‘Marketeer must develop strategy based on organizations’ buying power’

Ramani Kangaraarachchi

The marketeer must develop strategy based on a particular organization’s buying behaviour and on the buying situation in developing effective business to business marketing strategies. Marketing Consultant Lasantha Wickramasooriya said at a seminar organized by McQuire Rens and Jones in Colombo recently.

He said understanding organizational markets and buyer behaviour is different in industrial and consumer marketing.

In business to consumer markets (b to c)businesses sell products and services to consumer for household or personal use but in business to business market products and services are sold to other businesses for use in their daily operations. Therefore they got to communicate differently because they have to make different value propositions. The common thing in industrial and consumer marketing is both are having needs.

Elaborating on classifying business buying situations he said business buying behaviour involves the degree of effort involved in the decision and the levels within the organization in which these decisions are made. However, marketeers who maintain good relationships with customers can go a long way toward ensuring straight rebuys which involved high quality products, superior service and prompt delivery.

Straight rebuying means a recurring purchase decision in which a customer reorders a product that has satisfied needs in the past. Here the purchaser sees little reason to assess competing options. In modified rebuying purchaser is willing to reevaluate available options. The most complex category of business buying is new task buying where first time or unique purchase situations that require considerable effort by the decision makers. This buying system often requires the purchaser to consider alternative offerings and vendors, Wickramasooriya said.