Digital, Social Media, and Mobile Marketing in industrial buying: Still in need of customer segmentation? Empirical evidence from Poland and Germany

This study investigates the necessity of customer segmentation in industrial buying regarding Digital, Social Media, and Mobile Marketing (DSMM) from the perspective of a German sensor supplier. First, we conduct a systematic literature review, extracting 37 articles in which our team of researchers jointly with a team of sales representatives of the supplier identify five changes in information behavior associated to customer segmentation: Increasing requirements for information, increasing number of sources, increasing information demands regarding data security and use of mobile devices as well as social media in industrial buying. Thereupon, we address the research question with an empirical study. Our sample includes 139 industrial enterprises from Poland and Germany, which purchase sensor technology from a common German supplier. We test the impact of the buying frequency, the function of the person buying, the industry sector and the country of origin on the perception of the five developments identified in our literature review related to DSMM. Based on these findings, we derive strategies for customer segmentation associated to DSMM in industrial buying.