Industrial marketing and its specificity

The division between industrial and consumer marketing is a matter of research over 30 years and a steady supply of discussions in the academic marketing society.
Although the generations of marketing thinkers have set a relatively clear dividing line between B2C and B2B, some data often create the need for a review of this separation.
At the end of the 1970s and early 1980s, there was a strong challenge to the specificity of industrial marketing with the basic question of whether market conditions are really so different for industrial and consumer products to need different approaches.

For some thinkers this separation was unjustified. For some other thinkers, the situations created in the field of industrial marketing have unique characteristics that must be distinguished from consumer marketing:

• a small number of customers per supplier,
• interdependence between the supplier and the buyer, and
• The presence of a lasting and strong relationship between the customer and the supplier.

The team of European thinkers created the IMP Group (Industrial Marketing and Purchase) at the same time and contributed greatly to the spectacular change in the science of industrial marketing. Models of interaction, customer / supplier relationships, and industrial networks today are widely accepted in B2B marketing science.
This approach, which dominates industrial marketing research, puts particular emphasis on interaction, relationships and networks, highlighting the differences that it has with the dominant marketing management that comes from consumer marketing.

IMP’s school has made a great contribution to understanding how the industrial market and industrial marketing really work.
There are four basic differences between the traditional and IMP industrial marketing approach:

• The first difference relates to the duration of the event that brought the supplier and the customer into contact, and is defined as a difference in terms of time. In the case of consumer products, the momentum of a single purchase is observed, while in the industrial products sector there is a logic that emphasizes the duration and intensity of the relationship, which is closed, complex and long-lasting.

• The second difference is based on the perception of the role of the client. From IMP’s point of view, the client is active in interacting with the vendor, while in the traditional marketing approach the role of the client is considered passive.

• The third difference relates to the characteristics and structure of the market. For the traditional approach the market is individual and volatile, which means that the changes are common. In terms of IMP, the market is concentrated and stable for as long as the density of client / supplier interactions is such that it will prevent changes.

• Finally, the IMP group argues that the industrial marketing analysis unit is the client / supplier interaction in time, which means that the individual perception of the customer or supplier’s view is not accepted (Cova & Salle, 2008).

Most research methodologies in consumer and industrial marketing are considered modernistic and are based on the specific set of assumptions about the nature and behavior of markets. These assumptions have been developed in the world and for the world of mass production and stable markets, for conditions that now belong to the past. The popularity of post-modern research methods is slowly expanding into consumer product markets, while their use in B2B market research is still virtually non-existent, although post-modern (modern) conditions are particularly well-established in B2B arena.

The phenomenon of globalization and the modern financial circumstances brought about significant changes in the market conditions. Market stability, one of the key features that distinguish industrial and consumer markets from the point of view of industrial marketers, is being negated as a parameter for comparing the two markets.

Although the B2B marketing goal is to reach global “players” with multi-digit long-term contracts, while B2C marketing is focused on converting large numbers of people into customers, there are many similarities between these differences.

For example, for the metal processing industry, the market approach consists, on the one hand, of the direct approach to a limited number of large customers accounting for 80% of the turnover and, on the other hand, of the indirect approach through distribution channels where large traders negotiate with small customers.

Apart from these two groups of potential customers, the current market conditions point to another group, consisting of the people responsible for technical specifications and the implementation of projects and therefore with the significant impact on the acceptance and promotion of the products.

This group bases its choices on the collective trust in the producer and the popularity of the brand. The approach that this group requires is typical of B2C marketing and is based on Consumer Culture Theory.

B. Cova & R. Salle emphasize that we should not reject the cross-over of B2B and B2C approaches as some aspects of B2C marketing, for example, CCT, allow companies to  understand B2B conditions with greater insight.

The role of marketing and its contribution to the acquisition of competitive advantage has been thoroughly researched in the consumer products sector. As far as industrial products are concerned, research shows that the status of marketing in industrial and technological organizations is low, but this tends to change due to many factors.

For the reasons mentioned as a cause of change, the following are distinguished (Palmer 2002):

• External pressure: increased competition, shorter product lifecycles and more demanding customer needs.
• Increased awareness of the benefits of marketing: recognizing the need for marketing and the features included in it.
• Organizational changes.