Week 1 MKT Discussion

Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words (Use APA Style):

Imagine that you own an office supply store that markets to both business to business and consumer customers. Discuss the differences that these two types of buyers have in making their purchasing decisions.  

Response: 

Reply to these two students below. Be constructive and professional in your responses. (minimum of 175 words) (Uses APA Style)

Student 1)

The consumer decision making process has five steps: problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and finally post purchase evaluation (Clow & Baack, 2018, p. 116). The office supply store needs to make information easily available to customers in the information search portion to increase consumer awareness of the supply store. They must also provide the right level of information to sway the customer to select this office story over all other alternatives. Finally, it can be helpful to reach out to customers immediately after their purchase with a satisfaction survey, for example, to understand their post purchase evaluation.

The business decision making process has similar steps but often involves more user groups. Buyers, influencers, deciders, gatekeepers and users all help make purchasing decisions (Clow & Baack, 2018, p. 139). The store should be prepared to meet the needs of everyone involved in the decision making process and prepare for some level of back and forth negotiation. With business to business sales, the office supply store should be aware of the quality, cost and profit decisions the buyer must make. These are often limited by corporate policy, so it is best to start having discussions with these buyers to understand what restrictions they may be forced to follow (minimum order amount, bulk sales, etc.).

Reference

Clow, K. E. & Baack, D. (2018). Integrated advertising, promotion, and marketing communications (8th ed.): Pearson.  

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Student 2)

The market for my store for a Business to Business would be more bulk supplies as most businesses use several large quantities of supplies from several reams of paper for copying to faxing as well as printing. They would also require multiple supplies of pencils/pens and folders/binders. The biggest thing of all would be the amount of laser ink needed for the fax/printer machines. The accounts would be larger by the scale. The frequency of deliveries would be more on a month to month schedule. My business would setup business accounts that would be a much higher form of credit.

Now from a consumer to customer stand point the scale would be much smaller and would be shopped more as needed than a set schedule. The customer would maybe only require a box of pen/pencils, a few reams of paper and a small amount of supplies. I would see a more steady flow of business from a normal consumer around tax time and when school is in session. The consumer would pay in small amounts which is greatly different than your average business.

The service would always be the same as customer service is my top priority. Big or small everyone is still a customer.

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