Price still remains one of the most important elements determining company market share and profitability. Generally, prices were set by buyers and sellers negotiating with each other. Setting one price for all buyers is a relatively modern idea. Price is the only element in the marketing mix that produces revenue. Price is also one of the most flexible elements of the marketing mix. At the same time, pricing and price competition are the number-one problems faced by many marketing executives. Yet many companies do not handle pricing well. The most common mistakes are these: Pricing is too cost oriented; price is not revised often enough to capitalize on market changes; price is set independent of the rest of the marketing mix rather than as an intrinsic element of market-positioning strategy; and price is not varied enough for different product items, market segments, and purchase occasions. Pricing Decisions in Industrial Marketing Continue reading
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.
Sales Promotion in Industrial Marketing
Sales promotion is an activity used by the industrial marketer to boost the immediate sales of a product or service. It is used to increase the sales by impressing the customers, rewarding them and also motivating the sales force to get more business. There are different techniques used in a industrial sales promotion activity like a free-sample campaign, offering free gifts, arranging demonstrations or exhibitions, organizing competitions with attractive prizes, temporary price reductions, door-to-door calling, telemarketing, using personal letters, etc. More than any other element of the promotional mix, sales promotion is about “action”. It is about stimulating customers to buy a product. It is not designed to be informative — a role which advertising is much better suited to. Need for Sales Promotion in Industrial Marketing To introduce a new product in the market. To influence the public with the help of new uses of the product. To increase Continue reading
Managing the Industrial Sales Force
Sales force management is one of the important task for industrial marketing managers where they take great care in selecting the right personnel who can help them to increase their sales. They also give their sales team proper product training, supervise their performance, frequently motivate them by offering compensations, and at the same time control the expenses incurred. There are various steps that are involved in the industrial sales force management. 1. Selection of Sales Personnel Personal selling starts with selecting the salesperson who acts as the representative of an organization. They help to create an image and reputation of the company apart from increasing the sales by offering various products and services to the industrial buyers. In addition to giving the details on product features to their prospective buyers, they offer other services like technical assistance, recommendations, ideas, and sharing their experience. They also posses the skills that are Continue reading
Industrial Product Development
Industrial product is defined as a complex set of economic, technical, legal, and personal relationship between the buyer and the seller. A product is a combination of basic, enhanced, and augmented properties. Basic properties are included in the generic product, with fundamental benefits sought by customers. Generic products are made differentiable by adding tangible enhanced properties such as product features, styling and quality. The augmented properties include intangible benefits such as technical assistance, available of spare parts, maintenance and repair services, warranties, training, timely delivery, and attractive commercial terms. The product package as expected by the prospective customers should be well understood by the industrial marketer. Industrial product development is the process by which the product ideas are generated, assessed, directed and converted into products. There are seven stages in the process of industrial product development. Idea Generation: The Industrial marketer should be consciously search for new product idea and Continue reading
Product Life Cycle and Industrial Pricing
Pricing strategies vary as the industrial product moves through its life cycle. The industrial pricing strategy is a key factor in each of the four cells of product life cycle. Introductory Stage Pricing Strategy: There are two pricing strategies available for a new product which is in the introductory stage of its life cycle. These are: (a) Penetration Strategy, and (b) Skimming Strategy. An industrial marketer must analyze the price from the angle of the buyers. How soon the firm should try ton recover the investment on the new product is another important factor to be considered by the industrial marketer. Penetration Strategy: When the price elasticity of demand is high or the buyers are highly price sensitive, strong threat exists from potential competitors and opportunity exists to reduce the unit cost of production and distribution with increase in volumes the penetration strategy is effective. The firm can draw on Continue reading
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. The bundle of attributes expecting by the buying committee are fall under three categories. (1) Product specific attributes (2) Company related attributes and (3) Sales personal related Continue reading