Any marketing activity that occurs between two organisations can be termed as organisational marketing. Another terminology gaining, popularity for organisational marketing since the 1980s is called business-to-business marketing (Gross et at., 1993), which essentially means the same. These activities differ from consumer marketing mainly due to the fact that in consumer marketing, the interaction is between organisations and individual consumers. However, the term organisation is in itself very vague, where a definition by Turnbull in The Marketing Book, (edited by Baker, M., 1994), p217, terms it as “a group of people pursuing a common aim through coordinated activities”. Also it is acknowledged that organisational marketing, as compared to consumer marketing, is a more elaborate activity “characterised by complex interaction processes both within the marketing and purchasing companies and between these companies” (ibid, p235).
The origins of organisational marketing lie in industrial marketing, which was primarily concerned with industrial goods, which are used in the production of final consumer goods. Later, it was realised that not all organisations were engaged in manufacturing. Hence, to encompass other organisations like services, government bodies, institutions that operate for purposes other than profits, and many other organisation need marketing, the term of organisational marketing has slowly replaced industrial marketing (Wilson, D. F., 1994).
The organisational market is composed of diverse firms that often require a unique blend of goods and services to attain their own organisational goals. To operate successfully in such an environment, marketers have to isolate factors that stimulate demand and identify a target segment that needs to be served through a comprehensive marketing program. Next, marketers in organisational markets also have to deal with complex buying processes, where often more than