B2B Marketing: Module Introduction and Learning Outcomes

Module Aims

This module provides a comprehensive introduction to the main theoretical and managerial issues of B2B marketing. It raises students’ awareness of the significance of B2B marketing in modern economies, in both local and global contexts. 

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

1. Demonstrate awareness of the current practices governing B2B marketing

2. Make recommendations about business-to-business marketing, including segmentation, marketing communications, branding and pricing.

3. Evaluate the role of customer relationship management in different business markets, including the role of trust, distrust and confidence and the organizational buying centre.

4. Understand the specific challenges of B2B e-commerce in different industries.

5. Identify and evaluate appropriate B2B Marketing theories and approaches related to current views on the importance of relational and technological aspects for corporate success.

6. Analyse and evaluate the impact of the B2B marketing mix tools on corporate performance for a particular segment.

The taught theories provide an overview of current best practices relating to the activity of building sound B2B marketing practices. The assessments will be split in two individual coursework.

1. To write a report on a general discussion on keys themes that differentiate B2B marketing from B2C.

2. To devise a suitable marketing plan for a specific B2B segment.

2.Prepare a marketing plan to cover the following areas: 

a)Identify the key macro drivers affecting the B2B sector in your selected sector. Please do not use PEST for this. (10%)

b)Analyse the core existing and emerging competitors in your selected sector using 4-5 years statistics to identify key trends in the industry coupled with the various strengths and weaknesses of the competitors. Please do not use Porters 5 forces model for this analysis. (20%)

c)Based on your research, identify and justify your key B2B segment to target for IKEA. (10%)

d)Identify your product & pricing strategy for your selected segment. (10%) 

e)Develop a promotional/communication strategy aimed at increasing awareness, developing leads and driving B2B sales for your chosen segment for IKEA. Include an array of justified promotional tools to reach your target B2B segment. (Please be sure to include academic justification of your chosen promotional methods).You should also include some costings and these should be based on your research taking due care to reference the sources of your costings. In addition, you should align your selected promotional tool with the AIDA framework and identify which element of the DMU it will target. Finally, you should include a detailed Gant chart which summarises your promotional plan which should be for one full year, starting from July 2020 (30%) 

To assist your busy manager, you should include a clear succinct executive summary [  THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY FOR THIS MARKETIN PLAN: Situated just inside the cover page and before the table of contents (but not included in the table of contents). This should be one entire page written in font 11, 1.5 line spacing, and typeface Tahoma, Calibri or Arial. It should be made up of 4/5 clearly separated paragraphs. Your first paragraph should briefly outline the aims or objectives of the report. Paragraphs 2 should outline succinctly the key macro and competitive issues. Paragraph 3 should outline the key recommended segment with brief justification, and your product and pricing strategy approach & justification. The fourth paragraph should detail the key promotional strategy recommendations with 1 to 2 general concluding sentences. There should be NO references cited in an executive summary. There should be no bullet points in an executive summary. Failure to include an executive summary will mean your grade for Presentation/Structure/Clarity & Executive summary will be capped at a maximum of 4/10.] in your Marketing Plan.