CVDSTL

Archive for December, 2009

The essence of marketing is the exchange process, in which two or more parties give something of value to each other to satisfy felt needs. In many exchanges, people trade money for tangible goods, such as compact discs, clothes, or cars. In others, they trade for intangible services, such as child care, haircuts, or concert performances. In still others, people may donate funds or time for a cause, such as a Red Cross blood drive, a new gymnasium for a church or school, or a campaign to clean up the environment.
Although marketing has always been a part of business, its importance has varied greatly. Table 1.2 identifies four eras in the history of marketing: (1) the production era, (2) the sales era, (3) the marketing era, and (4) the relationship era.

The word marketing encompasses such a broad scope of activities and ideas that settling on one definition is often difficult. Ask five people to define it, and five different definitions are likely to follow. Continuous exposure to advertising and personal selling leads most respondents to link marketing and selling or to think that marketing activities start once goods and services have been produced. But marketing also involves analvzing customer needs, securing information needed to design and produce goods or services that match buyer expectations, and creating and maintaining relationships with customers and suppliers. It applies not only to profit-oriented firms but also to thousands of not-for-profit organizations that offer goods and services.
Today’s definition takes all these factors into account. Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, services, organizations, and events to create and maintain relationships that will satisfy individual and organizational objectives.
The expanded concept of marketing activities permeates all organizational functions. It assumes that the marketing effort will proceed in accordance with ethical
practices and that it will effectively serve the interests of both society and the organization. The concept also identifies the marketing variables—product, price, promotion, and distribution—that combine to provide customer satisfaction. In addition, it assumes that the organization begins by identifying and analyzing the consumer segments that it will later satisfy through its production and marketing activities. In other words, the customer, client, or public determines the marketing program. The concept’s emphasis on creating and maintaining relationships is consistent with the focus in business on long-term, mutually satisfying sales, purchases, and other interactions with customers and suppliers. Finally, it recognizes that marketing concepts and techniques apply to not-for-profit organizations as well as to profit-oriented businesses.

As noted earlier, the potential for the Net to create friction between manufacturers and sales and distribution channels is very real. But when done correctly, utilization of the Internet can actually enhance those all-important relationships with your channels of sales and distribution. 3Com wisely spent money on developing and marketing its Network Designer (Figure 1.10). Turning well-qualified leads over to its resellers can only enhance those existing sales channel relationships and quite probably attract more due to the extra sales support offered. Helping your vendors locate what products are where is another tactic that can be employed.
The Lee Product Locator allows partners, or anyone else for that matter, to search for a distributor that has specific product line in the colors, quantities, and sizes needed . Once the specific item is located, users can then find out how many miles that distributor is from them. BuildSoft  sells construction management software, including tools for CPM Scheduling, Historical and Take-Off Estimating, Purchase Orders/Work Orders,Job Costing, and Accounting. The BuildSoft site also acts as a clearinghouse for building and construction information on the Web and as a gateway to BuildNet, the BuildSoft online services network.

Exide makes it just a little bit easier for its value-added resellers and sales partners to promote their products with the Exide Electronics VAR Guide . The VAR kit enables resellers to “snap in” Exide Electronic product Web pages. The kit provides product pages, including photos, a UPS buyers’ checklist, and educational information on power protection. Also included is coding for online sales and more. The kit is distributed via CDROM or from the Exide site. This is smart thinking: In addition to solidifying relationships with existing sales channels, it extends the company’s message that much further.
One of the most effective sales support case histories I’ve come across has more to do with the powers of observation than with technology Jim Roth works for Document Services Sales Support. The Web site he administers is behind a firewall, so we can’t look at it from the open Internet. The site is devoted to supporting the salespeople out in the field. He checks the logs on the search engine to see what people are keen on.