Industrial Advertising – Business to Business Advertising

The most popular terminology used for industrial advertising is Business to Business advertising. This type of advertising generally includes a company advertising its products or services for the companies which actually uses same or similar products or services or we can say that the advertising company should produce the products which the other company needs for its productions or functions. For e.g. some mineral water companies which work on a smaller scale outsource the packaging bottles, the caps for bottles, the cover with name printed on it, etc. so for this, the advertisements of the manufacturers of bottles, caps and outer packaging paper can work.

A smaller to smaller and largest of all, every company has to do industrial advertising. For e.g. if a company is making coffee powder, it will sell its powder to the distributors who in turn will sale it to the retailers and wholesalers and also to the big companies who has a coffee machine for their employees. Thus companies manufacturing any products can be advertised to the other companies, like raw materials, the machineries used by other companies, spare parts of the machines which makes it work, anything.

Role of Industrial Advertising

• It minimizes the hunt for buyers.
• It helps in increasing sales of the company.
• It helps in making more and more distribution channels.
• It makes company work more efficiently to produce the desired product or service.
• It creates awareness among the customers or other companies about the products and services.

Process of Industrial Advertising

The strategies used in industrial advertising differ from company to company, as different companies have different products to be advertised. So, a single rule cannot work for all the companies’ advertisements. But the basic process which can lead to a successful advertisement is: knowing the objective for advertising - identifying the target companies - researching about the market conditions and the competitors - creating the ad to be delivered - selecting media to be used - what should be the budget allotted - execution of the advertisement - getting the feedbacks from the customers.

Media types in Industrial Advertising

The media generally used in the industrial advertising is print media and direct marketing.

Print Media includes business magazines, trade publications, newspapers, technical journals, etc. To make print media work efficiently, there are some do’s and don’ts to be kept in mind:

• Visual image of the ad should be very sharp and prominent
• The ad should be so impressive that readers get attracted towards reading it
• The highlight should be on the service or product offered and not the source by which it is being offered
• Let the ad be simple to be read (with no difficult fonts)
• The picture shown should not be irrelevant with the product.
• The ad should reflect the company’s image.
• The ad should to be in logical sequence if it is of two or more pages.
• Headlines should be catchy and suiting the product image.
• And lastly, at the bottom of the page, the company name, address and phone number of the respected office should be mentioned clearly without fail.

Direct Marketing includes:

1. Direct Mail - here, the newsletters, data sheets, and the brochures of the company are directly mailed to the customers’ postal address.

2. Telephonic Advertising - the advertising is done by calling up the customers on there telephones, giving messages on mobile phones, etc.

3. Online Advertising - includes companies sending e-mails to the customers or other companies enclosing information about their products ant services, putting online banners, providing e-shopping options, etc.

The advertisers also use other ways for promoting their products like participating in trade shows, trade expos, and fairs.

Thus, the companies can use any or every type of advertising, the important motto being increase in sales, producing best quality products, maintaining good relations with the customers, and achieving the desired goal.