Business Marketing: Present and Future

1. Business Marketing: Nature and Uniqueness Industrial marketing or the new term, business marketing, is the marketing of goods and services to industrial customers for use, in turn, in their own production of goods and services. The marketing of business goods and consumer goods have two attributes in common: a purchase is the usual outcome of the process and the result derives from some decision-making activities. In spite of these superficial similarities, business or industrial marketing problems must be handled differently from consumer marketing for several important reasons outlined below. (In what follows, we use the terms "business" and "industrial" marketing interchangeably.) This paper highlights areas of progress in structuring industrial marketing problems and outlines prospects for important new developments in the near future.