Markedly, organizations need effective business-to-business marketing strategies. Ideally,
an excellent business-to-business marketing strategy increases consumer awareness and mutual
understanding concerning a product that a manufacturer is offering to the consumers (Armstrong
et al., 2014). To this end, a marketing strategy is a plan or a course of action that comprises of a
design whose aim is to promote the selling of a product or a service. As such, a marketing
strategy will focus on the marketing objectives and goals of a company combined into one plan
that is comprehensive (Venugopal, 2010). Ideally, through market research, business executives
come up or establish successful marketing strategies. Also, to get optimal profit, business
executives focus on the product mix that is right so that they can acquire the most profit from the
sale of a particular product.
Overview of Business-to-business Marketing
Another name for business to business marketing (B2B) is industrial marketing, and this
focuses on the services and products that a business sells to another business as opposed to
selling to the general public (Kotler, 2003). As such, through B2B sales and marketing, the
business utilizes the services and products purchased as components of their goods either to re-
sell, to support their operations, or for sale. This paper analyzes a business to a business case
study that involves the sale of vehicles or cars made of defective products (plastics). As such,
these have to be recalled from the market for rectification purposes. An analysis of a business to
business marketing case reveals the marketing strategy and its benefits applied by a company in
such a deal or an arrangement.
CASE STUDY ANALYSIS 3
Suggested Purchase Orientation to Aston Martin
Notably, businesses involved in business to business marketing must understand purchase
orientations. Towards that end, purchasing is the process through which companies acquire or
outsource capabilities and resources from external providers. Therefore, with a purchase
orientation, we mean the overall philosophy or strategy that guides managers who are in charge
of making purchase-related decisions, thereby delineating their influence and their span (Deepak
& Jeyakumar, 2019). Typically, purchasing is significant to most companies, and half of the total
costs that a company incurs goes to purchases. To this end, companies need to adopt
specialization so that they can lower their costs that are associated with developing the
technology. This plan will always lead a company towards economies of scale. In lay man's
language, economies of scale refer to the benefits that a company experiences or accrues as a
result of producing on a large scale. The nature of purchasing relationships is either high-
involvement relationships that a company establishes with its suppliers or low- involvement
relationships that a company establishes with suppliers.
According to Kotler & Armstrong (2010), purchasing orientations include procurement,
buying, and supply management. Considerably, Aston Martin requires these purchase intentions
as it seeks to source the significant plastics parts for manufacturing vehicles. Noticeably, the use
of substandard plastics to manufacture vehicles or cars by Aston Martin has caused more than
17,000 cars or vehicles manufactured by this company to be recalled. The buying arrangement of
these plastics could have caused the problem whereby when outsourcing, the plastic vendor
showcases superb plastics of high-quality but when delivering the plastic vendor manufacturers
and delivers substandard plastics to Aston Martin. As such, Aston Martin requires an effective
purchase orientation that will allow it to overcome this problem.
CASE STUDY ANALYSIS 4
The purchase orientation suggested for Aston Martin as it seeks to purchase plastics parts
for the manufacture of vehicles or cars is procurement. Arguably, through procurement, Aston
Martin will evaluate the weaknesses, strengths, and the ability of each of the suppliers to supply
plastic parts that are not defective. Besides, through this purchase orientation of procurement,
Aston Martin will assess the historical performance of plastic parts vendors and select the vendor
for plastic parts who possesses a proven track record. Again, through procurement, it is only
suppliers of high-quality plastic parts who will tender as the suppliers of these plastic parts are
aware of how thorough the procurement process is concerning vehicle plastic parts. Ideally,
through procurement, Aston Martin will make pre-purchase decisions that assesses the cost of
plastic parts, the quality of the plastic parts, the durability of the plastic parts, past performance
of the plastic parts, the availability of the plastic parts, and the reputation of the company that is
offering to supply the plastic parts. The analysis of these pre-purchase decisions will allow Aston
Martin to create high-involvement relationships such as strategic alliances with the vendor of the
plastic parts whom Aston Martin will select.
Corresponding Marketing Strategies in this B2B Context
As mentioned above, a marketing strategy is a plan or a course of action that comprises
of a design whose aim is to promote the selling of a product or a service. As such, a marketing
strategy will focus on the marketing objectives and goals of a company combined into one plan
that is comprehensive (Loudon et al., 2004). The marketing strategy that corresponds to this B2B
context is product strategy. Arguably, with this marketing strategy, Aston Martin will focus on
product differentiation and apply approaches and techniques that make their product unique. As a
result, Aston Martin will only procure plastic parts for manufacturing vehicles only from vendors
CASE STUDY ANALYSIS 5
who offer unique plastic parts that are of high-quality. As such, Aston Martin will lower the
chances of their cars or vehicles from being defective as a result of using defective plastic parts.
Moreover, the product marketing strategy will ensure that Aston Martin focuses on the
production of competitive vehicles and cars and will, therefore, purchase only the plastic parts
that are of high standards and that make their vehicles competitive in the global space. As a
recommendation, Aston Martin has to consider positioning its vehicles and cars effectively in the
market. Positioning will create a brand image and enable Aston Martin to close more sales since
customers will change their perception of Aston Martin vehicles as these will now be of
improved quality and efficiency. With the product strategy, Aston Martin will manufacture
feature-rich cars that are of superior quality.
To sum it up, an analysis of a business to business marketing case reveals the marketing
strategy and its benefits applied by a company in such a deal or an arrangement. B2B marketing
focuses on the services and products that a business sells to another business as opposed to
selling to the general public. As such, through B2B sales and marketing, the business utilizes the
services and products purchased as components of their goods either to re-sell, to support their
operations, or for sale. The recommended purchase orientation for Aston Martin is procurement,
and the recommended marketing strategy is product strategy. These approaches will ensure that
Aston Martin produces no more vehicles with defective plastics, as the focus will now be given
to the manufacture of feature-rich vehicles of high-quality.
CASE STUDY ANALYSIS 6
References
Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S., & Kotler, P. (2014). Principles of Marketing. Melbourne,
Australia: Pearson, Australia.
Deepak, R. K., & S.Jeyakumar. (2019). Marketing Management. Edu creation Publishing.
Kotler, P. (2003). Marketing Management.
Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2010). Principles of Marketing. London, England: Pearson
Education.
Loudon, D. L., Stevens, R., Stevens, R. E., & Wrenn, B. (2004). Marketing Management: Text
and Cases. Haworth Press.
Venugopal, P. (2010). Marketing Management: A Decision-making Approach. SAGE
Publications India.