Business-to-Business Marketing Editing and Proof Reading Services

Business-to-Business Marketing Editing and Proof Reading Services

Introduction

Business-to-Business organization deals with the transactions between different businesses. This transaction can be between manufacturer and wholesaler, wholesaler and retailer or manufacturer retailer.  Business to business indicates those businesses, which are conducted between different companies, which are different from transaction between business to consumer and business to government. This type of businesses structure is existing among all the businesses that are present in the world as it indicates and relates to the supply chain department of any business. This can be considered as a better example of business-to-business transaction. In this study a detailed discussion on the company “Palmer and Harvey” has been conducted as it involves supply chain department which can be defined as a business to business transaction. There are various challenges that are involved in any form of business so does the business-to-business form. Here challenges have been identified and their problems have been addressed along with their mitigation strategies are also discussed. Three challenges that have been identified are customer relationship management strategies, pricing strategies for business-to-business products and business marketing communication (Rossignoli and Ricciardi, 2015).

Background of the study

For any business to successfully develop there is a great presence of different challenges in the business. Coping up with these challenges and successfully developing therapies for these challenges are important for any company. In terms of business-to-business organizations, it can be stated that the presence of such challenges is evident. The mitigation of these challenges is important in order to develop and maintain the outcomes of this challenge for future development of the business. The selection and procurement of product services by the buyers in an organization involves decision-making process. This is a great challenge for any organization whether it is a business-to-business organization, business to consumer organization or business to government organization. The maintenance of customer relationship management strategies in an organization is another important challenge that is being faced. The obtaining of proper strategies in order to develop and maintain the customer relationship requires proper management (Gummesson, 2014). This management is only possible by maintaining well-developed strategies that will help the organization to develop its organization bonding with the clients of the organization. Along with this important that helps a business to grow successfully is the pricing strategy of the business. A properly developed business strategy will not only help the company to estimate and mark the prices of this services and products but will also bring in more customers that are other business to avail the services of the organization.

The company Palmer and Harvey, which also follows the forms of the business-to-business association as it, involves the dealing with retailers, as it is itself a wholesaler business based in UK. Being a private company that deals within the supply of products to the various retailers and other businesses, the company faces the above-mentioned challenges adequately. In order to solve these challenges, the company has developed different strategies that helps the company to grow and has led the company to establish successfully in the UK market in the recent times (Möller and Parvinen, 2015).

Organization overview

The organization whose business-to-business challenges have been discussed here is the Palmer and Harvey. Founded in the year 1925, the company was initially, known as the Palmer & Harvey McLane plc. This is entirely a United Kingdom based company. The company is a wholesaler company that provides services to the multiples; convenience, forecourt and CTN based organizations. The main head headquarter of the company is situated in Hover, East Sussex. The company is ranked to be the largest wholesaler in UK and has given the title of the fifth largest company in the United Kingdom that runs privately. The company has an estimated annual turnover of more than £4.5 billion. The company has a national distribution network that spreads over a larger area with fourteen regional depots all over United Kingdom. Previously the company was a traditionally a confectionery and tobacco wholesaler company in its earlier times when the company has established. The company currently works with various retailers and currently the company is working with 63,000 retailers all over United Kingdom. The employment range of the company numbers to more than 4000 employees (Koo et al,2016).

The company Palmer and Harvey are mainly collaborated with the bigger United Kingdom’s grocery multiples considering being number one in the delivery of the wholesale good to its clients. The company conducts a general supply of more than 12,000 products that also includes alcohol, frozen food products and chilled variety of drinks and food items. The company Palmer and Harvey has direct distribution contract with the various renowned manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom. Being the largest and leading wholesale company, Palmer and Harvey, deals with different sort of businesses. These businesses can range from different sizes starting from small-scale businesses to large businesses. This is only possible due to the available flexibility in the network channel of the company. With wide range of diversity available in the company’s products and the network of the company that helps the company top connect with the different organization and business ventures, helping the company to expand and grow achieving their desired goals and aim (Gummesson, 2015).

Business to business marketing challenges

Marketing is essential in any form of business whether it is a normal every day business organization or a business-to-business organization. There is a need for proper marketing strategy and its implementation in the business strategies in order to foster the business on a higher level. Business-to-business marketing cannot be stated as a difficult or complicated marketing strategy form but it is certainly different from the usual business marketing strategy that is present in the current business scenario. The fact that business-to-business marketing business strategy is different from the normal marketing strategy, demands the need to consider and handle a variety of things in a different manner as compared to the usual marketing strategy handling in terms of the business-to-business marketing. Business to business marketing the marketing of products and services of one business organization to another business organization to avail the use of the products that are being produced by the respective businesses (Holliman and Rowley, 2014). These products are used in the normal operation of the businesses like the use of products as a supply to the offices. These products are used for the reselling to the consumers by the retailers ranging from small to large-scale industries just like the selling of products by the wholesaler to the retailers. This type of marketing demands the need to focus on various other areas other than marketing strategies and at the same time required the need to focus on the varied other similarities. The term of content marketing plays a very vital and central role in any business-to-business marketing. There are various challenges that evolve in the conduction of a business-to-business marketing strategy. Some of which can be named as organization buying behavior, customer relationship management strategies, managing business to business products or services, managing business marketing channels, managing innovation and new industrial product development, pricing strategies for business to business products and services and business marketing communication. In the chosen company Palmer and Harvey, three out of the mentioned marketing challenges have been identified. The brief description of these three marketing challenges has been provided below (Baker and Saren, 2016).

Organizational buying behavior

­Organizational buying behavior is can be described as the buying strategy of organization that is mostly rational and it is assumed else emotional as compared to the customer buying behavior. But the assumption that organization buying behavior is entirely rational as the final decision making of the buying of products from other organization is done by the employees working in the organization. These buying of products involve the busying of raw materials, services and products of different kind, which are essential for the running of a company. The individuals, organizations and agencies of the government who buy these products are called the organizational buyers (Cortez and Johnston, 2017). This purchasing of products is done for the businesses and their further production process to proceed. The company Palmer and Harvey involves in the selling of products to the various organizations for their organization’s operational use and involves the buying of raw materials for the generation of the products. The buyers of the company are influenced by the profit objectives of the company instead of their personal need fulfillment. This brings in the need for the formulation of the various marketing strategy for the company. These strategies are more technical and related to the cores of the business as compared to the strategies that are meant for the customers. The buying decision in the company is taken by the buying center of the company, which comprises of the top-level management or the employees working in the procurement committee and other various departments (Ulaga and Chacour, 2001). Their behavior of buying of the organization is characterised by various elements. Some of which has been mentioned below:

• There is uniqueness in every organization demanding for the need of unique set of requirements
• As it involves buying of products for the company, there is time lag which is longer as compared to the selling of the products by the company Palmer and Harvey
• For this company, the buying of the products is based on the formal contract between the company and its buyers
• In this strategy of marketing, there is the involvement of various buyers of the company to buy raw materials and selling of products at the same time

Customer relationship management strategies

Since the number of transactions at the end of the day is less in business-to-business organizations, the maintenance of customer relationship management is still remains essential in the marketing section of the company. Monitoring the buyers is essential for the company Palmer and Harvey as there is a constant increase in the competitive business environment where the sellers of the materials to the company. The management of the database for the buyers and every transaction is important no matter how small the number of buyers is present for the company. This forms the foundation for the management strategy in the customer relationship management. This presence of database helps the company to keep a track of the revenue that is being acquired by the company. The involvement of Customer Relationship Management helps the company Palmer and Harvey to store information in a database from where the information is easily available for extraction. Many companies do not posses such strategy as compared to Palmer and Harvey. Many companies do not realize the storing of the information is important as it contributes to the turnover (Madhavaram et al,2014). This also indicates that the amount and the value that is being received in return are also high. At the same time if proper monitoring of the client is done achieved then there is a steep chance of losing the buyer that will lead to decline in the overall revenue of the company. Another important criterion that is achieved in the involvement of Customer Relationship Management is that it helps in keeping a track of the progress of the company and will ensure that the main aim and objectives of the company is achieved. The objectives that are going to be achieved have to be fulfilled by maintaining a proper strategy helping the marketing communication and sales team of the company.

Pricing strategies for business to business products/services

The relationship between the price, value, and volume of the company is important for the business-to-business organizations. The development of the pricing strategy involves the recognition of the of the dynamic market relationship between the price, value that has been perceived and the quantity of the product. Pricing of the product is entirely based on the customer, thus indicating the need for strategic pricing of the products in accordance to the demands of the customer and fulfilling their satisfaction. Determination of the value price for the products is a crucial as the buyers of the products seek for better options, thus this involves the increment of the competitors in the market. If the products are not systematically priced then there is a possibility of losing the buyers of the organization, as they will turn to the better sellers available in the market. As the price for one buyer will be less for the other buyer, the price for one buyer will be higher for the other buyer. Many strategies are being followed in order to incorporate proper pricing strategy of the products in the company. The chart of pricing strategy matrix has been shown below (Hadjikhani and LaPlaca, 2013). This chart of pricing strategy matrix involves three attribute that is to be considered in the setting of prices for the appropriate volume of the products, their perceived value and the range of price for every attribute. The given chart below determines the following:

• Current pricing of the products of the company
• Assessing the pricing of the products in accordance to the company’s pricing objectives
• Compares the pricing of the similar products that is being provided by the other competitors of the company

Addressing the challenges

The challenges that have been observed can be easily solved by developing and maintaining proper strategies for every challenge. The incorporation of the strategies into the business marketing strategy of the company Palmer and Harvey will help the company to gain further success and will be beneficial in achieving the goals of the company (Terho et al,2013). The strategies that is to be followed are given below:

Organizational buyer behavior strategies

• The collaboration of the companies in today’s world are conducted in the social and digital based technologies This indicates that the need for the consideration of the internal and external members of the collaborative networks influences the decision making procedure of the company
• Keeping an eye on the buyers motives where most of the buyers tend to cringe before going into any collaboration or buying of products
• Keeping a one to one interaction with the buyers as they lack interest when they are unable to interact with the required employees of the company as it creates distrust for the company. Therefore, it is important for Palmer and Harvey Company to create a direct interaction with the buyers whenever required (Habibi et al,2015).

Customer relationship management strategies

• Creating a scalable, repeatable conversation process that is connected to lead-to-sales is to be done in the marketing strategies in the customer relationship management. This is done by tracking the data into the customer relationship management strategies
• Creation of the repeatable sales process and improving the existing sales process is important as it demands the feedback loop to be founded on the data
• Generation of referrals in order to attract and gain more customers

Pricing strategies for business to business products/services

• Setting of the prices in accordance to the demands of the customers or other organizations that are buying products from Palmer and Harvey
• Establishing proper marketing matrix chart so that a clean idea regarding the pricing strategy of the competitive companies can be developed, thus accordingly modification in the pricing strategy can be established

Recommendation

From the discussion that has been conducted above, it is evident that using of proper marketing strategy and involving those strategies in the business of the company Palmer and Harvey is necessary for the completion of the goals of the company and gaining of the aim of the company. The company has already involved many marketing strategy that has helped the company to gain the achieved growth and success. The company has been already marked as the largest wholesaler in the market. It is advisable for the company to further improve their strategies in accordance to current needs and demands of the company. With the inclusion of the modified strategies in the company business structure will keep the company updated in accordance to the current needs of the other organizations in the market who are the clients of the company.

Conclusion

Thus, it can be concluded that the company Palmer and Harvey has adopted efficient marketing strategies in order to gain the growth of the company and indicates that further modification of the strategies is to be done. Business to business marketing strategy is quite different, thus proper analysis of the strategies is needed to done and included into the marketing strategy of Palmer and Harvey.

References

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