IBM B2B Marketing Strategy

A Dissertation Proposal for

Post Graduate Diploma in Management-Executive

by

Prashant Chaudhary Roll No. 10EX-034

under the guidance of

Dr. Kaushik Datta Associate Professor IMT Ghaziabad

IMT
Institute of Management Technology
Ghaziabad 201 001
Date: 11-June-2011

Table of Contents Introduction The Research Problem Research Design Time Frame

i.

Introduction:

Business Marketing is the practice of individuals, or organizations, including commercial businesses, governments and institutions, facilitating the sale of their products or services to other companies or organizations that in turn resell them, use them as components in products or services they offer, or use them to support their operations. The purpose of B2B marketing communications is to support the organizations' sales effort and improve company profitability. B2B marketing communications tactics generally include advertising, public relations, direct mail, trade show support, sales collateral, branding, and interactive services such as website design and search engine optimization. This project examines how IBM determined its need for marketing and formulated & implemented a marketing strategy for Routes to Market that was based upon observation of clients buying behaviors and aligned with their economic value as customers. The case describes how IBM identified seven preferred RTMs and assigned them to individual transactions; and how it developed a common terminology, sales management system and metrics across its product range and geographical operations to put the RTM strategy into practice using various marketing mediums. It looks at how the new strategy was introduced within IBM, and the effect that this had in terms of redeployment of investment and resources, as well as the result in terms of sales. Finally, the case illustrates how, in adopting its RTM Simplification Strategy, IBM shifted from a product-centric to a more customer-centric approach to the market.

ii.

The Research Problem:

This project will be conducting a research on IBMs B2B Marketing Strategy, the need for advertising itself, the routes to markets adopted and the outcome of its implementation. The problem definition can be described as below. a) Validate the need for Brand IBM to market itself b) Identify the different routes to market adopted by IBM in different conditions based on some variables c) Identify the variables involved in deciding the marketing strategy to be adopted d) Identify the effect of IBMs marketing strategy on its business e) Identify the performance measures

iii.

The Research Design: a) The general methodology of study: The primary research approach will be to investigate a set of field based cases of implementation of different strategies of marketing applied by IBM and acquisition of its customers & partners.

b) The data collection procedure: The primary data collection approach will be a series of semi structured interviews with project managers and team members from IBMs B2B marketing team and other IBM partners. More structured data will also be gathered using a standard questionnaire. c) The data analysis, qualitative analysis techniques and the form of the outputs of analysis: A natural starting point for thinking about IBM strategy is in the identification of its need to advertise & the unique approach it chose to adopt. Determining the relative efficiency of such differing strategies by analyzing whether they had the implied effect on customers or IBM could have cut short its marketing budget and still be able to create the same pool of customers.

iv.

Time frame: The time frame for the completion of the dissertation, stage wise and event wise, with details if possible, giving the expected day and dates of completion at each stage. a) b) c) d) e) f) Dissertation Synopsis: 15-Jun-2011 Sampling: 20-July-2011 Primary Survey: 30-July-2011 Questionnaire and Data Collection: 15-Aug-2011 Quantitative Analysis: 30-Aug-2011 Results and Conclusion: 15-Sep-2011