Business-to-Business Digital andSocialMediaMarketing In response to business customers’

rapid shift toward online buying, today’s B-to-B marketers are now using a wide range of
digital and social media marketing approaches—from websites, blogs, mobile apps, e-
newsletters, and proprietary online networks to mainstream social media such as Facebook,
LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, and Twitter—to engage business customers and manage
customer relationships anywhere, anytime. You might not expect much by way of new-age
marketing from an old-line container shipping company, but think again. Maersk Line is one of
the most forward-looking and accomplished B-to-B digital and social media marketers in any
industry. Maersk Line has sailed full steam ahead into the social media waters with eight global
accounts on primary social media networks including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and
YouTube. Maersk Line has more than 1.1 million Facebook followers with an average
engagement of 7 percent per post, making Facebook a platform for engaging a broad audience
of customers and other stakeholders interested in the brand. On Instagram, the company
shares customer and employee images and stories to help visualize the brand. Institutional
andGovernmentMarkets So far, our discussion of organizational buying has focused largely on
the buying behavior of business buyers. Much of this discussion also applies to the buying
practices of institutional and government organizations. However, these two nonbusiness
markets have additional characteristics and needs. In this final section, we address the special
features of institutional and government market

InstitutionalMarkets

The institutional market consists of schools, hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, and other
institutions that provide goods and services to people in their care. Institutions differ from one
another in their sponsors and their objectives. For example, Community Health Systems runs
203 for-profit hospitals in 29 states, generating $18 billion in annual revenues. By contrast, the
Shriners Hospitals for Children is a nonprofit organization with 21 facilities that provide free
specialized health care for children, whereas the government-run Veterans Affairs Medical
Centers located across the country provide special services to veterans.

GovernmentMarkets

The government market offers large opportunities for many companies, both big and small. In
most countries, government organizations are major buyers of goods and services. In the
United States alone, federal, state, and local governments contain more than 89,000 buying
units that purchase more than $3 trillion in goods and services each year. 16 Government
buying and business buying are similar in many ways. But there are also differences that must
be understood by companies that wish to sell products and services to governments. To
succeed in the government market, sellers must locate key decision makers, identify the
factors that affect buyer behavior, and understand the buying decision process. Government
organizations typically require suppliers to submit bids, and normally they award the contract
to the lowest bidder. In some cases, a governmental unit will make allowances for the
supplier’s superior quality or reputation for completing contracts on time. Governments will
also buy on a negotiated contract basis, primarily in the case of complex projects involving
major R&D costs and risks and in cases where there is little competition. Like consumer and
business buyers, government buyers are affected by environmental, organizational,
interpersonal, and individual factors. One unique thing about government buying is that it is
carefully watched by outside publics, ranging from Congress to a variety of private groups
interested in how the government spends taxpayers’ money. Because their spending decisions
are subject to public review, government organizations require considerable documentation
from suppliers, who often complain about excessive paperwork, bureaucracy, regulations,
decision-making delays, and frequent shifts in procurement personnel.