Overview
All,
Marketers are increasingly shifting their attention and investments from “traditional advertising” to new forms of “social and digital marketing. This shift is obvious in emerging markets as the B2B sector is outgrowing B2C (Vieira, de Almeida, Agnihotri, da Silva & Arunachalam, 2019).
As we have read in many of our course reading materials, the major trend in marketing, not only in B2C, but now emphasized in B2B is the use of digital media. Among the primary uses of social media for B2B are (a) facilitating customer engagement, (b) enhancing brand image, and (c) extending brand awareness (Cawsey & Rowley, 2016).
This shift poses real problems for marketers as the distinction between B2B vs. B2C is the importance of relationships. This is particularly true in the value of long-term relationships and how marketers perceive their position within their clients' organizations as collaborative (Cawsey & Rowse, 2016). Yet, the nature of digital marketing is to remove interpersonal touch and substitute digital avatars and digital text in place of in-person conversations.
Do you see the contradictions here?
The authors of one of my favorite references for marketing services over the years (Berry & Parasuraman, 1991), written before the digital revolution, suggested that the telling difference for services marketing was service quality. The authors noted that pre-sales marketing has a limited effect if the delivery of the service has defects. This scenario suggests some work has been performed, and the fallout from poor performance will negatively affect the promotion of the firm to the market.
Our current trends in B2B marketing emphasize the value of the digital message. Effective use by B2B salespeople can enhance overall communication delivering critical business information and knowledge to sustain a relationship (Agnihotri, Dingus, Hu, & Krush, 2016). Although the authors provide a caveat that the communication from salespeople must have quality content, merely using social media is not sufficient for a positive effect.
The premise from the earlier Berry and Parasuraman (1991) stance on marketing services was that pre-sales marketing was a minor factor in comparison to performing the work.
Given the communication and marketing trends, what have we learned about B2B pre-marketing, sales, and service performance?
Thoughts?
Agnihotri, R., Dingus, R., Hu, M. Y., & Krush M. T. (2016). Social media: Influencing customer satisfaction in B2B sales. Industrial Marketing Management 53, 172-180. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2015.09.003Links to an external site.
Berry L. L., & Parasuraman, A. (1991). Marketing services: Competing through quality. The Free Press.
Casey, T., & Rowley, J. (2016). Social media brand building strategies in B2B companies. Marketing Intelligence & Planning 34(6), 754-776. doi:10.1108/MIP-04-2015-0079
Vieira, V. A., de Almeida, M. I. S., Agnihotri, R., da Silva, N. S. D. A. C., & Arunachalam, S.
(2019). In pursuit of an effective B2B digital marketing strategy in an emerging market. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(6), 1085–1108. doi:10.1007/s11747-019-00687-1