Many budding and enthusiastic students want to make their career in the marketing field. With avenues to grow in career and better income stability, Marketing has recently picked up the pace.
This has been possible because everyone now has access to the proper education, and abundant knowledge is available from different sources.
It is rightly said that marketing involves interaction between a buyer and seller followed by a transaction. But do you know that marketing is categorized as B2B and B2C?
Even now, at the pace of digital marketing, where all transactions happen over the internet. We cannot sideline B2B and B2C marketing Both B2B and B2C are part of traditional marketing.
It still exists, and companies have aligned different B2B and B2C strategies.
Key Takeaways
- B2B (business-to-business) refers to transactions between two businesses or organizations.
- B2C (business-to-consumer) refers to transactions between a business and individual consumers.
- B2B transactions are generally larger in scale and involve more complex purchasing decisions than B2C transactions.
B2B vs B2C
The difference between B2B and B2C is that in B2B marketing, the emphasis is laid on building personal relationships between buyer and seller. In B2C marketing, the emphasis is laid on transactional relationships between buyer and seller. Here the company’s focus is on increasing sales volume. These are primarily one-time transactions; No reorder takes place here.
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Therefore, we should remember that both B2B and B2C marketing are different in terms of the relationship between buyer and seller.
There are different kinds of buyers in B2B than in B2C. Hence the company follows a different approach while doing B2B Marketing, unlike B2C Marketing.
In this guide, we are covering all the essential details for you to understand the difference between B2B and B2C to help the marketer understand both these traditional marketing channels.
Comparison Table
| Parameter of Comparison | B2B | B2C |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | In B2B marketing, the emphasis is laid on building personal relationships between buyer and seller. This happens from one business to another. | In B2C marketing, the emphasis is laid on transactional relationships between buyer and seller. Here transaction happens between business and customer. |
| Buyer | Organization | End Customer |
| Type of Relationship | Personal | Transactional |
| Time | This buying process takes a long time; it is a lengthy procedure | This buying process takes a shorter time; it is a simple procedure |
| Decision | The very long decision-making process | The decision-making process is short |
| Brand Image | It depends upon the mutual trust between the buyer and seller | It only depends on the advertisement done by the seller organization. |
What is B2B?
In B2B marketing, the emphasis is laid on building personal relationships between buyer and seller. B2B marketing involves a transaction between businesses.
In B2B marketing, Seller organizations want to establish a long mutual relationship with the buyer organization, To increase repurchase and profitability.
The buying decision process in B2B marketing is quite lengthy as so many stakeholders are involved in the decision-making process.
The following are some features of B2B marketing;
- Increases Profitability for the organization
- Ensures a solid mutual relationship with clients
- Lengthy decision-making process
- The entire supply chain is involved
- Customizations can be done based on the needs of clients.
The primary objective of the B2B business is to attract potential customers.
Due to the importance of some existing customers and the businesses that one can generate from references, developing these relationships can prove successful or even result in switching the client to other competitors.
Therefore, it is equally important also to know that B2B is quite important for any organization looking to increase its profitability and customer profitability.
Thus, it is required to understand that B2B marketing is essential for any organization, and proper information should be known about it.
What is B2C?
In B2C marketing, the emphasis is laid on transactional relationships between buyer and seller. B2C marketing involves a transaction between business and customer.
In B2C marketing, Seller organizations don’t want to establish a long mutual relationship with the buyer.
As they are selling to end-users, it is more of a transactional relationship where the company wants to sell in volumes.
The buying decision process in B2C marketing is relatively short, as only one end-user is involved in the decision-making process.
The following are some features of B2C marketing:
- Increases Sales for the organization
- No relationship-making with clients
- Short decision-making process
- An entire supply chain is not involved
- Customizations cannot be done based on the needs of clients.
The primary objective of the B2C business is to increase sales volume.
Due to the importance of increasing sales, companies try aggressive advertising to influence a customer mindset.
Therefore, it is equally important also to know that B2C is quite important for any organization looking to increase its sales volume and revenue.
Thus, it is required to understand that B2C marketing is essential for any organization, and proper information should be known about it.
Main Differences Between B2B and B2C
Although both these marketing B2B and B2C are traditional marketing types, both are essential for an organization.
However, B2B and B2C have a lot of differences concerning decision-making, sales cycle and the relationship with the client.
- In B2B, the Decision process is lengthy, but in B2C decision process is short.
- In B2B, the focus is on acquiring clients, but the B2C focus is on increasing sales volume.
- In B2B, reorder takes place, but B2C is transactional.
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019850114000492
- https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mcb/080/2009/00000024/F0020005/art00002
- https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01157807/document
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Chara Yadav holds MBA in Finance. Her goal is to simplify finance-related topics. She has worked in finance for about 25 years. She has held multiple finance and banking classes for business schools and communities. Read more at her bio page.
