Questions
1 Suggest three different marketing objectives that an organisation operating in the B2B sector might identify to
guide the company’s use of Internet technologies.
2 Choose one of the objectives proposed in your answer to question 1 and develop an argument as to why an
organisation might make this particular choice. Particularly, focus on the factors that might influence the choice
of marketing objectives.
3 Apart from organisational size, suggest other factors that might influence the level and extent of Internet and
web adoption.
4 Suggest ways a market-orientated B2B company operating in industrial printing markets might be using Internet
technologiesCHAPTER 11· BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS INTERNET MARKETING
Summary
1 This chapter has examined B2B use of Internet technologies from a marketing per-
spective. In doing so it has considered the online trading environment, online
markets, trading partnerships and digital marketing strategies.
2 B2B trading is affected by the environmental trading situation. Many aspects of the
online trading situation are different from the offline trading environment.
3 The trading situation needs to be analysed in order to develop understanding of the
actions taking place. Online environmental analysis includes consideration of macro,
micro and internal elements and how they might affect the online trading environment.4 Commercial exchanges in B2B markets explore the potential and importance of the
electronic market in terms of growth and dispersion of use of Internet technologies
across different industrial sectors.
5 The growth in electronic markets has led to organisations increasingly making greater
use of Internet technologies moving beyond aiming to achieve marketing communi-
cation objectives towards developing sales activities and investigating ways to
develop international markets.
6 Organisational use of the Internet can lead to the development of customer-facing
and supplier-facing web-based applications, which will serve different objectives
and functions.7 The sales process in B2B markets is changing and the methods of communication and
the actual process of buying are changing (the buy class has a significant impact on
the extent to which transactions are completely automated). Organisations are
increasingly investing in e-procurement systems. Streamlining of the purchasing
function is becoming more of a strategic issue as it is providing the opportunity to
create differential advantage. B2B markets tend to have fewer customers placing larger
orders (especially in industrial and government markets). Adoption of Internet tech-
nologies represents opportunities to streamline purchasing and sales operations and
in doing so enables an organisation to make significant cost savings. Furthermore,
there are also opportunities to create additional value and competitive advantage
through the redesign of established offline practices.