Business to Business Marketing: Strategies and Case Studies

This report delves into the realm of Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing, focusing on two key strategies: Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) and Key Account Management. The report defines IMC as a method that integrates various brand promotion techniques to effectively market a product or service to a target audience. It highlights the significance of IMC in ensuring consistent messaging across various media platforms, including traditional and new media. The report also examines the crucial role of communication theory in understanding the audience's needs and emotions. Furthermore, it analyzes two case studies, Gray Dawes Travel and CDL, to illustrate the practical application of IMC. The second part of the report focuses on Key Account Management, defining it as a strategy for expanding relationships with major accounts and achieving sales targets. It emphasizes the importance of consultative selling and building strong customer relationships. The report discusses the advantages and disadvantages of Key Account Management and provides Intellect Soft as a case study. Overall, the report provides a comprehensive analysis of B2B marketing strategies, offering valuable insights into their implementation and effectiveness.

Running head: BUSINESS TO BUSINESS MARKETING
Business to Business Marketing
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Answer 1)...................................................................................................................................2
Answer 2)...................................................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Answer 1)
Integrated marketing communication (IMC) integrates various methods of the brand
promotion that promotes the particular product or the service among the target customers
(Finne and Grönroos 2017). All the aspects of the marketing communication works together
that increases the sales and the cost effectiveness of the products of a company.
IMC helps the Business-to-Business marketers in ensuring the consistency of the
message to various kinds of stakeholders. It provides an approach that helps in the delivery of
the consistent message to the buyers with the help of promotions of an organization which
spans across various kinds of the media like the television, magazine, internet along with the
social media. The consumers in the present age have access to various kinds of sources of the
information and they want to collect the product information on their own. The B2B
companies can take recourse to IMC for the co-ordination of the messages that aids in
building the brand image (Blakeman 2018). The consistency of the message appeals to the
people and it aids in the development of strong customer relationships. It helps the customers
in satisfying their needs. There exist various forms of the traditional media like the
magazines, newspapers along with the television. The new forms of media on the other hand
comprises of internet, social media along with the You Tube that helps the companies in
spreading the message more readily among various sections of the population. The
communications theory talks about the fact that understanding of needs along with the
emotions of audience can be stated to be essential for ensuring accuracy of the message
(Světlík 2017). The B2B Company have to encode the message in the form which can be
easily understood by receiver. The multiphase communication in the present age aids the
marketers in carrying out the communication directly with the help of the mass media. The
IMC helps in reaching out to various kinds of the stakeholders that stimulates the brand
awareness and achieves the brand loyalty for products along with the services of a company.

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It aids in the projection of the unified voice which reinforces brand among the various kinds
of the stakeholders (Valos et al. 2016). The process of the transmission of the consistent
message builds the trust along with the awareness among the clients along with the
customers.
Gray Dawes Travel is a leading travel management company within UK which was
established in the year 1865 by the entrepreneur Archibald Gray along with Edwin Sandys
Dawes. The company is proud about their rich heritage and they have stressed on the values
with the help of the IMC campaigns (Gdg.travel 2020). The message that is delivered with
the help of IMC of the company is that they are ethical and have the innovative bent of mind
that can provide a better travelling experience for the clients. The company takes recourse to
the IMC tools of advertising, sales promotion, events, social media marketing along with the
mobile marketing that have enabled the company in sending out the consistent message
among the stakeholders. The advertising with the aid of the newspapers along with the
magazines harps on the fact that they offer various kinds of flight, hotel along with the car
hire options that have ensured the agility of the company. The social media marketing and the
mobile marketing talks about the fact that they understand the need of the flexibility that
helps in satisfying the diverse kinds of needs of the people. CDL is instrumental in providing
the world-class software which aids in the growth of the insurance retailers (Cdl.co.uk 2020).
The trend setting solutions of the company have helped in producing the client base that have
taken care of the profitability of the company. CDL takes recourse to the integrated
marketing communication that have ensured the popularity of the company in the market.
The social media platforms of the company stresses on how the company supports the full
automation for the telematics along with the connected home devices that can provide the
retailers with the real-time pricing capability. The direct marketing campaigns launched by
the company helps the company in sending out the message to the client that the company

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applies various kinds of the technologies like the machine learning along with the big data
that have aided in transforming the experiences of people.
IMC aids the business in the arena of transmission of the consistent message that
appeals to different kinds of the stakeholders. It provides the useful approach that aids in
delivering message to buyers by taking recourse to various kinds of the promotional
strategies.
Answer 2)
Key account management refers to the process that aids in expanding the relationships
with the main accounts and it works closely with various kinds of the multiple business
departments. It is indicative of the process of the strategic account management which is
responsible for achievement of the sales quota (Badawi and Battor 2019). It helps in ensuring
development along with the retention of the strategic customers.
The main strength of key account management lies in the fact that it lays emphasis on
the sales resources for the retention of the customers that can generate high level of the
revenue. The consultative selling approach is taken recourse to that helps the business in
understanding the unique needs of the customers (Guesalaga et al. 2018). It brings about the
reduction of the risk which improves the business performance of a firm. It makes customers
dependent on supplier which increases the customer retention of a company. Strong
relationship with that of the main account helps the companies in the development of the
stable revenue streams. It helps in building the strong relationship at the senior level in an
organization. It lays emphasis on the resources which ensures that the key accounts are
satisfied with all the aspects of the service. The commitment from the senior executives along
with the cooperation helps in dealing with the main accounts (McDonald and Rogers 2017).
It helps organization in meeting criteria that enhances the satisfaction of the customers. It

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helps in the area of the prompt delivery and aids in providing the rapid response to the
queries. The drawbacks of key account management as a part of the integrated marketing
communication mix lies in the fact that it does not get the support from the senior
management of a company. There exists the insufficient commitment of the time along with
the resources that is necessary for the operation of the key account management. The
integration of the resources of the supplier proves to be a challenge that acts as a barrier in the
path of the delivery of the business results. It have been found that the company does not
align itself well for delivering full value of the solutions that can be said to be a disadvantage
of the key account management (Ivens et al. 2018). The whole company is unable to perceive
the departmental objectives that acts as a hindrance for a B2B company. There exists the
problem of the resentment along with the lack of the ownership from that of the regional sales
people that can hinder the process of the key account management in a company (Ivens et al.
2016).
Intellect soft provides the software development solutions that can help the companies
in overcoming the challenges related to the technological transformations in the daily along
with the large-scale operations (Intellectsoft.co.uk 2020). The company excels in the area
of the block chain development, cloud computing along with the augmented reality solutions
that have helped in the introduction of the security to the operations of an organization. The
process of the key account management have helped in the assigning of the dedicated account
managers who focuses on the arena of strategic management of an organization. It have
enabled the company in handling the account transitions that have helped the company in
building the trusted relationship with the client. The process of the selection of the main
accounts proves to be rigorous for Intellect Soft. It have to take into account various kinds of
factors like the growth potential along with the market potential that adds to the difficulties
for Intellect Soft. The position of the key account manager becomes redundant in the event of

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having too many accounts that poses the problem for Intellect Soft. The suppliers have the
limited capacity in managing the key accounts and the process of the integration proves to be
difficult for the business. The account management have to be handled in a responsible
manner that exists like a barrier in the path of Intellect soft.
Key account management proves to be useful for expanding relationships and it works
in working collaboratively with different kinds of the business departments. It is indicative of
a strategic process that helps companies in achieving the sales quota. It lays a great deal of
stress on the aspect of the sales resources which can retain the customers which can help a
company in the generation of the revenue. It adopts the consultative approach that can help an
organization in understanding unique demands of the people. The disadvantage of key
account management resides in the fact that there exists problem of insufficient commitment
of time and the resources.

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References
Badawi, N.S. and Battor, M., 2019. Do social capital and relationship quality matter to the
key account management effectiveness?. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing.
Blakeman, R., 2018. Integrated marketing communication: creative strategy from idea to
implementation. Rowman & Littlefield.
Cdl.co.uk, 2020. CDL | CDL - Innovate And Deliver. [online] CDL | CDL - Innovate and
Deliver. Available at: <https://www.cdl.co.uk/> [Accessed 24 March 2020].
Finne, Å. and Grönroos, C., 2017. Communication-in-use: customer-integrated marketing
communication. European Journal of Marketing, 51(3), pp.445-463.
Gdg.travel, 2020. Home | Gray Dawes Travel. [online] Gray Dawes Travel. Available at:
<https://www.gdg.travel/> [Accessed 24 March 2020].
Guesalaga, R., Gabrielsson, M., Rogers, B., Ryals, L. and Cuevas, J.M., 2018. Which
resources and capabilities underpin strategic key account management?. Industrial Marketing
Management, 75, pp.160-172.
Intellectsoft.co.uk, 2020. Software Solutions For Businesses - Intellectsoft UK. [online]
Intellectsoft UK. Available at: <https://www.intellectsoft.co.uk/solutions> [Accessed 24
March 2020].
Ivens, B.S., Leischnig, A., Pardo, C. and Niersbach, B., 2018. Key account management as a
firm capability. Industrial Marketing Management, 74, pp.39-49.
Ivens, B.S., Pardo, C., Niersbach, B. and Leischnig, A., 2016. Firm-internal key account
management networks: Framework, case study, avenues for future research. Industrial
Marketing Management, 58, pp.102-113.

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McDonald, M. and Rogers, B., 2017. Malcolm McDonald on Key Account Management.
Kogan Page Publishers.
Světlík, J., 2017. Integrating online advertising into integrated marketing
communications. Marketing Identity, 5(1/1), pp.206-215.
Valos, M.J., Habibi, F.H., Casidy, R., Driesener, C.B. and Maplestone, V.L., 2016. Exploring
the integration of social media within integrated marketing communication
frameworks. Marketing Intelligence & Planning.