Developing an effective B2B marketing strategy requires studying how a firm can exploit its resources to achieve short and long-term success. It involves determining the business strategy, which is based on core competencies, capabilities, and partner resources. The business strategy then forms the foundation for the market strategy. Developing the market strategy requires understanding what is known in the market, goals to accomplish, and how to implement the strategy. An iterative process of planning, implementing, and updating allows the strategy to adapt over time based on learnings.

1. B2B Marketing Strategy
Development
Overview

2. Overview
• Developing Market Strategy – is the
process of studying how to exploit a
firm’s resources to achieve short-term
and long-term marketplace success,
deciding on what course of action to
pursue, and flexibility updating it as
learning occurs during implementation.

3. Developing Market Strategy
Business Strategy
Update Business Strategy
Resources: Fundamental
Value Based Strategies
Orderly Radical
# Core competencies # Product leadership advance advance
# Capabilities # Customer intimacy
# Partners resource # Operational excellence
Update Market Strategy
Knowledge
Orderly Radical
Market Strategy •Deliberate advance advance
What do we What do we How will we •Emergent
know? want to do it?
accomplish?
Anderson, James, James Narus and Das Narayandas (2009),
Business Market Management: Understanding, Creating, and
Delivering Value, Third Edition, Prentice Hall.

4. Business Strategy is the foundation for
developing Market Strategy
• Strategy is written more than any other
topic in management practice
• What is strategy? Porter contends that
firms fail to distinguish between
Operational effectiveness – “means
performing similar activities better than
rivals perform them”
• Porter says Strategy “is the creation of a
unique and valuable position, involving a
different set of activities.

5. Business Strategy as the foundation for
developing Market Strategy
A Resource Based View of the Firm
• The resourced based view “sees companies as
very different collections of physical and intangible
assets and capabilities”.
• No two companies are alike.
• Resources are the building blocks for strategy.

6. Business Strategy as the foundation for
developing Market Strategy
• Core Competencies
– A core competence is “ a complex
harmonisation of individual technologies and
production skills”
– As an example 3M Company has core
competencies in substrates, coatings, and
adhesives that it has brought together in distinct
ways to create a number of successful
businesses.

7. Business Strategy as the foundation for
developing Market Strategy
• Capabilities
– A capability is “a set of business processes
strategically understood”
– i.e. Walmart - is an example of a capability,
which closely coordinates business processes
of Walmart - and its strategic suppliers to
provide superior inventory turns.

8. Business Strategy as the foundation for
developing Market Strategy
• Partner Resource
– Partner resource is how firms share technology
and processes to improve speed to market with
other firms
– i.e. IBM - is an example of a firm that shares
resources and relies on outside partners to
develop complex ICT solutions.

9. Fundamental Value Based Strategies
• Product Leadership
– Leading edge products and services that consistently
enhance the customer’s use or application of the
product, thereby making rivals obsolete.
– Company pursues innovation relentlessly
– Variety based positioning
– i.e. Apple - is an example of a company that develops
leading edge products that change the basis of
competition

10. Core Marketing Strategies:
Product Leadership
Strategic Direction Corporate Culture
Ideas to Products Experimental
Skillful marketing Out of box thinking
Systems Organization
Rewards innovation Ad hoc, Organic
New product success Flexible, Changes

11. Fundamental Value Based Strategies
• Customer Intimacy
– Customer Intimacy “means segmenting and targeting
markets precisely and then tailoring offerings to match
exactly the demand of those niches”.
– Retaining customers over time
– Needs based positioning
– Your share of the customers business

12. Core Marketing Strategies:
Customer Intimacy
Strategic Direction Corporate Culture
Provide solutions Flexible
Improve customer’s business Have it your way
Systems Organization
Measures cost of service Empowerment
Customer loyalty Close to customer

13. Fundamental Value Based Strategies
• Operational Excellence
– Operational Excellence means “ providing
customers with reliable products or services at
competitive prices and delivered with minimal
difficulty or inconvenience.
– Dell is an example of a company that has
pursued operational excellence.

14. Core Marketing Strategies:
Operational Excellence
Strategic Direction Corporate Culture
Distribution Predictable
No-hassle service One-size-fits-all
Systems Organization
Standard operating Central authority
procedure Finite empowerment

15. Business Strategy as the Foundation for
Market Strategy
Strategy Making
• How firms develop strategy is a topic of keen
interest.
• Who Makes Strategy?
• Defining Purpose.
• Implementing change if needed.

16. Business Strategy as the foundation for
Market Strategy
• Who Makes Strategy?
– Conventional view is that top management make
strategy
– Top down Vs Bottom up
– Need to promote broader involvement of managers
across the firm is preferable.
– This requires a more democratic process of strategy
making.
– Identify revolutionary thinkers with fresh perspectives

17. Business Strategy as the foundation for
Market Strategy
• Defining Purpose
– Cornerstone of strategy making is defining
purpose in a mission or vision statement.
– Purpose can also be defined as strategic intent
(Hamal and Prahalad 1992)
– i.e. Komatsu

18. Planning Market Strategy
“Chance favours the prepared mind”
Quote- Louis Pasteur

19. Planning Market Strategy In Business
Markets
What Do we Know?
• It is important to emphasize the word
know
• It is important to distinguish between
what they know, what we believe, and
what we want to believe.
• We must be willing to challenge what
they think we know.

20. Planning Market Strategy In Business
Markets
What Do We Want to Accomplish?
• Management team attempts to reach a
shared agreement.
• Marketing strategy begins with targeting
segments and customer firms.
• Setting Goals and Objectives
• Positioning
• Building Brands

21. Planning Market Strategy In Business
Markets
How Will We Do It?
• The question is about thinking through
implementation of the market strategy.
• Firms can propose the most wonderful
sounding market strategies, but if they
lack the requisite knowledge, skills, and
abilities to put them into play, little will be
accomplished.

22. Summary
• Developing market strategy is the process of studying
how to exploit a firm’s resources to achieve short term
and long term success.
• It requires significant participation from many functional
areas.
• Business Strategy involves a resource based view,
product leadership or customer intimacy view of the firm.
• Radical change versus orderly advance.
• Through planning market strategy members of a
management team can compare, revise and update
individual market views, so as to devise alternative
courses of action

23. Summary
• We need to ask fundamental questions about
our firms operation such as
– What do we know?
– What do we want to accomplish?
– How we will do it?

24. You are welcome to contact Nigel Bairstow at B2B
Whiteboard your source of B2B Asia / Pacific
marketing advice
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