Key Issues in B2B Marketing and a Need to Develop Appropriate Theories and Models

KEY ISSUES IN B2B MARKETING AND A NEED TO DEVELOP APPROPRIATE THEORIES AND MODELS Muhammad Sajid Saeed Glasgow Caledonian Business School Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland – UK ABSTRACT B2B marketing is an ongoing debate since 1990s but the researcher’s community is unable to agree on any convincing B2B branding model because of lack of strong empirical support. This paper aims to fuel the discussion on examining B2B marketing research by discussing various key issues that are currently being debated in the literature. The study also investigates the importance of brand management in developing relationships between manufacturers and resellers. Findings of the paper suggest that organizational buyers and other marketing professional now recognise the importance of B2B branding but they are often afraid to adopt incomplete theories and models with narrow and myopic vision. The future research in B2B branding context should be based on the phenomenon that validates the importance of developing meaningful theories and models with strong branding concepts. Keywords: B2B Marketing, B2B branding, Key issues B2B branding, Manufacturer and reseller relationship B2B context, Benefits B2B branding. CITATION: Saeed, M. S. (2011), “Key issues in B2B marketing and a need to develop appropriate theories and models” Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, ISSN 2073-7122, IJCRB July Edition 2011-IJCRB Vol. 3, No. 3.

1- INTRODUCTION B2B marketing is different breed in terms of targeting an intelligent customer who is sophisticated and does not do impulse purchase. Over the past two decades, B2B marketing has emerged as a discipline in the marketing literature but unfortunately it has never received much attention of researcher’s community because of misconceptions about B2B concepts. As a B2B marketer, one is likely to face tremendous challenges such as improving lead quality, managing complex sales, and meeting the requirements of customers and

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