Understanding B2B and B2C Marketing

B2B, B2C? Thnks fr th Mmrs, but I've G2G

In my favorite comedy skit, the CEO of OREO® Cookies¹—a juggernaut in Business to Consumer (B2C) marketing—is perplexed by the marketing department’s goals for new growth.

He’s repeatedly confused by the demands for growth for a product that has likely reached saturation for its total addressable market.

[CEO] Honest question for the marketing department, and I really, sincerely mean this: Does anybody here sincerely believe there is someone out there who hasn't heard of Oreos?

…The madness stops here.

Do you see that there is nowhere else to go?

‘And Alexander wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer.

[Marketing] Can you at least just look at these billboard and bus stop samples?

[CEO] What do we need a billboard for?!

You know where our billboard is?

Every cookie aisle in the world.

I've never been to a grocery store and not seen half the cookie aisle choked with a sinful glut of bullshit Oreos.

The craziest part of the skit?

It’s true.

If you Google “Cookie Aisle of a Grocery Store”, the only consistently noticeable brand is OREO.

The skit is funny and great at showing how OREO’s team is fantastic at customer-facing (B2C) marketing.

What the video fails to mention is that B2C marketing is only half of the story.

What are B2C and B2B?

In the marketing works, there are generally two distinct paradigms for a department to fall under: Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C).

Although these categories are each enormous², there are a few common themes that run through each of them.

Using the B2C or B2B marketing paradigm as a lens for analysis is only a first step, but it’s a useful tool.

Setting the Stage: B2B vs. B2C Marketing

Before we dive into the specifics, it's crucial to understand the overarching context in which B2B and B2C marketing operate.

At its core, B2B marketing focuses on business transactions between companies.³ It's about fostering relationships, addressing the unique pain points of other businesses, and providing solutions that drive productivity and growth.

In contrast, B2C marketing caters to the individual consumer, appealing to emotions, desires, and personal preferences.

B2B Marketing

B2B marketing tends to be more aligned to precision marketing than batch-and-blast strategies.

Precision marketing prioritizes deepening relationships with existing or high-likelihood lookalike customers. Imagine you’re making a decision on which company to partner with for a $100M capital expansion project.

Are you likely to choose the person who has cold called you after reading about your company’s plans in the paper? Probably not

What about a sales rep who has called you every quarter to make sure that the equipment he sold you a year ago is still treating you well? Much more likely

However, this slower timescale means that big B2B companies are happy to run 10 to 15 years behind B2C companies in terms of user experience.

If someone knows what they want and have ordered it before, they can parse a webpage that looks like this:

or this:

or a catalog⁴ that looks like this:

While a one-time user for a product might struggle to figure out what is appropriate for them.

B2C Marketing

B2C marketing is the Wild West of the marketing world.

Bugs Bunny would have been the Don Draper of the West

Each company’s intended audience is different, and audiences can bandwagon onto each other quickly.

B2C marketing has to have a finger on the pulse of their market at all times to keep their market share.

For example, Arby’s responded to the rise of DnD popularity by making their own line of dice (yes, really).

For skeptics on this one, these dice sold out almost instantly and still demand a premium on resale platforms.

Compared to B2B, B2C companies have to be much easier for a naïve customer to navigate.

For example, LL Bean has a feature where you can enter your size for footwear you already own to estimate what you’d be in their products.

Instead of feeling like they’re buying a fully new product, this feature allows customers to slide more smoothly into an extension of what they already own, reducing friction in the buying process.

Conclusion

In this post we discussed the basics around Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer marketing strategy.

Now that you know the differences and similarities between these two common paradigms, you can start to better understand the landscape of marketing, what some common goals are, and who a company is likely advertising to.

1. I’m a sucker for companies that publicly publish brand use guidelines.

2. It would be a gross oversimplification to suggest that B2B marketing between Oil and Gas is all that close to B2B marketing within Big Tech.

3. Obviously, people are still the end purchasers even for companies. However, the buying process is significantly different, so the marketing approach should be different too

4. It’s not sexy, but a physical catalog that converts customers is still a form of marketing technology. Don’t discount non-digital technology. A colorful physical item can be a good sales tool.