Consumer marketing is all about advertising. In fact, the marketing of a product costs more than 50 percent of a consumer's dollar. For some specialized goods and services, the percentage is much higher. However, in industrial marketing, it is close relationships, not advertising, that count.
According to Kenneth D. Weiss in Building an Import/Export Business, "The best definition of an industrial product is one sold to an organization rather than to an individual." However, depending upon its use, in some instances, the dividing lines between consumer products and industrial products is a gray area. Not many products are strictly consumer or industrial. In Essentials of Marketing, the authors, Richard R. Still and Edward Cundiff, state that their purchasers "characteristically take different approaches in making buying decisions." Consequently, marketing situations and problems may also vary, depending upon whether the item is marketed as a consumer or industrial good. The most common way to market industrial goods is the producer to industrial user channel. This is because many industrial markets are composed of relatively few potential users. One of the reasons that consumer advertising is not as effective in marketing industrial products is the way that advertising is increasing perceived by consumers who suspect that "advertisers are manipulating them and view advertising as unproductive and hence a wasteful addition to the cost of goods. In overseas markets, such perceptions are even more strongly held and by broader and more influential population segments."
Understanding international industrial marketing techniques
requires being cognizant of the motives that influence industrial buyers. These include "variations in factors such as economic development and politics and nationalism." In addition, such factors as perception of product and quality performance levels varies between countries. Industrial marke...