vice is provided on the dos and don’ts in the field while
specifying the main trends in market brand promotion.
B2B target audience relationship, which is currently in
vogue, is shown. Lastly, the article touches on the im-
portance of awards by way of examples.

Keywords: B2B Marketing, Brand Development, Brand

Management, Brand Promotion, Brand Proposal, Brand
Trust, Buyers Purchasing Center, Market Demand,
Target Audience, Company Reputation, Profit

Foreword
The current period is tough, turbulent, close to crisis . . . .

Olga Bleykhman is a Saint Petersburg,

Russia–based marketing guild member,
was TACIS consultant (promotion and
PR). She has more than 15 years of
experience in B2B marketing (technical
goods and services), branding,
promotion, PR, consulting, marketing
communications, copywriting, and
marketing research (cabinet type). She
was a nominee of All-Russia National
competition “Media-manager” in 2008,
was adjudged best honored expert
of OmniVision program (2014–2016),
currently is senior expert in scientific
projects (research agency).

courtesy of Julia A. Pavlova

© Business Expert Press 978-1-94784-323-3 (2018) Expert Insights

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 B2B Marketing
To adjust to the demands of current times,
the need of the hour is to provide ­marketing
advice as there are plenty of ­ consumers
around and there are also i­nnumerable
business brands. Some ­real-life case studies
are described below to illustrate how to put
the two together.
Introduction
The first step is to define the subjects
mentioned, which is what we are going to
discuss.
B2C, business to consumer and B2B,
business to business are both fairly
­straightforward and easy to understand:
Business to consumer deals with goods
and services intended for the general
­public or for companies while business to
business deals with business with other
businesses.
The remaining terms are explained in
more detail:
American Association of M
­ arketing (AMA)
in its Marketing Dictionary, describes:
Brand: “A brand is a customer experi-
ence represented by a collection of im-
ages and ideas; often, it refers to a symbol
such as a name, logo, slogan, and design
scheme. Brand recognition and other re-
actions are created by the accumulation
of experiences with the specific product
or service, both directly relating to its use,
and through the influence of advertising,
design, and media commentary.”
https://www.ama.org/resources/Pages/Dictionary
.aspx?dLetter=B
Personal customers: An individual
buyer has to limit spending, so price is
most important for his or her purchasing
decision. To buy or not to buy depends
solely on the individual’s personal deci-
sion. It is possible to change the decision
at any moment as there is no necessity for
discussion and advice, except maybe with
family members. Nobody is to blame if the
decision to buy something for personal use
turns out to be a failure. The decision is
changed immediately: next time the cus-
tomer will never return to this particular
2 © Business Expert Press 978-1-94784-323-3 (2018)
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shop and will visit other neighboring malls
or a street retailer.
Business to Business: In B2B, where
you buy for companies, enterprises, or
other commercial establishments, the deci-
sion to buy is made by many people. Any
purchasing decision is taken only after
some kind of research: what types of goods
or services are needed, what are the main
requirements, is there enough delivery
time, is the guarantee period reasonable,
and so on. Those who are involved in this
decision-making are responsible to com-
pany owner(s), to shareholders, sometimes
to state control organizations, and so on,
and they must also ensure that they com-
ply with laws and restrictions, sometimes
even international laws.
Business suppliers buy products with the
aim of moving the products down the sup-
ply chain—adding value—till the products
reach the general consumers—thus ending
close to B2C in the final stages.
Often, business suppliers have to take
into consideration social and ecological
rules and laws and restrictions, ­sometimes
international rules too. The process
becomes more and more c­omplicated
­
and it takes increasing time and effort
to come to a final purchasing decision to
get the goods or services that cover all
the ­business needs. Sometimes it results
in plenty of problems for the purchasing
­center people.
Example: The following is often the
scenario a seller has to face: A company
named Z is planning to buy unspecified
IT equipment. Installation services will be
provided by another IT company named
Z–dealer that consists of several vendors
and various brand owners. In practice,
what often happens is that people of the
Z purchasing center have different opin-
ions: usually, the CFO is only interested in
the financial side and his choice usually is
for the lower priced equipment; the con-
cern of the IT people is about what hap-
pens when the guarantee period is over so
they want long guarantee period for the
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 B2B Marketing
product. Some others hesitate because of
rumors that the software included has lim-
ited shelf life and what will happen if the
usage is stopped, for example, under some
international restrictions.
The purchasing decision in B2B sphere
is characterized as a more complicated pro-
cess versus the B2C sphere.
The B2B market purchase decision
process:
■■ Is executed not by one person, but by a
specific group of specialists, often called
“the purchasing decision center”
■■ Is based not on emotions of people but
mostly on a rational basis
■■ Is less impulsive but much more time
consuming
■■ Depends almost entirely on the supplier
company’s reputation
The four features mentioned above were
statements made by the author in one of
the articles (in Russian) titled “Special Fea-
tures of Marketing in B2B Market” as far
back as 2006, but these base statements
remain valid even today, in spite of the
changes that have taken place in the tech-
nical level of current information with in-
novation developing rapidly.
Base for decision-makers: Scientific
and technical features and reliable facts
According to the author, the marketing
concept in general is that it aims to satisfy
the demand of buyers that benefits the sup-
plier in the best way possible. To make this
possible, it is necessary, in general, that
purchasing results in meeting the follow-
ing requirements:
Product/service has to correspond to
features described in the client’s order;
supplier has to execute product/services
fulfilling conditions according to the cli-
ent’s agreement.
AIDA Principles: AIDA  is an  acro-
nym  that stands for  Attention,  Inter-
est, Desire and Action. This is the base that
is needed for the sale to close. The AIDA
model describes the stages that occur from
© Business Expert Press 978-1-94784-323-3 (2018)
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the time a consumer first becomes aware
of a brand to when he or she makes a pur-
chase decision. Marketers were always
aware of how important it was to keep buy-
ers loyal to a brand, especially in the cur-
rent era with its easy access to worldwide
information channels—information about
any brand cannot be hidden by any means.
AIDA principles have been widely
known for a long time (Wikipedia)
Purchasesales funnel, as provided in
Wikipedia, is also based on understanding
the AIDA principle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchase_funnel
The current period is one of informa-
tion overload and decision-makers in B2B
seem to be at the receiving end of oceans
of information. They get tons of direct
e-mails with various suggestions, event
invitations, news about product/services
and so on, which appear in more or less
relevant fields of business. These copious
volumes of data are sent by sales manag-
ers in their desperate hopes to be chosen
for corporate purchase. The result is poor
and sad: many researches find that sifting
through this vast quantity of data actually
slows down or even postpones the pur-
chasing decision. Relevant data is usually
drowned in this vast information flood so
much so that often decision-makers hate
to waste their time sifting through so
much material!
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