B2B Marketing Case Study: Lyngrove Ltd Strategy & Analysis

This case study analyzes Lyngrove, a UK subsidiary specializing in printing product sales, to understand its market position and challenges. The company faces low market share and diminishing profitability. The analysis focuses on factors affecting growth and recommends strategies to increase profitability, including focusing on large UK printing firms, optimizing promotional activities, improving customer base information systems, and segmenting the market effectively. Peter Groves, the managing director, is tasked with implementing marketing strategies to consolidate the UK market, improve product quality, refine pricing, and explore online marketing opportunities to reach new customers and increase sales revenue. The study includes graphs analyzing customer profitability and cumulative gross contribution, highlighting the importance of targeting profitable customers and utilizing effective market realization strategies.

Running head: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS OF B2B MARKETING
CASE STUDY ANALYSIS OF B2B MARKETING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CASE STUDY ANALYSIS OF B2B MARKETING
Executive Summary
The study analyses a case study in relation to a company named Lyngrove that
specializes in the sale of printing products. The study is focused towards understanding the
current market position of the company and the challenges in front of the company that need to
be tackled effectively. The company is a subsidiary company that is being affected by low
market share and diminishing profitability. The study has been focused towards understanding
the greater significance of the various factors that can affect the growth of the enterprise.
Recommendations have been provided in regards to what strategies can be utilized towards
effectively increasing the profitability of the company.

2CASE STUDY ANALYSIS OF B2B MARKETING
Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Recommendations as a sales manager.............................................................................................3
Considerable strategic marketing options for Peter Groves............................................................5
Teaching Note:.................................................................................................................................8
Graphs and their analysis:................................................................................................................8
Strategic actions:............................................................................................................................11
Relationship portfolio analysis:.................................................................................................11
Segmentation:............................................................................................................................11
Key account management and rectifying poorly performing accounts:....................................12
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13

3CASE STUDY ANALYSIS OF B2B MARKETING
Introduction
The study essentially considers a case in order to evaluate the significance of the strategic
actions that can be taken to tackle the business challenges faced by business to business
enterprises. The company being considered is Lyngrove, a UK subsidiary of a US parent
company that is engaged with the sales of printing products in the markets of UK, France and
Italy. The company has a stable growth rate over the years. However, the growth rate is lower
than the annual market growth rate. The growth rate of the company over a period of five years
had been 2 per cent. However the market growth rate has been 6% for the same amount of time.
Hence, the identified issue for further analysis in the study is the lowering of the market share of
the company. The managing director of the company is Peter Groves is of the opinion that
Japanese companies are responsible for the low market prices that have resulted in the company
losing market share. The company have witnessed a marked downward shift of its profits
margins recently due to the rising prices for production and falling prices of the market. The
sales manager and the managing director both have crucial responsibilities at this point in time to
assist the organization in gaining much required productivity, revenue and momentum in the
market. The various strategies that can be effectively implemented need to be formed after
proper analysis and evaluation of the situational aspects. The analysis is done considering the
effective practices that could be implemented considering the wider positive implications that
can be derived.
Recommendations as a sales manager
As a sales manager it is important to identify channels through which profitability can be
increased without jeopardizing the long term sustainable growth of the company. In this case it is
definitely important for the sales manager to think about acquiring significant portion of the

4CASE STUDY ANALYSIS OF B2B MARKETING
market share and sustaining the same in the long run. It is quite evident through the study that the
main focus of the company now will be towards increasing their profitability from the UK
market. However, the major problem is that the company cannot get more staffing due to the
embargo that the US parent company have put on the UK subsidiary. It is important to generate a
comprehensive plan that can cover all the essential aspects that need to be considered for
increasing profitability (Brennan 2014). The sales manager should provide greater focus on the
UK market but at the same time needs to ensure the stable business operations in the other
markets such as France and Italy.
The first thing that the sales manager needs to consider is to focus on the specific needs
of the large UK printing firms. The promotional activities would have to be optimized in
accordance with the printing product requirements of the major UK firms. The biggest customer
considering revenue for the company is GIL, with a total sales revenue of 477,420. However, if
the discounts are deducted the revenue from this particular firm is 344,850. Hence, building
effective business relationship with this firm needs to be a priority. However the other firms like
TIC, DEW, ROY, GUS, LIA and TAT also need to be provided much importance. The larger
firms need to be targeted as building better business relationships with these firms can increase
the scope for profitability of the company. The working days that are present is 192 days. Here,
can also be seen that the meeting days that are considered not to be part of the working days are
15 days. Thus, it can be said that if meeting days can be reduced to 11-12 days the number of
days can be increased to 195 to 196 days. The Field hours could also be subsequently increased
leading towards greater productivity. Hence, the sales to the largest clients can be effectively
increased due to greater production, the sales to these firms would also proportionately increase.

5CASE STUDY ANALYSIS OF B2B MARKETING
An important aspect to be enhanced is the prospect of the systems that can be used for
producing customer bases information. These systems can further be utilized towards greatly
enhancing the working potential of the sales teams. The company does monitor the profitability
of the enterprise. However, the systems need to be optimized in order to make the process more
fluid. Since the responsibility for sales will be on the sales managers, it will be up to the sales
teams to devise a systematic plan for effectively tackling the challenges of the market through
the implementation of better information technology (Iyer et al. 2015). The review of the
customer profitability was able to point towards the larger customers of the company. This create
an essential situation where the customers that can provide greater revenues can be identified and
approached accordingly. It is important that the sales managers divide the market segments in
order to properly utilize the larger customers towards better profitability without having to
contribute much towards garnering resources (Krush, Sohi and Saini 2015). It has to be kept in
mind that attracting larger customers should also be the focus of the sales teams. The large
printing houses across the UK should be given preferences. The sales manager should also
devise strategies that can help to attract the attention of the large clients. The sales manager
should also focus towards zonal sales marketing where important market zones can be identified.
For example- a specific zone can contribute towards greater revenue if large number of printing
firms are present in that particular zone.
Considerable strategic marketing options for Peter Groves
Peter Groves has a significant responsibility in his hands for improving the profitability
functions of the business. It is important for him as the managing director of Lyngrove in the UK
to implement only the best marketing strategies towards consolidating the market of the UK.
Peter Grove is the managing director of the company and he has to ensure that all the operational

6CASE STUDY ANALYSIS OF B2B MARKETING
aspects are completely optimized for the effective generation of profitability. It is important for
him to devise a strategy that will help the company to maximize profitability without having to
bear a huge expense towards the production process (Woodside 2015).
The first thing to be considered is the segmentation of the market. Segmentation of
market will towards the better identification of the publics that the company would like to reach
(Bell, Bryman and Harley 2018). The primary division of the target market can be done through
the creation of segmented marketing areas. The segmentations that can be primarily done are the
business customers and the other customers. Moving forward the business customers can be
further divided into the larger printing firms, the medium sized printing firms and the small
printing firms. Moreover, another segmentation of the market can be done through the inclusion
of the publishing houses. The small scale non-business customers should be divided according to
the revenue that are generated from this section of the market.
A significant option available in front of the managing director is to improve the quality
of the product taking into consideration the specific requirements of the UK market. The pricing
strategy need to be improved if required. Moreover, the 4000 strong customer base for the
company needs to be increased. Hence, it is important that the newer firms are approached for
greater sales revenue. Another important aspect that need to be considered is the prospects of
realizing newer market. Publishing houses can be approached as new customers for the
company. Moreover, large organizations with printing requirements need to be identified (Bell,
Bryman and Harley 2018). The company should focus towards the greater realizations of the
various markets that are present within the UK.

7CASE STUDY ANALYSIS OF B2B MARKETING
It is important to form a strategy for effective realization of the market. The market
growth has been 6% per year however at the same time the company has only been able to garner
2% per annum growth rate. Hence, proper analytical techniques should be utilized in order to
find the exact areas of the market that have not been explored by the company. The company
could subsequently create strategies through which effective realization of the market of these
areas can take place. The company should utilize the opportunities that can be created through
online marketing. Online marketing process can bring the company closer to the target market
that might not be realized otherwise.
Online marketing can help to reach newer customers. Moreover, a large number of
buyers can be reached through this process. However, online promotional activities need to be
done effectively. It becomes much important that the most important publics are approached
through this process. The customers need to be provided by more options that will be suitable for
them. Since, social media is used by all kinds of businesses in the present times, it can be used
effectively towards reaching these businesses and displaying the products that they can be
interested in (Wang, Gupta and Grewal 2017). Hence it becomes much important that the online
sales channels are properly utilized. This sales channel can help to provide greater profitability to
the company. The market need to be approached effectively as the business customers are
generally more intellectual and aware of the available product options than normal buyers.

8CASE STUDY ANALYSIS OF B2B MARKETING
Teaching Note:
Graphs and their analysis:
Customer no
Customers by
profitability (nos)
Customer 1 100000
Customer 2 200000
Customer 3 30000
Customer 4 55000
Customer 5 250000
Customer 6 120000
Customer 7 60000
Customer 8 75000
Customer 9 55750
Customer 10 275000
Customer 11 300000
Customer 12 125000
Customer 13 150000
Customer 14 80000
Customer 15 95000
Customer 16 755000
Customer 17 275500
Customer 18 350000
Customer 19 175000
Customer 20 280000

9CASE STUDY ANALYSIS OF B2B MARKETING
0 5 10 15 20 25
0
100000
200000
300000
400000
500000
600000
700000
800000
Chart Title
Customer nos
Profit
Figure 1. Figure showing net gross contribution
(Source: Author)
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Cummulative value
Customer
Cummulative profits
Figure 2. Figure showing whale curve
(Source: Authior)

10CASE STUDY ANALYSIS OF B2B MARKETING
The two charts above point out that cumulative gross contribution and net gross
contribution based on arbitrary data presented in the excel sheet above. The first graph
shows the net gross contributions while the second graph shows that cumulative gross
contribution. The net gross contribution graph shows that the profit decreases with as the revenue
generated from customers keep on decreasing. This means that all customers are not equally
profitable and increase in the number of customers does not always mean increase in profit.
Wang et al. (2015) point out that firms have to incur immense expenditure to sell products and
thus low generated revenue from certain customers lead to losses. Lee, Kim and Kim (2016)
point out that this variance in profitability can be pointed out on a whale curve which shows that
cumulative profits earned from every customers. The graph showing whale curve shows that the
profitability rises steeply till the customers 7. After that its steepness decreases after that which
shows that profitability increases but the number of customers responsible for the profit falls. It
can be pointed out that net contribution shows that the profit decreases with customers. The
cumulative profit curve or the whale curve shows that the generated increases with addition of
customers though the rate varies which is evident from the decrease in the steepness of the curve.
Thus, it can be inferred that compared to net gross contribution curve, whale curve gives a
deeper analysis of profitability to business organisations. Hang, Geyer‐Klingeberg and Rathgeber
(2018) points out that the Whale curve only views that aspects of the company and not the
customers. The curve does not show the rate of customer satisfaction and the reasons responsible
for some customers generating lower revenue. Thus, it can be inferred from the above discussion
that though Whale curve can be implemented to measure profitability, it can be used to the actual
market position of the business organisations.

11CASE STUDY ANALYSIS OF B2B MARKETING
Strategic actions:
The following are the strategies which sales managers of the business organisations can
take to increase revenue per customer and profitability:
Relationship portfolio analysis:
Relationship portfolio analysis is a tool which companies engaging in business to
business marketing can apply to maintain prolonged communication and relationship with
customers. Mitrega and Pfajfar (2015) mentions that business customers have more resources
compared to individual customers and invest more amount of capital in buying B2B goods. It can
also be pointed out that business customers owing to their financial strengths are in better
positions in demanding compensation if their B2B products do not meet their requirements. In
fact, it can be pointed out that business customers can file litigation cases against the supplier of
goods in case the business products turn out to be of inferior quality. Thus, it means that the B2B
companies are required to maintain portfolio of their business customers more strategically. The
Segmentation:
It can be pointed out that the first step which business organisations can take to profitable
portfolio manage their business customers’ profiles. Lovelock and Patterson (2015) mention that
business companies spend immense amount of money to make business products like machinery.
Similarly, the business customers have to invest immense amount of capital to purchase these
B2B products. Thus, it can be pointed out from analysis that proper segmentation of business
customers is very important to ensure customer satisfaction of business customers and revenue
generation for the companies manufacturing business products. Sheth (2017) points out that this
concept is applicable for service market firms as well. For example, banks while selling business
products like current account and online payment gateways segment their business customer base