Stage 2 - Business to Business Advertising

Business to Business adverting is a marketing strategy that involves the branding of goods and services just like any other form of marketing, however the transaction instead of being between a business and a consumer, it is business to business. Business to business marketing is also known as industrial marketing.

Advertisement 1: IBM - Universal Business Adaptor 

About the ad

The advertisement, released in 2003 from agency 'Oglivy & Mather', is advertising IBM's WebSphere Integration Software; a form of computer software that enables dynamic business processes and practises delivering a solution to all business situations. The advert is comprised of board members of an organisation being shown the perfect universal business adaptor by a salesperson. Answering all of the board members questions about the product, it seems perfect and they are very impressed, until the boss-like character asks if it works in Europe to which the salesperson replies "you need an adaptor." Concluding that there is no such thing as a universal business adaptor, offering IBM's software as the perfect solution. 

Opinion

On first viewing, I was left unsure if the product in the advert was the product being advertised, or it was about to be make fun of. Turns out it was the second option, captivating the target audiences in the advertisement (small-large business owners or IT developers), they are brought to believe there is a solution to the difficulty surrounding business software. Until the advert performs a u-turn making fun of the product, explaining that the adaptor needs an adaptor. Where after the confusion of the fake product is presented and attention from the target audience, IBM them presents the solution. very excellent marketing where the merge of emotion and fact benefit the consumer and eventually the company. 

Advertisement 2: NAB - Small Business

About the ad

This advertisement for NAB bank, released in 2011, follows a man who gave up his job to chase his dream of owning his own gourmet café. The advertisement follows a short story about the man, his day in the life of his dream job, his personal stories, and his interaction with customers. The last few seconds of the advert is comprised of NAB bank exclaiming that they 'see Australian/small business'. 

Opinion

The advertisement isn't known to be an ad for a bank until the last few seconds of the 30 second TV spot; this is both a good and bad thing. The advertisement conveys a very strong emotion following the story of a man who followed his dreams successfully, he talks about his life and work and he works in his dream café. The interesting thing about the advert is that after conveying all the emotion and advertising the company, there are no details whatsoever on the figures NAB charges to operate a small business, this isn't uncommon but people who don't appeal to the emotional side of owning a small business may be thrown off this advert and forget about it easily, whereas others feel a sense of comfort toward the ad and therefore NAB. The interesting tactic this advert implements is expanding its target audience not only to small business owners, but to everyone, hating their job and wanting to start a small business and be happy like the gentleman on the ad. 

Advertisement 3: Toyota - Fleet Cars 

About the ads

These adverts by Toyota specifically target business owners who require a fleet of cars to contribute to their business dealings. Offering a range of cars and ways to help manage the fleet of cars. Both of the adverts have the words 'find out more' at the bottom, linking to the Toyota fleet car section of the Toyota website. These adverts can be found on the banner of webpages. 

Opinion

As these ads aren't comparable to the videos shown previously. Both advertisements are very different however achieving the same goal. The first advert demonstrates that the workman in the yellow hat may not be able to manage a fleet of cars on top of the work he already does, so he is accompanied by a business woman demonstrated to help manage his fleet of cars, taking the hassle out of the situation. The second ad demonstrated that not only vans and dual-cab utes are considered fleet cars, as they are pictured, they are accompanied by a Camry and Corolla, Toyota's non- commercial vehicles, describing that they can also be considered fleet vehicles.  Both adverts take the expected hassle out of owning a business fleet of cars, giving the consumer piece of mind. 

Journaled Article

(2000) Kaplan S, Sawhney M, E-Hubs, The new B2B Marketplaces, pages 1-9. Viewed 15 September 2013

About the article

The article is presenting it's point of view on the future of business to business advertising, by way of the internet, by way of E-Hub's, which can be defined as a website specifically designed for business to business transactions. 

Relevance

I agree with the abstract of the article, business to business advertising will best be done on websites only business are likely to visit. The only advertisement remotely linking to this article is the Toyota Fleet advert, linking to the homepage. The first two advertisements were on television and had nothing to do with the article, however the money spent on advertising on television will be wasted on consumers who have little to no affiliation with owning/managing a business. All of these advertisements can learn from this article to implement new marketing techniques saving time and money.