...Marketing Cisco Brand Columbia Southern University Unit I Marketing Cisco Brand Two questions are asked about Cisco, first how is building a brand in a business-to-business context different from doing so in the consumer market, and is Cisco’s plan to reach out to consumers a viable one? Why or Why not? In order to answer these questions about the company let’s start off with a little about the company. The company was founded in 1984 by a married couple who at Stanford University in the computer operations department. In 1990 when the couple sold the company and went public the married couple left the company. Shortly after the company went public the couple left the company due to conflicting interest with the new CEO and president. When evaluating if Cisco’s plan to reach out to consumers a viable by building a brand in a business-to-business context different from doing so in the consumer market clearly shows in its plan how viable the plan is. The backbone of the company was the internet, which made the company one of the fastest growing companies in history by earning over one billion to $300 billion between 1991 and 1999. However, years after the company made millions it soon found its brand awareness was at an all-time low. Cisco quickly realized in-order for the company to strive as it once did the company would need to start getting its brand out to other businesses. After developing partnerships with Matsushita, Sony, and US West to co-brand the company’s...
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...How is building a brand in a business-to-business context different from doing so in the consumer market? Cisco is the infamous routing and networking company that have used ingenious methods of both business-to-business and the consumer marketing. Cisco original product line was intended for sale to other business. Building a brand in a business-to-business context has some notable differences than doing so in the consumer market because it markets to different audience. Branding within business-to-business appears to be more centered on relationships of various companies. This is demonstrated when the company Cisco developed partnerships with Sony, Matsushita, and US West. Constructing a brand in a business-to-business also requires awareness or educational building activities. Cisco launched a television ad campaign to educate the consumer. In those ad campaign facts about the power of the internet where revealed to viewers in a series of questions. The target audience in a business-to-business is small and focused. In 2003, Cisco targeted corporate executives and IT decision makers to sell their products. Erecting a brand in a consumer market is more product-driven than relationship driven than the business-to-business marketing. When Cisco switched from business-to-business to the consumer market, they began producing several home entertainment products than covered a large target audience with various products for music, printing, video, and more. A new marketing brand...
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...How is building a brand in a business-to-business context different from doing so in the consumer market? Before answering this question, let me first define what Business to Business or B2B. Then I introduce what business to consumer or B2C in short form. Both B2B and B2C describe the nature and selling process of goods and services. While B2B products and services are sold from one business to another, B2C products and services are sold from a company to the final user. Any products or services exchanged in B2C mode can be considered a part of B2B. However, products which are transacted in the B2B market are never a part of B2C. An example will clear the difference between B2B and B2C. Personal Computer, for example, is a typical product of B2C. When a Cyber Café orders PC for a large quantity, the transaction is considered B2B transaction and as a result, the product is no longer B2C, but B2B. Building a brand in a business-to-business context is different from doing so in the consumer market because of the nature of buyers. In the B2B mode, buyers are normally another manufacturer, wholesaler or a retailer. While in the B2C market, transactions occur between a company and end users. By entering a new markets Cisco has gained new competitors such as IBM, Microsoft etc. In order to compete against these competitors Cisco uses the outstanding methods of both business to business and the consumer marketing. Initially, Cisco has been selling products to other businesses...
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...-HOW IS BUILDING A BRAND IN BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS CONTEXT DIFFERENT FROM DOING SO IN THE CONSUMER MARKET?? A- Not essentially different, I think. if a business markets to another business, that other business is a customer just like any other: it's in search of some specific value that a business may provide. The scale of the purchasing power between consumer and business market is about the same in most cases. The existence of consumers with similar needs creates consumer markets. And there exist businesses with similar needs to each other, so the marketing principles, brand-building or otherwise, remain essentially the same. B- But there has to be an essential difference for business-to-business in the fact that both marketer and buyers are oriented toward a market in the same essential way> Consumers are not oriented towards selling to a certain market, so this dynamic is simply absent from them. Consumers have needs (or wants, in any case), which is a fundamental component of the entire market system. Business-to-consumer marketing is based on those, and therefore the entire branding system is too, whereas business-to-business marketing is derivative of the consumer market. D- On the contrary, brands function essentially the same way for any marketing scheme, regardless of whether a market is derivative of another or not. in either case, brand-building is a matter of associating a customer's desired value--- or business's desired value, if the business is the...
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...cisco Question no 1: How is building a brand in a business to business context is different from doing so in the consumer market? Answer Building a brand in ‘Business-to Business’ context: Business-to-business (B2B) describes commerce transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer. Contrasting terms are business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-government (B2G). B2B (Business to Business) Branding is a term used in marketing. Building a strong brand that is able to set a company apart from other business is always an important job. However depending on who the intended client is determines how the company will build their brand. A brand is defined as a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or any combination to identify goods and services of a seller or group of sellers. (Burgess, C) While many things in branding are the same, building a brand that supports brand to brand, B2B, or brand to customer, B2C, sales has slight differences. In B2B branding, a focus will be made on making a strong connection with the client business in order to make their brand seen as the top choice and safe to do business with. In order to do this, the brand will be built around making strong and personal relationships with the customer to become the go-to source. Instead of mass marketing and small ads, B2B branding requires that the business be willing to accept the time to completely educate the professional buyers...
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...How is building a brand in a business-to-business context different from doing so in the consumer market? Building a strong brand that is able to set a company apart from other business is always an important job. However depending on who the intended client is determines how the company will build their brand. A brand is defined as a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them , intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors. (Kotler, Keller, 2012) While many things in branding are the same, building a brand that supports brand to brand, B2B, or brand to customer, B2C, sales has slight differences. In an online article entitled, Focus Area, Business Market, B2C and B2B are compared. Here are a few of those comparisons: In the consumer market, every customer has equal value and represents a small percentage of revenue, products are the same for all customers-the service elements are low, and costs are restricted to purchase costs. In the business-to-business context, there are a small number of big customers that account for a large percentage of revenue, products are customized for different customers-service is highly valued, and purchase costs may be a small part of the total costs of use. These are just a few among many comparisons between business-to-business and consumer market. In B2B branding, a focus will be made on making a strong connection with the client business...
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...Question/Prompt: How is building a brand in a business-to-business context different from doing so in the consumer market? Building a brand is important to both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) market. Many people think brand building, a marketing activity, is the same in both market, you are still marketing to people. The difference is the nature of the transaction. Buying a product for yourself and buying one for your company are very different process, very different emotional experience. In B2B market, the goal of any transaction is to help the company to stay profitable, competitive and successful (Murphy, 2008). When the purchase affects a company’s operation, the risk of a wrong decision is so high that they need to trust the brand even before they study the specification of the product. According to Overby (2014), a contributing writer of CMO.com, when she interviewed senior vice president of Newark Element14, what the prospects care about the most is that how well the seller understands their needs, their difficulties and how fast and how well this seller’s solution can solve. In other words, to gain trust, the seller has to show the prospects that they know their business, their needs, and their industry. All these only can be done in a long-term relationship building process and “after all, B2B purchaser are buying the supplier along with the product or service” (Donaldson & Rominger, 2009, p. 6) Purchasing a product in B2B market is often a long...
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...STUDY Advanced marketing. Marketing Excellence: CISCO 1. How is building a brand in a business-to-business context different from doing so in the consumer market? Developing a strong brand that would be able to put the company away from another business is a very critical job. It will depend on who the client are .It is also determined by how the company will develop and introduce their brand. A brand is means a name, symbol, or design, or any mark to identify different goods and services of a seller or group of sellers. “According to Walter Landor, founder of the Landor Associates, the world’s leading brand consulting firm; a brand is a promise that the company will provide satisfaction and quality.” In B2B branding, the focus is on how to make a strong relationship with the prospective client in order to make their brand as the top choice of the public or market To be able to do this, the brand is built to be very strong and the personal relationships with the customer must the top priority so that there will be a good output. Instead of using huge marketing and small ads, B2B branding focused on the business of having the consumer be educated about the product first before asking them to accept it. The buyers are being informed about the goodness of the product. They give seminars and workshops to be able for the buyer to understand why one particular product is worth buying and accepting. Upon doing this the buyer won’t mind the pricing and they will be less influenced...
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...LITERATURE REVIEW WHAT IS A BRAND? Branding is a discipline that has emerged from the consumer goods domain particularly fast moving consumer goods. Historically, brand has been inextricably linked to the product and branding is seen as the process of adding value to the product. A brand is a cluster of functional and emotional benefits that extend a unique and welcomed promise. This conceptualisation of a brand is universal and applies to various domains including FMCG, internet services and B2B. What changes in every context is the enactment of the brand. It is argued that the concept of a brand is universal, however some adjustments are required in line with the specific context applied; in this case the B2B context. Branding has myopically been viewed by business marketers as largely irrelevant to business markets. Associated mostly with emotional value, branding was believed to offer very little to what is traditionally considered a very rational process i.e. the organisational decision making process. More recent research acknowledges that despite the differences between B2C and B2B contexts both B2C and B2B brands need to engender trust and develop both cognitive and affective ties with stakeholders. THE BENEFITS OF BRANDING IN INDUSTRIAL MARKETS Branding in an industrial market must be perceived to convey benefits to various stakeholders for companies to financially invest in it. With regard to the company investing in branding a number of benefits have been identified...
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...strategy. We look at the questions to ask when compiling a digital marketing strategy, and a digital marketing strategy in action. Digital Marketing Strategy › What is marketing? Digital Marketing Strategy › Introduction 2.1 Introduction A strategy indicates the most advantageous direction for an organisation to take over a defined period of time. It also outlines which tactics and means should be used to execute this direction. Originating as a military term, strategy is about using your strengths, as well as the context in which you are operating, to your advantage. In marketing, strategy starts with understanding what the business wants to achieve, or what problem it wants to solve. It then considers the context in which the business and its competitors operates, and outlines key ways in which the business and brand can gain advantage and add value. In this chapter, you will learn: • How to define and distinguish business strategy, marketing strategy and digital strategy • The questions that need to be asked when assembling a digital marketing strategy 2.2 Key terms and concepts Term Definition Application programming interface (API) A particular set of rules and specifications that software programs can abide by when communicating with each other. It serves as an interface between programs and facilitates their communication, similar to the way in which a user interface facilitates communication between humans and computers...
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...How Is Building a Brand in a Business- to - Business Context Different from Doing so in the Consumer Market? Creating and developing a strong product brand is a very critical step towards placing or setting a company apart from its competitors. This step depends on many variables within the business environment within which the company exist and belong. For example a company has to understand its operation, its market and most importantly who its clients and competitors are. A brand is simply a name, design or mark that informs/tells consumers the identity of a products and also enables consumers to reduce most risk involved in the buying decision. To develop a business-to-business brand, a company must be willing and able to allocate and channel some of its resources and energy on educating its clients. This involves, introduction to the product/s in question and the company’s reputation such as its capabilities and the standard and quality of its product/s. Awareness and education and campaigns are the greatest tools in a business-to-business to help sell the reputation of a business and its brand name and product/s, which cisco successfully achieved. In a business-to-business the targeted group is usually a corporation, organization or company. During its business-to-business, cisco focused its attention on makers of IT decision within corporation and corporate executives to market and sell its products. Also products in this category market and sells its “self” through...
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...CISCO CASE STUDY QUESTION 1 How is building a brand in a business-to-business context different from doing so in the consumer market? ANSWER First of all we must describe what is meant by business-to-business. Business-to-business is a transaction that occurs between a company and another company, as opposed to a transaction involving a consumer (R wright, 2004). R .Wright further elaborates it as a term that may refer to a situation where one business makes a commercial transaction with another. This can happen through a business sourcing materials for their production processes or a business re-sells goods and services manufactured by other companies. Creating a strong brand that is able to set a business apart from other companies is always an important job. However for this to succeed knowing who the intended clients are, will assist the company in determining how to build their brand. According to Nick Kendall (2015), he describes a brand as a product, service or concept that is publicly distinguished from other products, services or concepts so that it can be easily communicated. e.g.(sign, symbol, words or combination of these, employed in creating an image that identifies a product). Business-to business branding requires that the business be willing to accept the time to completely educate the professional buyers about the product, instead of mass marking and small advertisements. The reason to have professional buyers is because they are already well informed...
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...How Is Building a Brand in a Business-to-Business Context Different from Doing so in the Consumer Market? Building a strong brand that is able to set a company apart from other business is always an important job. However depending on who the intended client is determines how the company will build their brand. A brand is defined as a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or any combination to identify goods and services of a seller or group of sellers. (2007) According to Walter Landor, founder of the Landor Associates, the world’s leading brand consulting firm; a brand is a promise that the company will provide satisfaction and quality. (Burgess, C) While many things in branding are the same, building a brand that supports brand to brand, B2B, or brand to customer, B2C, sales has slight differences. In B2B branding, a focus will be made on making a strong connection with the client business in order to make their brand seen as the top choice and safe to do business with. In order to do this, the brand will be built around making strong and personal relationships with the customer to become the go-to source. Instead of mass marketing and small ads, B2B branding requires that the business be willing to accept the time to completely educate the professional buyers about the brand. These professional buyers are used because they are well informed about the needs and goals of the purchase, and focus on purchasing a product that allows them to achieve higher revenues at a lower...
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...to consumers a viable one? Why or why not? As the book has mentioned, BusinessWeek has ranked Cisco the 18th biggest global brand after the company received $39.5 billion in revenue in 2008. Just by looking at this achievement, Cisco proves that its way of building its brand awareness has made the company staying on top of the game like today. Some plans that Cisco developed to build its brand awareness include: •Partnerships with Sony, Matsushita, and US West to co-brand its modems •The company launched its first television spots as part of a campaign entitled “Are You Ready?” •Cisco reorganized into 11 new technology groups and marketing organization •In 2003, the company introduced a new marketing message,” This is the Power of Network.Now.” •Television commercial •Eight-page print ad spread These plans have obviously helped the company to not only build brand awareness but it also builds name recognition and brand value. In addition, it communicates the company’s product line and competitive advantages better than it had in the past. Therefore, with these successful plans they’ve done in the past, I believe Cisco’s plan to reach out to consumer is viable one. - How is building a brand in a business-to-business context different from doing so in the consumer market? From reviewing the text and in reading the Cisco case study, it seems that business-to-business marketing consists of a more direct approach through very specific channels of distribution. Business-to-business...
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...1- How is building a brand in a business-to-business context different from doing so in the consumer market? From reviewing the text and in reading the Cisco case study, it seems that business-to-business marketing consists of a more direct approach through very specific channels of distribution. Business-to-business success is centered around more personal relationships between the partner companies. In the Cisco case this was demonstrated by Cisco's business to business relationships it developed with Matsushita, U.S. West, and Sony (Cisco). In comparison, consumer marketing is targeted at all the major demographic groups. Consumer marketing aims to capture sales through major retailers thus removing the personal connection that is inherent in the business-to-business relationship. In the Cisco case, it is obvious that throughout the 90's Cisco was extremely successful at working the business-to-business model and focused on technology companies and specific corporations to sale their internet based technologies too. This enabled them to become the largest company in the world in the 90's with over $500 billion in worth, however, they name brand through the consumer market was relatively unknown (Cisco). Cisco began making acquisitions in the 21st century of companies such as Linksys which began their efforts toward consumer marketing, away from business-to-business marketing. Cisco has continued to change its messaging, focus advertising on customers, and worked hard...
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