For this assignment, read the case study, “Paychex, Inc.,” (Atached). Once you have read and reviewed the case scenario, respond to the following questions with thorough explanations and well-supp

MBA 5871, Business -to-Business Marketing 1 Cou rse Learning Outcomes for Unit IV Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to: 2. An alyze several strategic marketing B2B models. 2.1 Describe the core service benefits provided by a B2B company. 2.2 Compare the marketing strategies of competing B2B companies. 4. Discuss the organizational buying complexities, including the long sales cycle, multiple buyers, complex purchase process, and the high volume of sales. 4.1 Describe how the organization buying complexities relate to the selling process within the B2B environment. 5. Describe the guidelines for effective marketing within the B2B sector utilizing the market ing mix. 5.1 Explain how the selling process for a service within the B2B sector differs from that of a physical product. Reading Assignment Chapter 7: Managing Pr oducts for Business Markets Chapter 8: Managing Innovation and New Industrial Product Develop ment Chapter 9: Managing Servi ces for Business Markets Unit Lesson Building a strong business -to-business brand could be considered a bit more complex for a variety of reasons. Brand equity , as defined by Asker (1991) , is a set of brand assets and liabilities linked to the brand, its name , and logo. Developing a greater level of brand equity, whether B2C or B2B assumes that the customer has actually developed a greater level of loyalty to the brand. This is represented by Interbrand’s annual ranking of brands (see suggested reading for full ranking). The criteria for this ranking includes the following:  financial analysis or economic profit after tax ;  role of brand measuring the portion of the purchase decision that is attributable to the brand identity ;  brand strength measure the degree of brand loyalty amongst customers ;  brand must be included in a host of measurable data sources , such as Thomson Reuters and Datamonitor ;  extensive geographic reach to include a significant presence in Europe, Asia and North America , and in emerging markets ; and  public profile and awareness across the world. While you will notice many of the top rated brands listed are B2C brands, there are a wide array of companies that actually make the bulk of their money in the B2B arena. This includes Microsoft, IBM, Intel , and GE. Quelch (2007) identifies characteristics of these top B2B brands include a CEO that is willing to be a brand cheerleader communicating the benefits of the overall brand to everyone , while reducing overall risk and providing a common purpose to all the company’s stakeholders. Evaluation and control of marketing initiatives is rigorously calculated and monitored with tight controls on marketing efforts. Hutt (2013) id entifies four B2B brand building steps which are included below: UNIT IV STUDY GUIDE Development of Products and Services MBA 5871 , Business -to-Business Marketing 2 UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title 1. brand identity (creating brand awareness ), 2. brand meaning (creating unique brand associations in the mind of the customer , 3. brand response (addresses how the customer s respond to the brand , as they are looking for quality, credibility, viable options and superiority of product/service ), and 4. brand relationship (determines the strength of the relationship between the customer and the brand ). Positioning provides the B2B company with the ability to portray the benefits of the company’s products/services in the mind of the consumer. This image is demonstrated through the marketing mix (4 P’s).

As a reminder, this would encompass the product/service, price, place/distribution , and promotion. A solid positioning statement will utilize the marketing mix and communicate the product/service benefits moving the customer, specifically the target market, towards purchase. A good example of solid differentiation and positioning within the B2B sector is demon strated by Thirawit Leetavorn of Double A Paper. The product line is quality X erox paper , and the target market includes companies that are interested i n buying X erox paper for company X erox machines. See suggested readings for a link to a video of Thirawi t Leetavorn discussing the importance of differentiation and positioning to Double A Paper. Innovation and new product development within the B2B sector presents unique challenges. Hutt (2013) discusses the use of a product champion who is basically a member of the organization that creates, defines , or adopts a new idea and is willing to assume a degree of risk with this support. Many large corporations, whether B2C or B2B, are looking to create a culture of product championing and calculated risk taki ng. This might also be seen as a culture of intrepreneurship , which is the term used to identify corporate entrepreneurship. What this suggests is that corporations are looking for individuals with the mindset of an entrepreneur to be hired within their or ganization and to develop current employee s into embracing this mindset. These characteristics include risk -taking tendencies , innovat ion , perseverance, tenacity, passionate, high work ethic, confidence, high motivation , flexib ility, and organiz ation to name a few. These characteristics play out very well within a progressive organization looking to stay ahead of the competition with innovative products/services. Creating a culture where each and every employee feels as if their ideas are valuable increas es employee engagement within the organization thus creating a culture of innovative thinking amongst employees. While the advantages of corporate entrepreneurship or intrapreneurship are many, Garvin (2006) identifies several challenges to be overcome. On e of the largest challenges is that of the need to modify existing cultures. The traditional model of a corporation includes: predictability, stability, efficiency , and incremental growth. The intrepreneurial environment hardly resembles any of these chara cteristics with unconventional thinking and unpredictable processes being the norm. It has been said that there’s a fine line between corporate entrepreneurship and insubordination —clearly representing the mindset of the more traditional thinking managemen t teams. Merging the “old” system with the “new” entrepreneurial system is the key to successfully implementing intrepreneurialism within an organization. This brings forward the topic of failure. Instead of failure being viewed negatively, it should be v iewed as part of the innovative culture and process. It is actually a tool to learn by and to develop the skills necessary for the next successful venture. Within the suggested reading for this unit, take a look at the article in Forbes by Candida Brush wh o brings forward the case of Marian Croak, Senior Vice President -Domain 2.0 Architecture and Advanced Services Development at AT&T. She represents a true intrepreneur in her managing role of 2000 engineers, developers, designers , and other innovation exper ts. Her responsibilities include identifying opportunities, building a team , and acquiring the resources to pursue opportunities. Her view on failure suggests that it is important to fail fast and to learn from those failures. Avoiding failure stifles crea tivity and innovativeness within the organization which can be a costly mistake. Another dimension of product acceptability is service quality. Hutt (2013) traces five dimensions of service quality to include the below:  reliability (ability of the organization to deliver on promises ),  responsiveness (ability of the organization to provide assistance fulfilling customer requests ),  assurance (ability of the organization to maintain trust and confidence on the part of its customer ),  empathy (ability of the organization to treat customers with care ), and  tangibles (the ability of the organization to deliver with the supporting physical product s). The ultimate goal of a service organization is to provide each of these dimensions with perfection. In the event that this does not happen, service recovery becomes an important topic for discussion. The level of service MBA 5871 , Business -to-Business Marketing 3 UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title recovery within an organization suggests that the organization has a set of policies and procedures established to handle customer complaints . Timeliness is, of course, of utmost importance with an eye on understanding the customer service needs. In many cases, the B2B organization operates within a hybrid model , which combines both services as well as a physical product. It is important to u nderstand that through this offering, the product/service must offer a differentiated benefit to the customer, specifically the target market, in order to maintain the competitive advantage. Reference s Aaker, D. (1991). Managing brand equity. New York , NY : The Free Press. Hutt, M. D., & Speh, T. W. (2013). Business marketing management: B2B (11th ed.). Mason, OH: South - Western. Quelch, J. ( 2007, March ). How to build a B2B brand. Harvard Business Review . Suggested Reading Brush, C. (2014). Are you a corporate entreprenreur? Forbes . Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/babson/2014/01/28/are -you -a-corporate -entrepreneur / The article will help you see the importance of product development. Richea, J. (2012). Product -development stages . [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW y4UgbzCBU The article explains how product development is evolving in the various markets. Kettunen, J., Grushka -Cockayne, Y., Degraeve, Z., & De Reyck, B. (2015). New product development flexibility in a competitive environment. European Journal of Operational Research , 244 (3) , 244 -247.