Fundamental Differences Between Industrial And Consumer Marketing

FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN INDUSTRIAL AND CONSUMER MARKETING

1. Marketing: Marketing includes those business activities involved in the flow of goods and services from production to consumption.
Goods and services are of two types:
a. Consumer Goods: Goods destined for use by the individual ultimate consumer and in such form that they can be used by him without further commercialprocessing. The product, not the service
b. Industrial Goods: Goods which are used in producing consumers' goods, other business or industrial goods, and services and/or in facilitating the operation of an enterprise, may include land and buildings for business purposes, equipment (installation and accessory), operating supplies, raw materials, fabricated materials. One commodity can be aconsumer and industrial good at the same time.

DIFFERENCES OWING TO THE NATURE OF THE MARKET OR THE BUYERS

1. One part of the demand of industrial goods is given by the demand of consumer goods.
2. In the industrial field the buying process is rational, until similar products appear. In the consumer field the buying process is emotional.
3. The industrial buyers’ bases forpurchasing are quantity, price, specifications, cost forecast and availability. The consumer buyers’ bases are less defined.
4. The number of industrial buyers is much smaller than the number of consumer buyers.
5. Industrial markets are likely to be much more concentrated geographically.
6. Consumer purchases are single units or in small volumes, but industrial purchases can be single orin big volumes (in case of raw materials or components parts).
7. There is a multiple-buying responsibility in industrial field when purchasing major items of equipment.
8. The right yardsticks in the industrial market are establish by the product markets situation. For the consumers market the production is given by the inventory movement studies, etc.
9. The satisfactory productperformance is more sensitive in the industrial marketing than in the consumer market because of the length of the distribution channel.
10. There is a greater fluctuation in the volume of industrial goods
11. The need for service and the influence of it, pre and post sale, is bigger in the industrial marketing.
12. There is important for industrial marketing to lease and rent to savemoney from production costs that can be use to cover the initial cost (investment)

DIFFERENCES ARISING OUT OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRODUCTS

1. The industrial products are usually sold by given more technical data than the consumer products, because buyers search proof of suitability.
2. Prices of industrial goods fluctuate more than the consumers’ goods. Sales and discountsare often in consumers’ goods.
3. When selling or buying, industrial goods, it is necessary to be precise in the description of the products. Consumer goods are less detail and more subjective.
4. There are more bids, negotiations and contracts in industrial market than in the consumer market.
5. The descriptions, specifications and acceptance tests for industrial goods are usuallymore precise than in the case of consumer goods.
6. The industrial goods are more standardize than the consumer goods. The consumer goods need more design changes to increase their salability.

DIFFERENCES ARISING OUT OF ORGANIZATION OR OPERATIONAL SETUP

1. The industrial goods channels of distribution are shorter than the consumer channels; because industrial goods are sold directly tothe buyer meanwhile the consumer goods channels have more intermediaries.
2. The industrial market uses trade and business publication to sale their products. The consumer market uses mass publications, radio and tv.
3. Reciprocity has more important in the industrial field than in the consumer field.
4. In the industrial marketing the seller goes to the buyer, and in the...