Competitiveness is an important property of any organization. It depends on how well the various business processes are organized in the enterprise, whether it can make a profit and how large its size will be. In order for financial expectations to be truly met, attention must be paid to industrial marketing.
The article will examine in detail the importance of establishing this process at the enterprise, and a detailed description of the features, concepts and its organization will be given. And also examples of industrial marketing will be presented that will help to understand in more detail what place should be assigned to it within the enterprise.
Definition Description
So, industrial marketing is marketing that focuses on building relationships with partners (other organizations) in order to sell industrial products. Such products include components, raw materials and materials.
In other words, marketing in the industrial market exists in order to market the products that other enterprises need to produce goods and services.
Tasks
It should stop on the question of what tasks industrial marketing solves. So, the first is the development of a business to provide an advantage over other enterprises. In other words - the development of the enterprise to increase its competitiveness.
The second task is to establish interactions with other enterprises in the industrial market.
The third task is responsible for creating a favorable, fruitful environment for relationships with partners. Her decision is also aimed at minimizing possible financial risks in these relationships.
The next task is to attract investment for the development of the organization and its production.
The last, fifth task is aimed at implementing a marketing approach to management.
In addition, one can distinguish also such tasks as market analysis for the formation of demand for goods, activity planning, logistics and marketing policies, and audit.
Functions
Speaking of industrial marketing as a concept of organization management, it is necessary to highlight its complex functions. They help to build the work of the staff on whom the work in the field of marketing is entrusted.
So, there are four functions, namely:
- Analytical. This function implies the study of the market, consumers, product structure, as well as the internal environment of the enterprise.
- Production. This function is aimed at organizing the production and technological process with the aim of producing such products that would fully meet the expectations of consumers. The production function implies the organization of production of new goods, as well as the organization of material and technical supply and product quality management.
- Sales. This function is aimed at the promotion of goods and involves the organization of a system of product movement, the formation of the range, product range and sales volumes, as well as the organization of a product support service and a targeted pricing policy.
- Management. This function is designed to organize the proper business activities of the organization and production management. The management function includes planning, marketing information support and communication support.
All of these features are at the core of industrial marketing strategies. It is worth considering what they can be.
Strategy
Marketing of industrial products should be aimed at a specific buyer. In order for such a specific product to fall into the hands of those who really need it, the company needs to develop a marketing strategy. Its development begins with a detailed study of the buying companies and their needs, activities and determination of their capabilities.
The analysis of such data will help to understand what is needed now, and the organization with which relations are established (planned to be established) will need in the future. In general, this approach will ensure the development and implementation of strategies suitable for each client.
Planning
In order for the chosen strategy to be implemented as efficiently as possible, considerable attention must be paid to planning, which is aimed at constantly searching for new ways to improve activities in changing market conditions.
Proper planning allows the company to minimize all possible risks. Planning tasks in industrial marketing can be as follows:
- Analysis of factors of the external and internal environment of the enterprise.
- Market analysis.
- Examination of possible risks.
- Economic justification of the implemented enterprise concept.
- Formation of a production plan.
- Calculations of possible financial results.
- Identification of funding sources.
- Definition of a number of measures aimed at tracking costs and financial results of production.
The planning process in industrial marketing exists to constantly ponder the goals of an enterprise and find solutions. With its help, it is possible to solve such problems as determining the degree of viability and sustainability of an enterprise, reducing risks, specifying prospects, attracting attention from partners.
Advantages and disadvantages
Assessing industrial marketing on the basis of its advantages and disadvantages, we can confidently say that the former are more than the latter. In general, the activities of such marketing are aimed at promoting the product on the market. Moreover, such a promotion (subject to all the rules) is based on objective assessments of the internal and external environment of the enterprise and has an economic justification.
Speaking about the shortcomings of the process, we can distinguish the complexity of the process, as well as the need for large financial and time costs for its implementation.
Organization of the process at the enterprise
In order for the sales process to be launched and to increase the interest on the part of buyers, the enterprise management must properly organize work in the direction of marketing. Industrial goods will be sold only when there is demand for it, and this depends on many factors. These may include the geographical location of production facilities, the quality of the product, as well as how much it is in demand. In order to establish these and other factors, evaluate the capabilities and prospects of the company and make an analysis, a clear organization of industrial marketing within the enterprise is necessary.
For this, a separate unit is introduced into the staff structure, which, as a rule, has the name “Marketing Department”. He must necessarily report directly to the director of the enterprise and interact with all other structural units. Such a structure of interaction will allow employees of the department to ask the rest for all the necessary information to draw up a qualitative analysis.
A Brief Example of Effective Industrial Marketing
Having dealt with the theoretical part of the question, we can proceed to consider it with a brief example. For example, the organization sells polystyrene granules, which are used for the manufacture of packaging materials. However, over time it became clear that the disposal of packaging made of polystyrene is a complex and expensive process.
The company's marketing department began to study the needs of customers and realized that the best option would be to develop environmental granules for packaging materials, which will be very easy to dispose of. This technology is a breakthrough in the polymer industry. Therefore, with the correct positioning of the goods, the incredible happened, and the organization has new customers. And all this is due to the fact that the company immediately solved two problems of its partners - the purchase of material for the manufacture of packaging and reducing the cost of its disposal.
Conclusion
As you can see, the peculiarity of industrial marketing is in difficult approaches to solving more complex problems. With the proper organization of this process, the company has the opportunity to obtain maximum success in the market by increasing sales. Therefore, it is always worth remembering that the implementation of the concept of industrial marketing in practice helps to solve production and economic problems and is of strategic importance for any industrial organization.