Abstract
Traditionally researchers and academics have differentiated industrial and consumer marketing. The dichotomy between these two fields of marketing has been investigated in literature for years. However, facing the growing number of papers challenging this theory and highlighting the parallels that can be drawn between them, the researcher has decided to investigate this phenomenon.
Thus, she focused her research on the possible implementation of a consumer marketing process, Integrated Marketing and Communications, in Business-to-Business marketing nowadays.
This dissertation examines this phenomenon by considering literature and arguments from both sides, and then, analysing the practices of marketers acting within the French machinery and equipment manufacturing and Retail trade industries, and academics’ views on these.
Marketing literature on the industrial and consumer marketing dichotomy, as well as Business-to-Business marketing literature, appeared as outdated and weak in terms of founding’s even more in the light of Business-to-Business marketing practitioners’ actual practices.
This dissertation shows that the Business-to-Business / Business-to-Consumer marketing dichotomy may well has been unfounded because differences in the practice of marketing in these two markets are not significant.
Thus, Business-to-Business marketing theory should be revised, and so do its models. The researcher provided there a revised version of Gilliland and Johnston (1997) model of Business-to-Business marketing and communications effects according to her findings, and considering the principles of IMC.
