Industrial Marketing

Industrial marketing, also known as business-to-business (B2B) marketing, is a branch of communications and sales that specializes in providing goods and services to other businesses, rather than to individual customers.

Cost-Benefit Analysis in Industrial Pricing

To formulate an appropriate industrial pricing strategy it is very essential to have an  analysis of the costs and benefits of the industrial product from the customer’s  point of view.

The benefits can be grouped into soft and hard benefits. Soft benefits includes  those benefits which are very difficult to assess, such as customer training,  warranty period, customer services, company reputation etc.  Hard benefits are the physical attributes of the products such as production rate  of machine, rejection rate of component and price/performance ratio.

The costs for an industrial customer mean price plus other expenses that are  incurred in purchasing and using the product.… Read the rest

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Pricing of Industrial Products

The industrial marketers should understand the various aspects of the  pricing, since pricing is the most critical part of industrial marketing strategy.  Different strategies such as market segmentation strategy, product strategy, and  promotion strategy are related to pricing strategy. In order to achieve the dual  objective such as to meet the company objective and satisfy the market needs,  the industrial marketer has to integrate the various strategies.  When the members of buying committee of a buying firm, purchase a particular  industrial product, they are buying a given level of technical service, product  quality, and delivery reliability. The other elements such as the reputation of the  supplier, friendship, a feeling of security and other personal benefits flowing  from the buyer-seller relationship are also important.… Read the rest

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Marketing Logistics

Logistics is a military term that refers to the management of various activities  like transportation, inventory, warehousing right from the stage of processing  the raw materials by the manufacturer to convert it into finished goods till they  are made available to the customer for use. While logistics management helps to  optimize the flow of material within the organization, supply chain management  crosses the boundaries of organization extending material flow integration  upwards to suppliers and also descending down to customers.  Logistics basically represents two primary product movements, (i) Physical  supply, concerned with supply of raw materials, component parts, and other  related supplies necessary for the manufacturing process.… Read the rest

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Industrial Distribution Channel Management

Channel designing is resorted to by the industrial marketer when he has to  develop either a new channel system or modify an existing one. As channel  design and management is a difficult and an incessant task, an industrial  marketer has to go through certain stages that are involved in designing a  superlative channel system. The various steps that are involved in channel  design process are analyzing needs of the customer, establishing channel  objectives, considering channel constraints, listing channel tasks, identifying  channel alternatives, evaluating alternate channels and selecting the  intermediaries.

The industrial marketer also has to take appropriate decisions on industrial distribution channel  management by selecting the right intermediaries based on the various steps.  … Read the rest

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Industrial Distribution Channel Design

It is very important that a distribution channel is properly aligned to satisfy the  needs of channel members and also for the success of any industrial marketing  strategy. A good industrial channel creates the communication and physical  supply linkages with existing and potential customers. Channel designing in industrial markets is a  dynamic process that consists of either developing the new channels or  modifying the existing ones.

Designing an appropriate industrial distribution channel and managing it is a tough and  continuing task. A well designed channel structure helps to achieve the desired  marketing objectives. A channel structure consists of types and number of  middlemen, terms and conditions of channel members, number of channels.… Read the rest

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Industrial Distribution Channel

When a company or a manufacturer produces goods or services, it has the  immediate responsibility to distribute and sell them to the industrial and  institutional customers. The industrial customers generally constitute of  wholesalers, retailers, manufacturers, educational institutions, governments,  hospitals, public utilities, and other formal organizations. There are various  intermediaries who are involved in a distribution and selling process helping the  manufacturers to make their goods reach the end users. Thus, a network or  channel that helps to flow the goods from the producer to the consumer through  a set of interdependent organizations (intermediaries) is called distribution  channel or trade channel or marketing channel.… Read the rest

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