Business-to-business marketing: organizational buying behaviour, relationships and networks 165
to identify key accounts would take into con-
sideration such factors as technological capa-
bility and the ability to aid entrance to a new
market (Wilson and Mummalaneni, 1986). The
actual use of relationship portfolio manage-
ment to support key account management is
limited (Zolkiewski and Turnbull, 2001). For
the key account to be successful not only does
the customer have to be strategically important
to the supplier, but the supplier also has to be
important to the customer. Therefore, the sup-
plier not only has to offer a tailor made
product/service, but also ensure the customer
is sufficiently satisfied and valued to encourage
them to remain loyal. Berry and Parasuraman
(1991) identified three approaches to enhancing
customer value:
1 The addition of financial benefits, e.g. improved
credit terms.
2 The addition of social benefits.
3 The addition of structural ties, e.g. electronic
data interchange, special delivery
arrangements.
We would add to this the creation of techno-
logical bonds.
Suppliers also need to measure and mon-
itor relationships in order to improve their
performance, and be proactive and constantly
improving the products/services they are offer-
ing. The benefits to be gained from key account
management are believed to vary from indus-
try to industry.
It is necessary to have an understanding of
organizational buying behaviour as it equips
individuals with the capability to obtain what
they and other parties want from the process.
There is considerable synergy between net-
works, relationship portfolio management and
key account management; they all require an
understanding of the decision-making process
and the factors which influence it, but they all
put it into the context of the business as a whole,
and its array of relationships in the network.
We have previously noted in this chapter
that the relationship or interaction approach to
business markets can give valuable insights
into the marketing of consumer products, given
that the majority of such products are sold to
organizational buyers or intermediaries. How-
ever, it is interesting to note that relationship
management has been relatively recently
embraced (very enthusiastically in many cases)
by companies dealing directly with consumer
markets. This has been most obviously man-
ifested in the numerous loyalty card pro-
grammes developed by airlines, retailers, car
dealers and many others (see Christopher et al.,
1991; Buttle, 1996). Relationship marketing is
being taken further on the Internet, with com-
panies such as Amazon building one-to-one
relationships by placing the customer in their
own personalized environment on every con-
tact occasion (Dussart, 2000).
At the heart of this perhaps rather super-
ficial or fashionable management trend is the
explicit recognition by those companies
involved that strong ties between the supplier
and the customer are potentially of huge
economic advantage – it is considerably
cheaper to keep customers than to gain new
ones! It is, of course, critical if these relationship
management programmes are to work in the
long term that they offer real benefits to the
customer as well as the supplier (see Chapter 19
on relationship management).
We should also note that the challenges of
managing an array or portfolio of customers in
an FMCG market are conceptually similar to
those in, for example, the heavy engineering
sector. It is the application of the concept where
adaptation and flexibility are the core to
success.Conclusion
In reviewing various models of buyer behav-
iour, an attempt has been made to bring
together the various elements of organizational
buyer behaviour that were discussed under the
heads of organizational structures, activities