TCRP Report 51, "A Guidebook for Marketing Transit Services to Business" provides information on successful business-to-business marketing techniques with application to transit. The Guidebook provides motivation for doing business-to-business marketing, lessons from the private sector as well as the transit industry, guidance on how to implement a business-to-business marketing program, tools and techniques for business-to-business marketing, and evaluation measures. The report should be useful to transit planners, managers, marketing professionals, and others interested in the use of marketing strategies to build ridership. Traditionally, public transportation agencies have marketed directly to riders and potential riders. In recent years, many transit agencies and regional planning agencies have directed more of their marketing efforts toward business as one means of counteracting declining market share. Employer subsidy programs, guaranteed ride home programs, and nontraditional or customised transit services have been outgrowths of these efforts. Nonetheless, the transit industry, in general, has less experience in business-to-business marketing than do for-profit industries whose entire livelihood often depends on successfully targeting business customers. There is a substantial body of private-sector knowledge of the business-to-business marketing process, business-to-business marketing techniques, and marketing-oriented management that is transferable to the public sector. Thus, there is a need to identify the most effective and broadly applicable business-to-business marketing techniques that public transportation agencies can use. Multisystems, Inc., in association with Oram Associates, Inc. and Claire Barrett & Associates, was the contractor for TCRP Project B-8 and prepared the guidebook and the final report. To achieve the project objectives of identifying business-to-business marketing methods appropriate for use in the public transit industry and developing a guidebook that can be used by transit professionals for product development and business development, the researchers conducted a comprehensive review of the literature on current marketing practices to identify successful business-to-business marketing methods potentially applicable to transit. Further, criteria were developed to evaluate practices and methods used in business-to-business marketing and transit-to-business marketing. Four in-depth case studies were performed that demonstrate techniques and strategies that can be applied to a broad range of transit agencies. The analysis in each case study includes the background, situation analysis, methods of marketing used, customer-buying styles, and the reasons why these methods are applicable to transit. A summary of the lessons from business-to-business marketing, emphasising the key elements of sales and institutional change is also included. Finally, an approach for developing and implementing a transit-to-business marketing plan was completed. The final report, the companion piece to this guidebook, is titled "Marketing Transit Services to Business." It can be found on the TCRP home page (www4.nas.edu/trb/ crp.nsf) on the Internet's World Wide Web as TCRP Web Document 8. The report provides a comprehensive review of business-to-business marketing theory. The final report summarises the differences between business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing, and the resulting implications for transit-to-business programs. Also, the final report reviews the marketing process behind most successful programs and highlights tools and techniques that have been proven effective in business-to-business marketing. The final report concludes with a summary on "lessons learned" from the research effort. (A)
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