GUTIERREZ JULIO CESAR POR MEDIDAS PRECAUTORIAS”

B2B marketing consultants at Experian have found it useful to check the personal background of decision makers when trying to gauge their attitude to risk. For example, where a company has mainly male directors, who are broadsheet readers, nearing

retirement, with no children at home, and low credit card use, the decision makers would be assumed to be risk averse. Within the same broad business sector, a business run by younger, male and female, directors with children, higher credit spending, and wider reading would probably have decision makers more likely to take risks.

Source: Adapted from McLuhan (2003).

S N A P S H O T 5 . 9

Level 3. The supplier takes responsibility for a major part of the customer’s value adding capabilities and is in partnership with the customer. Outsourcing and subassembly arrangements typify this level of cooperation.

Level 4. Here there is a relational exchange and the supplier becomes a major source of strategic added value for the customer. For example, Norwich Union provide the financial expertise for Virgin’s Financial Services. This co-branding arrangement enables the value within the technical expertise of the supplier to be partnered with the strong highly visible Virgin brand.

Knox suggests four levels but there could be more depending upon the required level of sophistication. Implicit within this approach is that DMU perceived purchase risk is associated with the actions of suppliers and that the relationship incorporates levels of trust. Gao et al. (2003) determine that a buyer’s trust in a supplier is crucial to reducing their risk. Suppliers should therefore seek to build trust by allocating resources (for example, time, expertise, flexibility) to buyers in order to demonstrate commitment to the relationship and to be seen to be looking to the longer rather than the shorter term. Issues concerning trust and commitment are developed further in Chapter 9.

Summary

Organisational buying has a number of characteristics that reflect the importance and significance of this task. Organised and structured formally, groups of people coordi-nate their activities in order to make purchases for the organisation. Some of these purchases will be strategically critical and others will represent low-value consumables bought on a routine basis. Varying degrees of uncertainty are inherent, so organisa-tions adopt processes and procedures in order to reduce risk as much as possible.

New technology has had a significant impact on organisational purchasing activi-ties. It has introduced organisations to new suppliers, often based in different countries. It can reduce transaction costs and speed the process of negotiation and purchase. However, organisations need to ensure that their strategically important supplier relationships are protected and that technology is used to supplement, not destroy established, long-term, valued relationships. The notion that the relationship between suppliers and buyers develops from a purely transactional exchange through to one that is fully interconnected is intuitively interesting and is expanded in later chapters.

Discussion questions

1 Evaluate the key differences and similarities associated with both organisational and consumer buyer behaviour.

2 Write brief notes explaining the main characteristics and membership of the decision making unit.

3 With regard to the cases set out in Snapshot 5.2, discuss the key differences of the three approaches and suggest how they might each influence a potential supplier of photocopiers.

4 Name four different types of influences that impact on organisational decision making.

5 Find examples where IST has been used to help develop organisational buyer behaviour.

6 List Knox’s different relationship levels and find examples to illustrate each level.

Is this framework of value?

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Chapter 6

Interorganisational