Basic Marketing: A Global Managerial Approach

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic

Marketing: A

Global−Managerial

Approach, 14/e

4. Evaluating Opportunities
   in the Changing Marketing
   Environment

Text © The McGraw−Hill

Companies, 2002

http://www.mhhe.com/fourps

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final consumers, this was just

a nice benefit of using UPS.

But for many business cus-

tomers, knowing precisely

where stuff was meant saving

millions of dollars in inventory

costs. That opened customers’

eyes to the possibilities. Then

UPS set up a special sales

force to help firms link their e-

commerce websites directly to

UPS shipping data. That gave

it more opportunities to see

ways that UPS could improve

a customer’s distribution sys-

tem. Now, for example, if you

order a pair of Air Jordans at

Nike.com, the order is

instantly filled by UPS from

Nike inventory maintained at a

UPS warehouse in Kentucky—

and UPS delivers the sneakers

directly to you the next day. In

fact, if there is any problem

and you call the toll-free num-

ber on Nike’s website, it’s a

UPS employee at a call center

in San Antonio who answers

your call.

Sometimes UPS logistics

solutions don’t even rely on

UPS trucks. For example, Ford

Motor Company has given

UPS a contract to manage the

transportation and distribution

of over four million cars and

and strengths that help in this

competition. It has already

earned the trust of many

business customers with

whom it has close working

relationships. Its experience

and expertise are a competi-

tive advantage also. A decade

ago, UPS began to make huge

investments in information

systems, mainly to make its

own operations more efficient.

However, when the Internet

came along UPS quickly took

advantage of the technology

to make its package tracking

databases available to cus-

tomers (www.ups.com). For