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B2B Market Research

Business to Business Market Research

Consumer demand and business demand are very different from each other. Consumers are individuals who spend their income and savings on consumer products ranging from electronics, to furniture, to clothes, to vegetables etc. However the demand of a company (or business demand) is very different from consumer demand. Firms that are into the business of manufacturing or production would require raw materials from other companies or supplies in order to function. That is where, business to business demand and supply exists. Business to business market research or B2B market research helps in judging the market demand of businesses.

The demand and supply relationship is very different, the key characteristic being the low flexibility of companies to quickly change their suppliers as all companies are bound by contracts.

Some key characteristics of business to business market research:

- Customer Base is small: B2B market research requires understanding the dynamics of demand in this industry. The unique characteristic of business demand is that demand for goodwill is in volumes but the numbers of clients will be less.

- Demand is derived: Business to business market research involves analyzing the derived demand, which is the demand derived from the consumer demand for that product.

- Complicated decision making process: Business to business market research reveals that a number of people (company heads) are involved in the decision making regarding purchasing a product or service from one business whereas in a consumer to business approach, each individual is responsible for the decision making of their own purchase.

- High volumes demanded: Business to business market research will involve studying the high volumes that each company demanded, as the customer base is small; it is easier to study this. For instance, in a usual situation, a supplier may perhaps have 25% of the customer base and 85% of the volumes distributed to them.

- Customer relationship is very important: Business to business market research becomes even more important here as the customers spend in volumes and a sore customer can easily cause losses if they decide to stop their supply. In this case companies send their representatives to personally meet them.

Business Market research

Business market research is conducted by organizations to gauge the characteristics of the demand for their product. Business to business market research will continue to assess if the clients of the company feel like renewing their contracts with them, given the competition in the industry. Inevitably, there may be higher demand for business market research as the need to predict the spending behavior of these high volume spending customers is more. Business market research is beneficial for all organizations that are intending to remain industry leaders for a long time.

Business to Business Marketing

Business to business marketing takes off from a primarily business to business market research study. The analysis of the research is done through qualitative research and then, quantitative research. Using these tools, the marketing head is able to determine and decide which market segment they need to target. Business to business marketing needs strategies that are more complex than consumer marketing strategies. These strategies involve ensuring that the customers are attracted by several offers and deals besides giving the goods. The nature of goods being supplied has many competitors, so business to business marketing involves using attractive marketing schemes to maintain and retain the customer base.

Business to business market research is usually conducted by an external agency as these are done professionally in a methodical and step-by-step manner. Some large corporations that have a big marketing and advertising department conduct their own periodic business to business market research.