Trish Dominy (pictured below) compares B2C spend with B2B and finds consumer clients are the most cautious.

Walking through my local shopping centre at the weekend, I observed the huge amount of sales on, with many stores offering significant discounts on clothing and luxury goods. 

Though the shops still seemed exceptionally busy, there did not seem to be many transactions being made. It seems bargain hunters, instead of impulse purchasing vast quantities of everything on sale, were only purchasing a few of the best-priced and best quality products.

In our own list management business, it is similar – the consumer clients have cut back significantly on their volumes and are becoming increasingly more niche when making selections; ensuring they get every penny’s worth for their spend. 

Cautious spending, lower volumes and more multi-channel marketing seem to be the current trend. 

Interestingly, the B2B channel is in a stronger position than B2C. There is no doubt that if a person is buying a product for a company rather than for themselves, it’s a very different buying experience. Consumers need to be persuaded to part with their hard-earned cash and have historically been more likely to impulse buy. B2B buyers have typically been involved in a far longer purchasing process, which is particularly true of late. The decision making process is also travelling much further up the chain of command than previously, with many purchases involving more than one person. 

As with B2C, multi-channel marketing is also key in B2B – perhaps more so with the increasing availability of selections, telephone numbers and email addresses on a UK and International level. Many clients are seeing direct mail as the very first step in a much longer, integrated campaign combining telemarketing and email. B2B purchasers are, of course still motivated by saving money, but coupled with this is the intention of helping the business stay ahead of the competition and increase sales, perhaps by the purchase of a new contact management system or more energy efficient equipment. 

The findings of a the B2B barometer report (May 2009) indicate that the majority of B2B marketers are confident about the outlook of their own organisation and 40 per cent of B2B marketing budgets are expected to be accounted for by new media, with email campaigns, company websites and online advertising being the key drivers of sales. Research undertaken by B2B Marketing News (April 2009) reveals that 61 per cent of B2B marketers have not changed their marketing strategy despite the recession.

It is definitely not all doom and gloom for the B2C channel. Another UK index, The Bellwether Report, shows that the rate of decline for big brand spending slowed in quarter two of this year. The optimists believe this indicates that the worst is over in B2C. Certainly, consumer clients cannot fail to ignore the importance of prospecting, even in tough times. Where a strong brand exists, the quality of the data is high, a variety of selections and multi-channel options are available, response and sales will definitely follow.
 

Trish Dominy is list manager at RSA Direct – the UK partner within the Lists4Europe network. Email: trish.dominy@rsadirect.com