B2B Marketing Quiz
1. Write your own definition of business-to-business marketing in about 15 words.
Key point is that answer must refer to the nature of the customer rather than to the nature of the
product. B2B customers are organizations. B2B marketing is marketing to organizations.
2. Allocate each of the products/companies to one of the following product categories …
(A) Entering goods – raw materials
(B) Entering goods – manufactured materials and parts
(C) Foundation goods – installations
(D) Foundation goods – accessory equipment
(E) Facilitating goods – supplies
(F) Facilitating goods – maintenance & repair services
(G) Facilitating goods – business advisory services
Product/company Category
Office cleaning company F
Management consultancy firm G
A manufacturing plant (factory) C
Office water coolers D
Car windscreens (windshields) B
Aluminium ore A
Computer processor chip B
Merchant bank G
Industrial crane C
3. What is the fundamental difference between an ‘original equipment manufacturer’
transaction and an ‘after-market’ transaction?
In an OEM transaction the customer buys a component for incorporation into a final product;
the final product will be sold under the OEM brand name. Examples are DELL computers
(which use components from many different manufacturers) and a Nokia mobile phone.
After-market transactions take place after the OEM product has been sold to an end-user. For
example, a memory upgrade to a Dell PC using components bought at PC World.
Business to Business Marketing, by Brennan, Canning & McDowell, Sage, 2010
Indicate whether the following are OEM transactions or after-market transactions
Transaction Write in ‘OEM’ or ‘Aftermarket’ (AM)
4. Intel sells Pentium processors to Dell OEM
5. Motorola sells 4Gb RAM chips to PC AM
World to sell through retail outlets
6. Microsoft sells Windows 7 software to OEM
Toshiba to install on new laptops
7. VARTA sells car batteries to Kwik-Fit AM
(tyre & exhaust garages)
8. VARTA sells car batteries to Nissan to use OEM
on new Micras
9. Tesco buys car mats from Autostyle to sell AM
in-store
True or false?
Insert ‘True’ or ‘False’
10. We say that the demand for B2B products and services is False
‘direct’
11. The key difference between B2B markets and B2C markets is False
the nature of the products bought and sold (for example, cranes in
B2B markets, washing powder in B2C markets)
12. In B2B markets customers often exercise a lot of buying True
power
13. The ‘buying centre’ is the office in which buyers and False
purchasing managers are located
14. A straight rebuy can become a modified rebuy if the ‘in- True
supplier’ creates customer dissatisfaction by missing an important
delivery deadline
15. As a rule, the elasticity of demand for B2B products and False
services is ‘perverse’ and the elasticity of demand for B2C
products and services is ‘normal’
16. Derived demand means that the demand for a product is True
created by the demand for other products which it is used to make
17. Business customers seldom employ professional buyers False
18. Organisational buyers generally spend a lot of time and effort False
when making straight rebuy decisions
Business to Business Marketing, by Brennan, Canning & McDowell, Sage, 2010
19. Put the following steps in the buying process into the correct order from 1 to 8
The wrong order The right order
Information search Purchase initiation
Negotiations Formation of evaluation criteria
Formation of evaluation criteria Information search
Implementation Shortlisting for RFQ
Evaluation of quotations Evaluation of quotations
Shortlisting for RFQ (request for quotations) Negotiations
Supplier choice Supplier choice
Purchase initiation Implementation
20. In addition to an Initiator, a Buyer and a Decider, the normal roles found in a B2B buying
centre are:
(a) Gatekeeper, Influencer, Evaluator
(b) User, Influencer, Gatekeeper
(c) Purchasing manager, quality manager, accountant
(d) Managing director, Secretary, Purchasing director
(e) None of the above is correct
You are the sales manager of a company that sells industrial cranes. One of your sales
executives has been to visit a client and has made a note of the key buying criteria that the
client is concerned about. Which criteria would you say are ‘task’ and which criteria would
you say are ‘non-task’? (Notice that the buying criteria have been recorded verbatim by the
sales executive in the language used by the client, so some of the descriptions are a little
curious.)
Buying criterion Insert ‘task’ or ‘non-task’
21. ‘I want a bigger b****y crane than those Non-task
b*****s down the road, because I’m not having
them showing me up’ (referring to his competitors)
22. ‘It had better be more reliable than the last Task
[expletive] crane I bought; that one kept on
breaking down’
23. ‘You lot always tell me that you’ve got Task
competitive prices … well, [expletive]! … You had
better give me a really good price or I’m not
[expletive] interested’
24. ‘Quite frankly, I don’t much like the Germans. Non-task
It’s not made in Germany, is it?’
25. ‘What’s the maximum load it will carry?’ Task
26. ‘Can you tell me about the kind of servicing Task
deals you offer? What about routine maintenance?’
27. ‘I hear that your boss takes his favourite Non-task
customers to play golf at Wentworth every now and
then. You know, I quite enjoy the occasional round
of golf.’
Business to Business Marketing, by Brennan, Canning & McDowell, Sage, 2010