Marketing B2B, Products vs Services: Is there a difference? - Issue: 2004 Qtr 2
Product marketing is a piece of cake. All you have to do is show a nice big photo of the product, list the features and technical specs, and it sells itself.
Service marketing is simple. Just put together a 100–slide PowerPoint presentation explaining what you do, and leave with a signed contract.
In your dreams, maybe.
The reality is that marketing a B2B product or a service is tough, and getting tougher. Products used to be easy to differentiate by quality, but now thanks to improved manufacturing processes, most companies can meet acceptable quality levels. And services (everything from software, consulting, and logistics to a variety of other outsourced activities) are more competitive and require a reason to purchase (or switch).
Whether you’re marketing a product or a service, what’s most important is to understand what people are really buying. And it’s often quite different from what most people are selling.
For example, research conducted for a firm that produces office seating revealed that they were perceived as having “poor quality”. But on deeper examination, the real complaint was about late deliveries. Interior designers and facility managers (their customers) equated on–time delivery with quality. It wasn’t about the “quality” of the chair. The company addressed the delivery issues, and their quality scores went up.
Increasingly, manufacturers are surrounding their products with services (“servicizing their products” so to speak) while service companies are “productizing” their offerings. An example of a product marketer “servicizing” is General Motors. After you buy the vehicle, you may continue paying for services like OnStar® and satellite radio — both of which are excellent continuing revenue streams.
And smart software companies, for example, have learned to not only bundle software into product suites, but to offer training programs (a product), and even repackage and sell their industry knowledge in the form of consulting “best practices” (a product that gets you where you want to go, faster).
So, whether you market products or services, you may want to consider surrounding what you sell with the special offerings that buyers are really looking for and that will help differentiate your brand.
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