Marketing Channel Strategy
product + service output bundle
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that this targeted, small corporate customer really values. In Sidebar 10.1, we take a look at CDW’s service outputs and how they provide value to end-users. SIDEBAR 10.1 CDW and Purchases by Small- to Medium-Sized Business Buyers 1 Personal computers virtually have become commodity products. The technology is well enough established that buyers know they can purchase a computer with a given combination of char- acteristics (e.g., memory space, weight, speed, monitor quality) from multiple manufacturers. In such a market, two questions immediately emerge: 1. How can any manufacturer differentiate itself from the competitive crowd to gain disproportion- ate market share and/or margins higher than purely competitive ones? 2. What role might an intermediary play when the product purchase appears to be a straight commodity one? CDW (formerly known by its expanded name, Computer Discount Warehouse) has risen to the challenge by adopting an enduring role as a valued intermediary in specific mar- ket segments—particularly small and medium business buyers and government/educational markets. In this process, it also has attracted the attention and business of major computer makers. Thus in 2017, it achieved sales of $15 billion, by carrying more than 100,000 products representing thousands of brands. 2 When serving these small- to medium-sized business buyers, CDW recognizes that it is not just a PC (or a set of PCs) being purchased but rather the products and the ancillary valued END-USER ANALYSIS 321 services accompanying them. The firm thus calls itself the chief technical officer of its small firm customers. What does that role mean, in terms of the demand for and supply of service outputs, along with the product purchased? • CDW is a key provider of advice and expertise to buyers, involving everything from the appropriate configuration of products to buy to the setup of a local area network. CDW is also available after the purchase if any customer service problems arise. • CDW prides itself on its speed of delivery; 99 percent of orders are shipped the day they are received. The company can make this promise because of its investment in a 400,000-square- foot warehouse, which permits it to hold significant speculative inventory and avoid stockouts. • CDW offers different customer service options: a customer can buy online, without a great deal of sales help, but CDW also assigns a salesperson to every account, even small, online purchase accounts. This service output gives the buyer access to a person to talk to if any ques- tions or problems arise, and it increases the buyer’s flexibility in terms of how to shop. The salesperson has no incentive to be overly aggressive, because a sale results in the same com- mission, whether the customer orders online or through the salesperson. A CDW salesperson goes through four months of training before being allowed to serve customers, so his or her level of expertise and professionalism is high enough to serve the customer well. • CDW offers its customers broad assortment and variety. A small business buyer can buy directly from a manufacturer, such as Dell or Hewlett-Packard, but that means restricting him- or her- self to one manufacturer’s product line. Buying through CDW gives the buyer access to many different brands, which can be useful when putting components together in the optimal com- puter systems. CDW enhances the effective assortment available by also refiguring products before shipping them out, to customize them to the demands of the business buyer. How well does CDW compare to the competition? Offering high levels of service outputs is great, but the question always remains: How well did the channel perform against other routes to market through which a customer can buy? When CDW faced a strong challenge from Dell Computer, offer- ing 0 percent financing for the first time, together with free shipping and rebate programs, how did CDW withstand the competitive attack? For an individual buyer, such questions take on a dif- ferent perspective: how much are CDW’s extra service outputs worth to my company? For the buyer that values quick delivery, assortment, and CDW’s targeted customer service, the apparent price premium is well worth the money, because it saves the buyer the cost of acquiring those services in another way (or the cost of not getting the desired level of service). Ultimately, the appealing service outputs provided by CDW motivated Dell to enter into a partnership with the supplier, span- ning Europe, Asia, and North America. Thus, Dell’s servers, PCs, storage solutions, and networking services are available through CDW. For Dell, the combination of its product portfolio with CDW’s sales and technical expertise proved optimal, leading to increased sales and customer satisfaction. 3 Thus CDW’s strategy of focusing on a particular subset of all computer buyers and providing valued service outputs to them, along with a wide assortment of quality products, has helped the company cement its relationships with these buyers, while also making it a preferred intermedi- ary channel partner for key manufacturers. END-USER ANALYSIS 322 In the omni-channel era, these examples are widespread; for example, contrac- tors use e-commerce platforms in several ways. Some rely on e-commerce from start to finish and order items online; others leverage these tools to research technical specifications and then order over the phone or in person with their preferred distributors. 4 Even when a product can be standardized across global markets, the user’s preference in terms of how to buy the product likely is unique to each country. Researchers argue that among the four standard marketing mix variables (prod- uct, promotion, price, place), place, which defines the tải về 5.39 Mb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
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