Marketing and Channel Strategy
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Business-to-Business Marketing and Channel Strategy
Learning Objectives
q Examine the relationship concept in B2B marketing and
variables affecting B2B relationships.
q Analyze the main issues associated with managing strategic
alliances.
q Analyze the forces that shape global advantage of a firm.
q Assess the significance of corporate social responsibility and
sustainability for B2B strategic decision-making.
Relationships, Alliances, and Global Markets
2
As well as an understanding of the behavior of the buying company,
business marketers also have to understand the relationship between the
buying company and the selling company.
B2B Relationships
3
4The Relationship Spectrum
Anonymous transactions/ Complete collaboration
Automated purchasing and integration of supplier
with customer or channel
partner
Transactional Value-added Collaborative
Exchanges Exchanges Exchanges
Indication of the Diversity of Ages in a Relationship Base
5
Relationship Lifecycle Variables
6
The experience of dealing with each other
The uncertainty associated with working with each other
The distance between the parties, incorporating social, geographical, time, cultural, and
technological manifestations
The commitment the parties make to each other
The specific adaptations they make to what they do and how they do it that brings them
closer to the counterpart
Ford’s (1980) Relationship Life Cycle Stages
7
Strategy
q Strategy concerns decisions that have a major effect on the performance of the firm.
q The overall aim of business strategy in profit-seeking firms is to increase long-term
shareholder value.
q The key contribution that marketing strategy in business-to-business firms should make
is to understand, analyze, and deliver customer value.
q Customer value is defined as the trade-off between what a customer has to give up and
what the customer receives in a business transaction or relationship.
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q Strategic alliance – A relationship between partners involving commitment of capital, management and technical
resources.
q The objective is to enhance both parties’ competitive positions, such as sharing risk, and/or get into new markets.
q IBM, Microsoft, HP, GE, and Corning: formed hundreds of alliances.
q Stumbling blocks:
• Partners have different organizational structures/cultures. This can create problems for
Ø marketing and product design decision-making
Ø trust and coordination
• Partners that combine their best skill sets in one country may be poorly equipped to support partners in other
countries. This can lead to global implementation problems.
• Quick technological change often guarantees that most attractive partner today may not be the most attractive partner
tomorrow.
Strategic Alliances
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q The formation of alliances: causes of formation, partner selection
q The choice of governance structure (the formal contractual structures used to organize the partnerships): detailed
contract, trust
q The dynamic evolution of alliances: learning, evolution, changes in info flows
q The performance of alliances:
• challenges in measuring alliance performance per se
• mostly study alliance termination
• surveys (partners’ assessment)
• challenges in managing alliance portfolios
q The performance consequences for partner firms entering alliances:
• event study analysis on the stock market effects of alliance announcements
• patenting activities of partner firms
• likelihood of firm survival
“Alliances and Networks,” Gulati, R., SMJ 1998, Vol. 19