The Industrial Marketing Management (IMM) is a US academic publication widely recognized as a platform for disseminating knowledge and promoting collaboration between academics and professionals in the field of business-to-business (B2B) marketing, also known as industrial marketing, the area of marketing focused on sales and relationships between companies.
Periodically, IMM promotes international meetings to bring together experts to discuss the latest news and trends in this field. And Insper was chosen to host the first event in South America — the 1st Industrial Marketing Management South America Summit, between the 2nd and 4th of October.
“We are very excited to bring the meeting to Brazil. This event is a unique opportunity to bring together academics and professionals who share a common interest in B2B marketing. We want to strengthen the collaboration network in this area and promote discussions that drive innovation and the advancement of knowledge”, he says Carla Ramos, Associate Professor of Marketing at Insper who leads the organization of the event together with Danny Claro, Full Professor of Marketing at Insper.
As Professor Carla explains, all companies are involved in some type of B2B transaction, even if their main activity is the production of consumer goods — for example, cell phones. For this product to reach the end consumer, it is necessary to involve other companies, such as suppliers and distributors. Thus, all companies have a B2B facet, while some also have a business-to-consumer (B2C) component.
Despite the importance of B2B marketing, this is a field that does not tend to attract as many academics as B2C marketing. “The study of consumer behavior generally has more appeal, with its nuances involving psychology and other related disciplines. It’s easy to identify with B2C. After all, we are all consumers”, says Professor Carla.
The summit at Insper it will be an opportunity to change this panorama a little, attracting researchers not only from South America, but also from other regions of the world who focus on issues involving B2B marketing. Registration is now open and those interested must submit their work by August 1st. The best works will be selected for publication in a special edition of Industrial Marketing Management.
“Hot topics”
A topic that Professor Carla hopes to be addressed are the challenges generated by the digitization of sales channels. During the Covid-19 pandemic, with travel restrictions, external sellers began to operate internally, which drove the need to develop more robust digital channels. “What was observed is that digitization is not only viable in the B2B context, but also highly effective and often preferred by the buyer when compared to interpersonal contact. Many companies chose to maintain this digital approach even after the return to normality,” says Carla.
Another important topic is data analytics. Increasingly, companies are turning to big data to make strategic decisions, such as developing offerings, identifying trends, and improving performance. This movement toward data analytics is intensifying.
The two topics, digitization, and data analytics are considered “hot topics” in B2B marketing. “Although there is a vast literature on these topics in the B2C context, there is still a significant gap in empirical studies in B2B. For example, there are few studies that investigate the impact of digitization on company performance or that examine how data analytics affects sales and marketing strategies in B2B. Therefore, there is a lot of room for research and investigation in these areas.”
Another topic of interest, which is often discussed in the context of B2C, is the customer journey. This is a relevant and current topic, especially due to changes in the sales strategies of companies, such as those offering SaaS (software as a service) services, for example. “Instead of sending a salesperson to interact directly with the customer, many of these companies adopt self-service models, which completely transforms the dynamics of the customer journey,” observes Professor Carla. The seller loses his/her traditionally critical role in B2B relationships, with the self-service product taking on this role with the end user.
The proposal of the summit is to bring together academics and professionals to foster better understanding and collaboration between industry and academia in the field of B2B marketing. The event is being organized in a format to meet the needs of both groups. On the first day, there will be a series of discussion panels and debates involving professionals in the field, as well as a workshop led by one of the IMM editors, for invited academics and managers. This workshop will address the writing of scientific articles that strengthen the relationship between industry and academia. In the following days, the focus will be entirely academic, with scientific research presentations focused on B2B marketing.
More information about the 1st Industrial Marketing Management (IMM) South America Summit is available here.
This website uses cookies
Privacy NoticeCookie Settings
