An industrial market involves one business dealing goods or services to another business instead of a consumer base. Also known as the business-to-business market, this market encompasses three distinct variations, including businesses selling goods, businesses selling raw materials and businesses selling services. Each of these three happen in a variety of individual businesses. There are many advantages of this type of market over the traditional consumer market.
The industrial market focuses solely on the goods and services provided for producing a separate end product. This is an organizational market with its own advertising, distribution and sales. From automobiles to food, clothes and more, consumer industrial products would not be available without the industrial market first being utilized.
Many companies within an industrial market specialize in selling goods to other industries in order to help them produce an end product. These companies normally do not offer these products to the general public, because there would be little use for them to an individual consumer. A company producing an industrial loom for creating garments would be one example of a company utilizing this market. Computer programs are another example, especially networks or specialized programs that aid in the production of goods and services.
The industrial market equally benefits from groups that sell raw materials to other companies that use them to create end products. The selling companies tend to have some products that would be useful to individual consumers, but they generally sell goods in bulk numbers that are not practical for consumers. Some of these companies focus a small portion of the business on consumer goods but generally do only business-to-business deals. An excellent example would be selling raw wool to the same company that bought industrial looms, with that company using the wool and looms to produce sweaters, socks and scarfs.
The third type of industrial market deals solely with selling services to other businesses. These groups do not provide any physical goods but supply manpower and expertise in particular areas. This can be a physical act, such as cleaning up hazardous materials that are produced by industrial machinery. It also can be more data-based, such as providing business accounting for companies.
Size is the one great advantage that the industrial market has over the consumer market. This does not refer to the size of the product but to the pool of potential outlets. Unlike consumer products that must be marketed to fit many lifestyles and preferences, these products and services are aimed a a handful of specific business models. This makes refining a product and communicating to buyers much simpler.
