Analysis of Problems, Developments and Trends in Planning Communication and Promotion Strategies for Products and Services in Business-to-Business Markets

I examined Greek marketing managers’ attitudes and practices regarding to the planning of business-to-business marketing communications programs and their impact to competitiveness. According to the research aim, I investigated the following research questions: P1: How the business-to-business marketing managers perceive marketing communications? P2: Which of the business-to-business marketing communications activities will secure a successful value creation strategy? P3: What are the problems, trends and developments that affect the choice of business-to-business marketing communications tactics? Based on recent research thrusts for interdisciplinary research outlets, it was the first time that a doctoral thesis linked the economic aspect of the business-to-business marketing communications programs’ planning in terms of value-creation strategies and their impact to competitiveness empowerment in a micro-economic level. Nine (9) research hypotheses were tested: H1.= The managerial attitudes in new organizations are negative regarding to the value of marketing communications. H2.= The manufacturers (because of their technical background) are not characterized by positive attitudes regarding to the value of marketing communications. H3.= Positive managerial attitudes related to the value of marketing communications don’t affect the degree of managerial involvement for marketing communications planning issues. H4.= High level of information flow to the marketing management is not a characteristics of big suppliers. H5.= Marketing communications research doesn’t contribute to the high degree of active search of customer information. H6.= The degree of business-to-business marketing communications productivity is low where organizations are characterized by a high level of active search of customer information. H7.= The most profitable organizations have not achieved a high degree of coordination and cooperation of its employees in terms of effective customer information flow to the marketing management. H8.= Organizations that are characterized by a high level of active search of customer information have not secured a high degree of coordination and cooperation of its employees in terms of effective implementation of marketing communications programs. H9.= The most profitable organizations have not achieved o high degree of resolving problems during the planning of marketing communications. Regarding to the research method, the purposive sample included 200 business-to-business marketing managers. The sample size was determined with the goal of obtaining at least 25 responses from each of the following four categories of organizations: a.manufacturers, b.wholesalers, c.business services and d.organizations with the highest profitability and sales volume the last five years (1996-2000). Our intention was to reach business-to-business marketing managers with different experiences, attitudes and level of knowledge regarding to the planning of marketing communications programs. Data were collected by means of a 8-page questionnaire sent to marketing managers via post mail. Totally, 117 business-to-business marketing managers responded to our invitation to fill out the questionnaire. Based on the research results, research hypotheses H1. and H2. were not accepted. The completion of both literature review and our empirical research, led me to the formulation of a six-variable correlation that determined the effectiveness of business-to-business marketing communications programs