Does B2B marketing call for skills different from B2C marketing?
Yes that does seem to be the case. B2C marketing is very largely about managing the marketing mix. Even in recent years, with the development of relationship marketing in B2C markets, the truth is that most of the marketing that takes place is impersonal and at arms length. And you are dealing with people who buy what they like, or want, often on the basis of the current fashions. But in B2B marketing you are often dealing with a small group of professionals professional buyers, professional engineers, professional quality managers, and so on who are not terribly impressed by the latest fashions, but only want to know how what you can do for them is going to improve their companys bottom line. Have there been major failures in B2B marketing? And what have been the lessons therefrom? The most prominent failures in B2B marketing have occurred where companies have acted in unethical ways. For example, the explosives industry in the US in the 1980s, when a number of very prominent business
