teachthe4ps.com - For instructors of marketing.

This Bloomberg BusinessWeek article, “Coming Soon to Your Desktop at Work:  Ads” (April 19) exposed me to new media useful in targeting highly specialized B2B markets – including doctors, accountants, and IT professionals.  The software is free to the user, in exchange for watching ads.  Advertisers pay up to $200 per thousand views — almost 20 times what they pay for Facebook ads.

This provides a nice B2B example when you talk about segmentation and targeting, media or advertising.  The business model also could be used as an example of an alternative pricing model for software.

As we all know and teach, two trends have had a big impact on lowering manufacturing costs in many industries.  First, many firms have turned to sole source suppliers and built closer relationships that focus on creating value through cost reduction or by finding other benefits.  Second, firms will look all over the globe for suppliers.  These trends have had a powerful impact on organizational buying behavior.  The risks in this new world can be seen in this current auto industry example, “German Chemical Plant Fire Threatens Auto Backlog,” (NPR Morning Edition, April 23, 2012).  A German chemical plant is the major source of a chemical used in plastic fuel and brake lines — used by all the major automakers.  A recent explosion and fire at the plant threatens to become a major supply disruptions.  This short radio story outlines the problems and how the industry is reacting.

This example might be helpful when you discuss organizational buying or supply chain management.

This 4 minute video is from Google UK’s head of Business Marketing.  But don’t worry, it isn’t a pitch for Google — at least not directly.  It summarizes many of the changes going on in organizational buying and complements what we talk about in the organizational buying chapters in our text books.  Bottom line, more and more business buyers are turning to the Internet early and often in the buying process.  The video talks about promotion to business buyers — so you might find it helpful to show to your students when you cover organizational buying, B2B, or promotion.

Here at Teach the 4 Ps we are always looking for good B2B stories — and they can be hard to find.  We have reported before on B2B and social media — but admittedly not too often.  Yet there is growing evidence that B2B marketers are big users of social media.  This post at the Hubspot Blog, “9 Common and Costly B2B Social Media Marketing Mistakes” (January 17, 2012) provides some guidelines you might want to offers your students.  Hubspot is part of Inbound Marketing, a consulting firm that has impressed me with their book of the same name and from a talk I saw by Brian Halligan.  I highly recommend the book.

You might find this article useful when you discuss marketing strategy, B2B, or social media in promotion.

I guess this campaign is more than a year old now — but it is fresh and new to me.  John St is an agency based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  It is hard to call any agency an “ad” agency as most — like John St do all kinds of promotional efforts.  The clever video below demonstrates a wide range of its services in a cute way.  It actually fits as a B2B and B2C example at the same time — and it also demonstrates integrated marketing communications.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

The impact of technology on B2B selling has probably been less dramatic than what we have seen in B2C markets.  That may be because B2B has traditionally relied more on personal selling than B2C.  But B2B marketers are looking for ways to sell more efficiently.  This article at Mashable “8 Ways Digital Will Improve B2B Sales in 2012” (December 30, 2012) offers some ideas about specific trends.

Nice bit of comic relief to bring to your discussion of B2B or organizational buying.  We cover relationships in our chapter titled “Business and Organizational Customers and Their Buying Behavior.”  [To put this right into your PowerPoint:  1) place cursor over the comic and right-click, 2) choose "copy", 3) go the a blank slide in PowerPoint, 4) right-click and click "paste"]

Caterpillar, Deere/Hitachi, and Komatsu own the market for heavy construction equipment – together accounting for 82% market share for excavators weighing at least eight metric tons. A new kid is trying break in. Chinese construction equipment maker Luogong has signed up one of its first dealers in the U.S. with Syracuse, NY based Stephenson Equipment. Breaking into the U.S. market will likely be a long-term proposition for Luogong as most customers in this market prefer a proven record of reliability and dealers nearby with spare parts.

This article, “China Treads on New Turf” (Wall Street Journal, August 16, 2011, non-subscribers may need to click here) could be used in a number of different places in the introductory marketing course. There is a four minute video with the article, but it is kind of dry. This case raises issues about organizational buying when you think about whether customers will buy from an unknown upstart — though the 15-20% lower price might attract some buyers. It might be interesting to discuss what types of customers would be the best target market for Liugong. It also provides a great example about the importance of channels of distribution — particularly as a firm moves into a foreign market.  You could even outline Luogong’s marketing strategy – target, price, product, place, and promotion decisions – based on the article.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

Finally a great B2B example we can share.  Good B2B examples are just hard to find.  And this one comes from Brazil — so it is international, too.

Problem:  A printer in a big city has tons of competition — how can they get their customers’ attention & interest?

Solution:  Check out what Brazil’s ArtCenter did to get the attention of a advertising agencies in Sao Paulo.  The creativity showed that they understood their customer as well.  Another fun example to show on the first day of class perhaps — or when you are talking about promotion and want to show an unusual B2B example of direct marketing in an international context.

I am always looking for good B2B or even better a great B2G (business to government) example.  This article, “Flogging Flak Jackets in War Zones” (Bloomberg BusinessWeek, August 4, 2011) describes how salespeople for some defense contractors will get out into the field — literally into a tank in Afghanistan in one case here — to better understand their customers needs.  While there are dangers, there can be big benefits for defense contractors as identifying urgent opportunities can help avoid the Pentagon’s bureaucratic purchasing process.

The article provides a very interesting example to use in the organizational buying chapter — or when you are teaching personal selling and sales management.