There are two broad types of markets in the marketing environment·consumer markets and organizational markets. Consumer markets are those wherein the products and services sold are consumed by the purchasers. Organizational markets are those wherein the products and services sold are resold to consumers, processed in the creation of other products and services, or consumed by the purchaser as a part of the process of serving a consumer clientele.
Within the organizational markets classification, there are industrial markets, institutional markets, reseller markets, and government markets. With respect to business-to-business marketing, the relevant sub-classifications in the organizational markets classification are the industrial market and the reseller market. The industrial market is that in which the products and services sold are used by the buyers in the creation of other products and services, while the reseller market is that in which the buyers of products and services resell those products and services to other buyers.
In the reseller market, retailers resell the products and services directly to consumers, while wholesalers and distributors resell the products and services to either retailers or to firms in the industrial market. Wholesalers and distributors are a part of the business-to-business market. The industrial market is also a part of the business-to-business market.
A business-to-business marketing organization's external environment has been described as an external coalition. Included in this external coalition are (1) owners, (2) suppliers, (3) unions or other employee groups, and (4) the general public. Relatively recently, the concept of an organization's external environment as a coalition has been expanded. This expanded definition of the external environment for the business-to-business marketing organization includes the following elements:
1. Economic factors. The economic ...