Industrial Marketing
 

Industrial marketing, which some marketing experts have described as a ‘sleeping giant’, has been the subject of very little research. And this despite the fact that it generates higher volumes of sales than consumer marketing. This book is an attempt to create in the reader an interest in this challenging yet not much talked about subject. Several developments have transformed industrial marketing in the last few years:

• Technology has become the cornerstone of industrial marketing. New product technologies are emerging and manufacturing processes are evolving. Information technology is being leveraged to develop new products and services, in addition to streamlining operations.

• The Internet has revolutionized industrial marketing. It has helped bring down the communication costs between the industrial marketers and other stakeholders drastically. E-procurement and e-marketplaces have gained popularity among organizational buyers.

•The nature of competition has undergone a sea change in the industrial marketplace. Industrial marketing has reached a stage where we can say, “The Business Network is the Business Strategy.” Today, competition is between value-chain partnerships rather than between industrial firms.

From the 1990s, the Government of India has been supporting liberalization by taking various positive measures, including the permitting of foreign direct investments in capital intensive industries. In addition to setting up joint ventures and subsidiaries, many firms have adopted the outsourcing route. India’s progress on both the domestic and export fronts has resulted in a growing demand for professionals to market industrial products, services, and solutions to a wide range of industries.

This book can be used as a basic text for an elective course in industrial marketing management for post-graduate students. While designing and delivering the course, the faculty may supplement the concepts and examples in the text with contemporary case studies. A list of case studies in industrial marketing is given at the end of the book. These case studies are available at www.icmrindia.org, an online repository of management case studies developed by the ICMR Case Studies and Management Resources.

This book will also help readers who have been exposed to the concepts in marketing management and their applications in consumer marketing, to appreciate the significant differences between consumer marketing and industrial marketing.

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