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B2C2B
(business to consumer to business)
At first sight this category
seems a lot less obvious than others. However, real-life examples
abound such as INTEL’s stickers on PC’s, which influence manufacturers
when they make their industrial choices. Indeed, suppliers like
INTEL are putting pressure on them thanks to brand power and top
of the mind awareness. Besides INTEL, also subsidises PC manufacturers
advertising campaigns therefore putting even more pressure on
them so that they promote INTEL chips as opposed to third party
components.
In some cases, such a powerful
marketing approach may even enable a supplier - however low in
the value chain – to narrow down the choice of end-users, through
the bias that it manages to introduce in the manufacturers’ sourcing
processes.
C2B (consumer
to business)
Italian researcher Giancarlo
Livraghi has a very good definition of C2B marketing:
“The most important activity in e-commerce isn’t selling. It’s
buying. Quite often that doesn’t mean buying online but checking,
comparing, analysing quality and price before baying in traditional
stores or services. Customer empowerment isn’t a legend or a theory,
it’s hard fact and it will grow as more people become more aware
of the tools they have to pick and choose – and negotiate. This
could be the single most important development in the new economy.
It may be daunting for some companies, but an opportunity for
all who know how to find the right clues. With or without the
Internet, in many businesses the concept of marketing (even of
market) will have to change radically. We are only at the beginning
of a development that can have vast and deep consequences”.
NB: Please note that this
list of categories is purposely not comprehensive, as they only
serve to prove that more than one approach is available.
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