Business-to-business marketing a strategic approach /

Synopsis

Thoroughly updated, this much anticipated new edition provides students with a comprehensive, state-of-the-art view of industrial marketing. With a focus on strategic thinking and acting, the authors examine the distinct challenges of the business-to-business marketplace. These include: faster product and service development; shortened product life cycles; new processes for selling, distribution, and customer service; increase in entrepreneurial firms; and the need to create and sustain long-term customer relationships. Separate chapters are devoted to buying decisions, market research and analysis, and purchasing practices, including treatment of the latest technological developments in just-in-time systems, Web-based procurement, and enterprise resource planning and manufacturing systems.