Business-to-Business Marketing

This is a managerially-oriented, case-based course with the goal of developing students' ability to formulate effective marketing strategies for organizational customers (corporations or nonprofit organizations). The underlying foundation of the course is the notion that organizational buying behavior is profoundly different than consumer buying behavior—in terms of the number and nature of members of the buying unit and the nature of the buying decision process. Specifically, the course builds on the concept that business-to-business (B2B) customers are more value-driven in their purchases than are individual consumers. For instance, their purchasing criteria tend to be more economically and product-functionality driven. Hence, the nature of the B2B marketing mix must take into consideration these characteristics of organizational buying.