Question

. Define and discuss omnichannel marketing to both B2B & B2C structures.

Why are multichannel and omnichannel marketing important concepts

Answer 1

(A) Omni-channel marketing is a buzz phrase that is used interchangeably with other phrases such as cross-channel marketing; multichannel marketing and my preferred term integrated marketing. Omni-channel is a complex, customer-centric approach to marketing. It's all about thinking holistically in terms of customer experience, interactions, and messaging.

A business-to-consumer market, or B2C, is the sale of goods and services from individuals or businesses to the final consumer. The seller makes its products or purchases them at a wholesale price, then sells them at a higher (or retail) price to the consumer, thus earning a profit. The consumer uses the products for his or her own personal use and is not interested in reselling the product. The types of product features consumers desire include value, convenience, efficiency in operation, dependability in use, and/or improvement in earnings. In B2C marketing situations, the marketer must always successfully match the product or service strengths with the needs of a definable target market position and price to align the product or service with its market, communicate and sell it in the fashion that demonstrates its value effectively to the target market.

There are two main channels for business-to-consumer selling. The first is the traditional “brick-and-mortar” store – a physical location for consumers to visit. Shopping malls, grocery stores, and restaurants are all examples of brick-and-mortar stores. Usually, a brick-and-mortar establishment offers consumers the chance to see, touch, and/or try the products. It also allows companies to provide face-to-face customer service.

The other main channel for business-to-consumer selling is e-commerce, or commercial activity conducted via the Internet. Sometimes known as “click-and-mortar,” this channel is rapidly expanding, as more people use the Internet for purchases of both goods and information. Business-to-consumer e-commerce reduces transaction costs by increasing consumer access to information and allowing them to find the most competitive price for a product or service. For companies, developing and maintaining a website is easier and less expensive than building and occupying a brick-and-mortar store. Examples of e-commerce stores are amazon.com, walmart.com, and barnesandnoble.com.

Business to Business (B2B) marketing refers to a market where other businesses, not end consumers, are the purchasers of the goods and services. B2B describes commerce transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer. Usually B2B transactions involve purchasing items that will make up the final product. For example, a chair manufacturer may buy steel for the frame from one company, wood from another, and the fabric from another. All these are considered business to business transactions. B2B marketing is usually quite different from other forms of marketing, particularly business to consumer ( B2C ). Business-to-Business Channels:- Like Business-to-consumer marketing, business to business also employs different channels, such as e-commerce or physical stores. However, due to the substantial differences in how B2B marketing works compared to B2C, there are additional channels. Many business-to-business transactions involve large sums of money, because generally the business will buy in large quantities. Therefore, it often makes sense to involve a representative from the selling company in developing, cultivating, and maintaining relationships that lead to sales. This person can help the purchaser plan for, set up, and use the B2B product.

E.g A trade show provides a platform for many different companies in the same general industry to display their products for other businesses to buy. A business will often purchase products at a trade show for use in their own products, making trade shows an important component of Business-to-Business transactions.

Business-to-Business E-Commerce: One of the major differences between business-to-business (B2B) transactions and business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions is the type of online (e-commerce) interaction. Typically, a B2C customer will purchase a product or service and, once the transaction has been complete, will have limited continued interaction with the company with regards to that product.

(B)  Omnichannel and Multi-channel marketing are two unique strategies that both aim to reach consumers and potential consumers by leveraging multiple channels.

1. Mimics your customers’ behavior: Personalizing your efforts to the right person at the right place at the right time. It mimics people’s ingrained behaviors that they’re already exhibiting. And then it allows you to reach people exactly when they need to be reached.

2. Puts your focus on the entire funnel: People first become aware of your product or service through social messaging, generic or display ads, then digging a little deeper with organic brand searches, and finally going back to your website to purchase. This solidifies what we’ve already discovered: that today’s _customer journey_ is fragmented. It jumps around from device to device or channel to channel.

3. Mobile-first viewpoint: One reason that customer journeys are so fragmented today is because of that little thing on your desk that keeps vibrating while you read this. Mobile internet usage outpaced desktop usage years ago. It’s even eating away at the time we’d usually spend on our desktop devices. It signifies the role that mobile devices play in continuing to shape how the modern customer journey evolves.

4. Leverages existing algorithms (to increase ROI): They measure how well you’re aligning each ad, to its audience, and the messaging or landing page they’re being shown. In other words, how well (or not you’re aligning multiple channels…and their messaging.

5. helps you unify messaging: We’ve seen that people require multiple touches before converting. And we know the customer journey continues to become a _multi-event, multi-device_ experience. Multi-channel marketing helps you unify that messaging across these touch points, events, and devices.

5. Helps you overcome banner blindness: Most people will simply skip over anything that resembles a banner ad when they’re reading a new web page. Instead of relying on it completely or avoiding it entirely, you need to link it up with your other marketing efforts in order to break through. Like, for example, your email campaigns.

6. Helps you go beyond email: If multi-channel marketing is the movement, then marketing automation is the response. It’s a broad strategy you can use to adapt, respond, and keep up. But marketing automation doesn’t just equal a bunch of annoying automated emails. And that’s a good thing, because those annoying automated emails are starting to decay.