Rethinking the Spectrum of Marketing Communication Tools in B2B : An Explanatory Case Study from a Multinational Automation Company

Abstract: Title: Rethinking the Spectrum of Marketing Communication Tools in B2B  Date: 2022-06-03 Level: One-Year Master’s Thesis 15, ECTS Institution: Karlstad Business School Authors: Jonathan Segerström & Elina Tidström Tutor: Bo Rundh Keywords: Business-to-business (B2B), Business marketing, Marketing communication, Digital media. Research question: How does a company within the automation industry work with their marketing communication? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explain the transformation of marketing communication in a company within the automation industry. By doing this, the study aims to contribute to the growing literature about marketing communication’s usefulness for the business market. Method: This thesis had a deductive approach in which a single case-study method was used to investigate the research area of interest. Having used qualitative methods of data collection, interviews were held and triangulated with other documents that were later thematized and analyzed with the chosen theoretical framework. Based on the analysis, conclusions were drawn. Conclusion: The initial conclusion from this case study is that along with the addition of a marketing function within the company ABB Robotics, they have become more customer focused. This new focus has allowed for more marketing communication tools being used, and more specifically those that traditionally are viewed as non-personal ones which have been enabled with developments in the digital media landscape. All marketing communication tools within the theoretical framework were identified, and found to support the personal selling function in different ways. The findings from this study suggests that it could be beneficial for B2B companies to deploy a wider spectrum of marketing communication tools, however, future studies would have to include more companies to further validate this statement.