consume products or services, government agencies, institutions and resellers. The first category includes original equipment manufacturers, such as large auto-makers who buy gauges to put in their cars and also small firms owned by 1–2 individuals who purchase products to run their business. The second category, government agencies, is the biggest. In fact, the U.S. government is the biggest single purchaser of products and services in the country, spending more than $300 billion annually. But this category also includes state and local governments. The third category, institutions, includes schools, hospitals and nursing homes, churches and charities. Finally, resellers consist of wholesalers, brokers and industrial distributors. So what are the meaningful differences between B2B and B2C marketing? A notable characteristic of B2B marketing is that it is rarely 'product first' or 'service first'. Marketing messages lead with significant context that acknowledges the customer's need or problem first and then establishes the relevance of the vendor's product or service to the customer's situation. In B2C marketing, the product or service features and benefits are called out up front. The customer is expected to already know why they need the product or service. The buyer or customer is often a group or committee or department comprising several individuals who have specific roles in evaluating the proposed product or service. In B2C, the buyer is mostly an individual who needs the product or service for his or her own use. Offerings are evaluated mainly on price, reviews and word of mouth, although these are factors in B2B marketing as well A B2C sale is to a "Consumer" i.e. to a single person who pays for the transaction. A B2B sale is to a "Business" i.e. organization or firm. Given the complexity of organizational structure, B2B sales typically involve multiple decision makers. While the structure of a B2B sale involving an organization is understood, the psychology of a B2B sale, particularly from a marketing perspective, is not always devoid of human emotion. According to Bill Blaney (2012), a B2C and a B2B sale can be differentiated by the customer as either a "want" or a "need." While retail consumer sales rarely hinge upon a product or service that customers "need" in order to survive (pharmaceutical and other health industry products notwithstanding), business sales are more directly applied to the growth and survival of that particular company, organization or institution. As a result, marketing to businesses