B2B Marketing Course: Reflective Essay on Learning and Impact

This reflective essay delves into the learning experience gained from a Business to Business Marketing coursework. It highlights key activities such as creating marketing plans, understanding brand, product, and channel strategies, and implementing communication, pricing, and segmentation strategies. The essay emphasizes the importance of environmental assessment using tools like SWOT analysis and Porter's Five Forces. It also reflects on the value of collaborative learning within diverse groups and the impact of readings on shifting perspectives regarding the significance of B2B businesses. The coursework facilitated a deeper understanding of marketing plan implementation and overall skill development, leading to a plan for continuous learning and improvement.

Running head: REFLECTIVE PAPER
REFLECTIVE PAPER
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The coursework on Business to Business Marketing has gone a long way in assisting me
to work upon my knowledge and has also assisted me in ensuring that I will be successfully able
to improve upon my reading skills and undergo a thoughtful process which will help me in
understanding how the business works and how the different organizations tend to interact with
one another which in manner such that the overall scenario is largely convenient for them. The
main aim of the given reflective essay is to analyze the manner in which the given coursework
has gone a long way in assisting me to learn about various topics and how it has had an impact
on my learning process.
Activities contributing to the learning
In the given Business to Business Marketing coursework, I was involved in various
Activities and tasks which went a long way in improvising my overall skills. There were four
main activities and assignments which had to be carried out during the particular coursework and
each of these assessments contributed to the building up of my knowledge. The first assignment
involved the report whereby I had to choose a suitable B2B business and thereby describe a
product-market for the firm (Piercy, 1998). The task centered on the design of a market plan and
formed the first part of it. This also assisted me by helping me to understand that in order to form
a marketing plan the overall assessment of the environment has a key role to play and in this
context, it becomes extremely important to consider the factors as present and then take a
decision. By using the tools of SWOT analysis and Michael Porter`s five forces, I was
successfully able to understand the importance of these underlying factors and was easily able to
improve my knowledge. Following this, the second assessment was based on the Brand Strategy,
Product Strategy and the Channel strategy. Each of these strategies form a critical part of the

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firm and help in the understanding of the manner in which the product is brought out in the
market. The brand strategy goes a long way in ensuring that the branding of any product is
important to help it to gain a considerable share in the market (Beritelli & Schegg, 2016). This
was followed by the product strategy which helps in the understanding of what deliverables
needs to be presented to the different users in the form of a product and lastly the channel
strategy and the related learning helped me to understand that the right channel goes a long way
in assisting the overall welfare of the firm.
The third assessment involved the communication strategy, pricing strategy and the
segmentation strategy. These strategies like the previous ones form a critical part of the firm and
help in ensuring that the message which the firm aims to give out to the organization is
considered and that the segmentation of the firm are done in a manner such that it is able to help
the firm in targeting the right target audience. In addition to this, the assignment also helped in
understanding the correct communication mix to be used by the B2B businesses and the manner
in which these organizations need to ensure that the right price is being offered to them.
Lastly, the fourth assignment which involved the implementation plan helped in the
understanding of the manner in which the marketing plan needs to be implemented. Till now,
with the help of the three other assessments, I had learnt that the formation of the Marketing Plan
is very crucial to the success of the firm but in lieu of this, the implementation of the marketing
plan has a greater role to play and ensures that the firm is easily able to take the right decisions at
the right time. The implementation plan increased my knowledge and helped me to understand
the way in which the marketing plan comes into life and how important it is to ensure that the
plan is carried out as per the details.
B2B knowledge discussion

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Another aspect of the coursework was the involvement with the different members of the
group. It needs to be noted that as we were required to work in different groups, the knowledge
which I gained here, contributed to the growth in my overall personality as well (Hutt & Speh,
2017). This is because the different team members as present belong to different cultures and by
working with them I got an insight into their thought processes and the manner in which the B2B
businesses functions and as reading through a wide variety of texts is not possible, we divided it
between ourselves and in this manner, we were able to ensure that we share the knowledge
gained with the help of one another through those texts and keep the grouped highly up to date.
Readings and their impact
During the coursework, we read a wide range of texts as well as journals which were
available on the selected portals that were made available to us. We read popular texts in this
domain like the follows:
Huang, R., & Sarigöllü, E. (2014). How brand awareness relates to market outcome, brand
equity, and the marketing mix. In Fashion Branding and Consumer Behaviors (pp. 113-
132). Springer, New York, NY.
Hutt, M. D., & Speh, T. W. (2017). Business Marketing Management B2B, Loose-Leaf Version.
Nelson Education.
Pryor, M. G., Anderson, D., Toombs, L. A., & Humphreys, J. H. (2007). Strategic
implementation as a core competency: the 5P's model. Journal of management
Research, 7(1), 3.

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Rapert, M. I., Velliquette, A., & Garretson, J. A. (2002). The strategic implementation process:
evoking strategic consensus through communication. Journal of Business
Research, 55(4), 301-310.
Through these readings I was able to understand the manner in which the eminent authors
presented their ideas and analyzed various case studies available in the books as well. Moreover.
we were involved in a large number of online discussions as well which served a useful way and
assisted use to test our knowledge regularly and share it with the different people outside our
group. In this manner, I was able to capture a large share of knowledge which would not have
been possible if these techniques were not used.
Shift of ideas
Over the course, the different aspects of knowledge which I have gathered have been able
to cause a rift in my though process and at present I am under the belief that previously I thought
that it is just the B to C business which is crucial to understand and holds utmost relevance, but
after undertaking the various assignments as present in the coursework I have realized that
undertaking a study of the B to B businesses is also very crucial to the overall success of the
economy (Pine, 2015).
Conclusion
Hence, from the given analysis which formed the basis of my reflective paper, it can be
stated that I have gained acute knowledge with respect to the subject matter and that I have been
able to increase my skills by undertaking the assessments as well. I have planned to further
improve myself and undertake continuous reading with respect to the same.

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References and Bibliography
Beritelli, P., & Schegg, R. (2016). Maximizing online bookings through a multi-channel-
strategy: Effects of interdependencies and networks. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(1), 68-88.
Blakeman, R. (2018). Integrated marketing communication. Pearson
Hill, C. W., Jones, G. R., & Schilling, M. A. (2014). Strategic management: theory: an
integrated approach. Cengage Learning.
Hutt, M. D., & Speh, T. W. (2017). Business Marketing Management B2B, Loose-Leaf Version.
Nelson Education.
Olson, E. M., Slater, S. F., Hult, G. T. M., & Olson, K. M. (2018). The application of human
resource management policies within the marketing organization: The impact on business
and marketing strategy implementation. Industrial Marketing Management, 69, 62-73.
Piercy, N. F. (1998). Marketing implementation: the implications of marketing paradigm
weakness for the strategy execution process. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science, 26(3), 222-236.
Pine, B. J. (2015). How B2B companies create economic value by designing experiences and
transformations for their customers. Strategy & Leadership, 43(3), 2-6.