Basic Marketing: A Global Managerial Approach

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e

7. Business and
   Organizational Customers
   and Their Buying Behavior

Text © The McGraw−Hill

Companies, 2002

Business and Organizational Customers and Their Buying Behavior 195

usually coordinate the different dimensions of a relationship. However, as shown in

Exhibit 7-6, close relationships often involve direct contacts between a number of

people from other areas in both firms.^11

In cooperative relationships, the buyer and seller work together to achieve both

mutual and individual objectives. This doesn’t mean that the buyer (or seller) will

always do what the other wants. Rather, the two firms treat problems that arise as

a joint responsibility.

National Semiconductor (NS) and Siltec, a supplier of silicon wafers, have found

clever ways to cooperate and cut costs. For example, workers at the NS plant used

to throw away the expensive plastic cassettes that Siltec uses to ship the silicon

wafers. Now Siltec and NS cooperate to recycle the cassettes. This helps the envi-

ronment and also saves more than $300,000 a year. Siltec passes along most of that

to NS as lower prices.^12

Some relationships involve open sharing of information that is useful to both the

buyer and seller. This might include the exchange of proprietary cost data, discus-

sion of demand forecasts, and joint work on new product designs. Information might

be shared through information systems or over the Internet. This is often a key facet

of relationships that involve e-commerce.

Many firms share information by providing relationship partners with access to

password-protected websites. One big advantage of this approach is that it is fast

and easy to update the information. A customer can trust information that is the

same information used by someone inside the company. In addition, it provides easy

“click-here” self-service access for customers who might have very different com-

puter systems in their own firms. It also saves time. A customer can check detailed

product specs or the status of a job on the production line without having to wait

for a sales rep or someone else to answer the question.

Information sharing can lead to better decisions, reduced uncertainty about the

future, and better planning. However, firms don’t want to share information if there’s

a risk that a partner might misuse it. For example, some suppliers claim that Gen-

eral Motors’ former purchasing chief showed blueprints of their secret technology

to competing suppliers. Such violations of trust in a relationship are an ethical mat-

ter and should be taken seriously. However, as a practical matter, it makes sense to

know a partner well before revealing all.

Supplier Relationship Customer

R&D

R&D

Quality Quality

Finance

Salesperson Purchasing manager

Marketing

Production

Production

Engineering

Accounting Accounting

Informationsharing

Operat

ionallinkages

Legalbonds

Rela

tionship

• specificadaptat

ions

Cooperation

Exhibit 7-6

Key Dimensions of

Relationships in Business

Markets

Cooperation treats

problems as joint

responsibilities

Shared information is

useful but may be risky