B2B Branding via Social Media: Kemin Industries' Strategies

This report examines the use of social media for business-to-business (B2B) branding, focusing on Kemin Industries as a case study. It explores the advantages and disadvantages of using social media to build brand awareness, generate leads, and maintain business relationships. The report highlights how Kemin Industries leverages social media to connect with customers worldwide, build brand loyalty, and distribute information. It also addresses potential challenges such as security threats, time management issues, and misinterpretations that can negatively impact business relationships. Ultimately, the report emphasizes the importance of effective communication and strategic implementation of social media tools for B2B companies like Kemin Industries to foster trust and achieve long-term success. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and resources for students.

Running Head: KEMIN INDUSTRIES 0
Marketing

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Business-to-business branding via social media: pros and cons relating to B2B branding
activities on social media: How it eventually discourage business relationships
In the recent time, social media has changed everything. It has also changed the way of
communication. Business to business marketing is also about maintaining the relationship.
The reality is that business people have to deal with the other business people. By using
social media, b2b companies reveal the presenting opportunities. Social media is that
platform that helps the business in ensuring the interaction and communication across
different countries. The most essential aspect of the social media is the people and their
dependence on the relationship. As compare to several advantages, it is true that the era of
social media also provides the several threats to the brand manager.1
Kemin Industries is the family owned private business firm. It operates global nutrition
ingredient that headquartered in Des Moines, USA. It proves to be effective in providing the
services and products that helps in improving the safety, quality, safety, as well as efficacy of
feed, food and health products. Its product and service demand is growing well across the
globe. In order to operate its business effectively it communicates its other businesses on the
social media. Due to this, social media has proved to be the powerful tool for it. It also helps
in maintaining the business relationship for long. 2
The building of loyalty is the essential part in order to sustain the long-term client
relationship. Therefore, strong branding helps in creating the loyalty over a period of time.
business to business companies are also required to ensure all those factors that tends to
affect the decision of customers. Branding in the social media presents the company several
opportunities in order to demonstrate the brand personality. It is true that employees also
regularly using the social media in their daily work. Due to this, they are also presenting the
brand. It is also seen that LinkedIn is the most effective social media channel for the business
to business. The reason is that companies will have the complete control over the content that
held in promotion. It also creates the string tool for the marketers. It is true that marketer also
require the time to review the content suggestion section as per the target audience. Due to
1 Schultz, Roberta J., Charles H. Schwepker Jr, and David J. Good. "Social media usage: an
investigation of B2B salespeople." American Journal of Business 27, no. 2 (2012): 174-194.
2 Agnihotri, Raj, Rebecca Dingus, Michael Y. Hu, and Michael T. Krush. "Social media: Influencing
customer satisfaction in B2B sales." Industrial Marketing Management 53 (2016): 172-180.

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this, it proves to be the helpful element in order to understand the preferences of the audience.
3
Social media has expanded its wings across the globe by boosting the visibility of the
business to potential customers. It helped the Kemin Industries to reach the wider audience.
In the recent time, businesses are also increasing putting the concern on the positive
reputation of the business. by using several social media platform, it presents the brand.
social media also regularly release the new and innovative features in the rapidly changing
environment. It is true that the business partners also ensure their presence on the social
media. Due to this, social media marketing helps the B2B companies to collaborate and reach
with the business partners. Kemin Industries also stated that by actively performing on the
social media, it is easy to build the social connections. In the represent scenario, competition
has increased to the greater phase that requires the firms to ensure the innovation at the time
of using social media tools. At the time of contacting with other firms in B2B also, it is
essential to bring or show the innovative capability to the firm.
Kemin Industries is the ingredient manufacturer all over the world. It put emphasis on the
improvement of quality for across 3.8 billion people every day. Besides this, it provides more
than five hundred ingredients that are made for the pet food, animal and human health, food
technology, nutraceutical, crop technologies as well as textile industries. It feed to the
growing population by committing itself with the safety, quality, efficacy of food as well as
health related products.
Social media marketing is used widely in the B2B business. it is used in order to create the
awareness about the brand. It also helps in increasing the lead generation. Company can also
ensure the wider reach my suing the social media. It also becomes easy for the business to
circulate the information to number of businesses in a given period of time. At one time, it is
beneficial for the business to make contact with thousands of businesses. At the same time, it
might be possible that the misuse of information can be done by any one business. This can
lead to the leaking of the useful information. Business to business through the social media
helps the potential customers to feel excited to visit as well as follow the page. 4With the help
of social media, it also proves to be best in order to engage and connect with the pool of
3 Gillin, Paul, and Eric Schwartzman. Social marketing to the business customer: Listen to your B2B
market, generate major account leads, and build client relationships. John Wiley & Sons, 2010.
4 Bodnar, Kipp, and Jeffrey L. Cohen. The b2b social media book: Become a marketing superstar by
generating leads with blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Email, and more. John Wiley & Sons,
2011.

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potential clients. Several hacking issues come in front of the B2B business that hampers the
productivity. as a result, it is not easy for the business to keep the friendly contact with the
other business. Business also tends to trust less when one party discourage them.
At the time of ensuring B2B branding with the help of social media, it might be possible that
the employees provide the information to the competitors. Security threat is also one such
issue that can be develop through the social networking profiles. Hackers can also misuse the
information such as links, and email ids. When doing the business to business on social
media it is essential to give the proper time and effort. At the case of failure of giving time
and effort, it might be possible that this strategy fails. Time management also becomes one
such issue at the time of ensuring the meeting on social media. Sometimes, it is not possible
for both the parties to get free at some time. due to this, conflicts also started arising. When
both the business parties do not agree at one point at the same, it is not possible for them to
continue the contract in future. In the middle of agreement also, it discourage the business
relationship. IN this way, it also presents several barriers in terms of relationship 5
Kemin Industries also gets several benefits by using social media; it helps in developing the
awareness of its brand. It also allows the business in establishing the dialogue with the recent
as well as potential clients. The use of social media platforms helps in making connection
with the people. Therefore, it proves to be the powerful tool in strengthening the relationship
with the B2B customers. It tends to connect with its customers worldwide. Due to this, it is
not possible for the industry to connect face to face. The use of social media has simplified its
procedure by ensuring the connection in quick way. the ability to effectively communicate
with the help of social media is essential in order to make the success of b2b business. No
business will maintain the relationship if the brand is not recognised on the platforms of
social media.
In business to business, there are generally few customers and long-term business
relationship. Brand building is the essential aspect in the B2B companies especially for those
companies who are serving worldwide. Kemin Industries is one of the examples of this. It
increases its investment in the activities of brand building. Marketing and buying for the
business to business companies also tends to move toward relationship management. Values
such as reliability, trustworthiness, as well as credibility put the significant impact on the
5 Wang, William YC, David J. Pauleen, and Tingting Zhang. "How social media applications affect B2B
communication and improve business performance in SMEs." Industrial Marketing Management 54
(2016): 4-14.

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branding. Social media however proves to be the most valuable tool in building the
relationship as well as enhancing the brand. 6
Kemin Industries has also started the website with its name. This website ensures the
production, development and staging process for every new page. It has also introduced the
Skype for the business. It also gives emphasis on the enhancement of the relationship in order
to build the loyalty. By using social media, it builds the visibility and brand awareness. More
businesses are able to see the page when the company is actively present on the social media
platforms. It also acts as the effective distribution channel for the enterprise ideas, contents,
as well as offers. It is also possible to get the feedback from customers by using social media.
As a result of this, it tends to understand the need of leads, prospects as well as customers. 7
There are times when business relationship also gets affected due to the interaction on social
media. It is true that when a person communicates anything to other person, he or she might
not get the same meaning. Due to any wrong interpretation, the person starts breaking
relationship sometimes.it is the major disadvantage attached with the social media for
business to business branding. Due to this, social media sometimes discourages the
relationship. It also tends to break the contract in middle instead of tieing up for longer
duration of time. Besides this, business people want the whole information on the specific
time.8 Sometimes, it is not possible due to the network issue or any other technical issue. Use
of social media in order to provide the correct information to the correct person at the right
time also proves to be the time consuming process. This tends to frustrate the party and he or
she might not build the relationship. Kemin Industries also faces this difficulty due to the
presence of several parties all over the world. It is not possible for the companies to always
satisfy each party 9
Kemin Industries also uses social media devices in order to start engaging with the large
number of people. Several companies including Kemin Industries is utilising the
opportunities of social media tool. The use of social media helps it in interacting, sharing,
6 Cawsey, Timothy, and Jennifer Rowley. "Social media brand building strategies in B2B
companies." Marketing Intelligence & Planning 34, no. 6 (2016): 754-776.
7 Saravanakumar, M., and T. SuganthaLakshmi. "Social media marketing." Life Science Journal 9, no.
4 (2012): 4444-4451.
8 Brennan, Ross, and Robin Croft. "The use of social media in B2B marketing and branding: An
exploratory study." Journal of Customer Behaviour 11, no. 2 (2012): 101-115.
9 Karjaluoto, Heikki, Pauliina Ulkuniemi, Lauri Huotari, Saila Saraniemi, and Minna Mäläskä. "Analysis
of content creation in social media by B2B companies." Journal of Business & Industrial
Marketing (2015).

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creating, as well as exchanging information. It also helps in making the brand related
interaction between the several parties. It also becomes easy for the parties to interact at the
real time. Due to the presence of several business worldwide, it is not possible to always
ensure the face-to-face meeting. 10
In this way, it can be stated that the social media such a powerful and effective tool to nurture
the business. In the recent time, it presents several opportunities for the businesses. By using
social media tools, it is easy to access to the several businesses at one time. It is not possible
for the business to ensure the face to face meeting across the nation.11 Therefore, the access to
social media has given the several opportunities to business to contact with the other business
quickly. The social interaction is also proving to be the effective way to build the trust
between the buyer and seller that is quite essential for the businesses.12 Communicating
across the social media platforms also helps in erasing the misunderstanding and provides the
support. By ensuring the continuous meeting on social media platforms, it brings the seller
and buyer more closely.
10 Broekemier, Greg, Ngan N. Chau, and Srivatsa Seshadri. "Social media practices among small
business-to-business enterprises." Small Business Institute Journal 11, no. 1 (2015).
11 Coleman, Linda Jane, Kathryn Chandler, and Jian Gu. "Social media–a moving target." Journal of
Marketing Development and Competitiveness 7, no. 1 (2013): 73-77.
12 Iankova, Severina, Iain Davies, Chris Archer-Brown, Ben Marder, and Amy Yau. "A comparison of
social media marketing between B2B, B2C and mixed business models." Industrial Marketing
Management (2018).

KEMIN INDUSTRIES 6
References
Agnihotri, Raj, Rebecca Dingus, Michael Y. Hu, and Michael T. Krush. "Social media:
Influencing customer satisfaction in B2B sales." Industrial Marketing Management 53
(2016): 172-180.
Bodnar, Kipp, and Jeffrey L. Cohen. The b2b social media book: Become a marketing
superstar by generating leads with blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Email, and more.
John Wiley & Sons, 2011.
Brennan, Ross, and Robin Croft. "The use of social media in B2B marketing and branding:
An exploratory study." Journal of Customer Behaviour 11, no. 2 (2012): 101-115.
Broekemier, Greg, Ngan N. Chau, and Srivatsa Seshadri. "Social media practices among
small business-to-business enterprises." Small Business Institute Journal 11, no. 1 (2015).
Cawsey, Timothy, and Jennifer Rowley. "Social media brand building strategies in B2B
companies." Marketing Intelligence & Planning 34, no. 6 (2016): 754-776.
Coleman, Linda Jane, Kathryn Chandler, and Jian Gu. "Social media–a moving
target." Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness 7, no. 1 (2013): 73-77.
Gillin, Paul, and Eric Schwartzman. Social marketing to the business customer: Listen to
your B2B market, generate major account leads, and build client relationships. John Wiley &
Sons, 2010.
Iankova, Severina, Iain Davies, Chris Archer-Brown, Ben Marder, and Amy Yau. "A
comparison of social media marketing between B2B, B2C and mixed business
models." Industrial Marketing Management (2018).
Karjaluoto, Heikki, Pauliina Ulkuniemi, Lauri Huotari, Saila Saraniemi, and Minna Mäläskä.
"Analysis of content creation in social media by B2B companies." Journal of Business &
Industrial Marketing (2015).
Saravanakumar, M., and T. SuganthaLakshmi. "Social media marketing." Life Science
Journal 9, no. 4 (2012): 4444-4451.
Schultz, Roberta J., Charles H. Schwepker Jr, and David J. Good. "Social media usage: an
investigation of B2B salespeople." American Journal of Business 27, no. 2 (2012): 174-194.
Wang, William YC, David J. Pauleen, and Tingting Zhang. "How social media applications
affect B2B communication and improve business performance in SMEs." Industrial
Marketing Management 54 (2016): 4-14