The industrial market has unique characteristics and problems which are different from consumers market. In this market, the proportion of repurchase by existing customers is very big, and the communication channel with them is very limited. And, the products are the means of living for them, therefore, after-sales service is very important. Finally manufacturers tend to utilize their own sales forces as their distribution channel, therefore, it is difficult to share and reserve customer information internally. To solve these problems, it is very important how to better manage customer relationship through an integrated marketing DB.
In the industrial market, the suppliers should integrate existing DBs and customer information which sales people own. The integrated marketing DB can manage the process of product, information, financial and social exchanges during the stages of product life cycle including purchasing, using and selling stages of customers, and reinforce distribution channel through the secondary marketing communication channel, for example, direct mail, tele marketing, on-line marketing, etc.
The suppliers can maximize customer value through the total offering, customer service, quality, customer communication and the interactions among the each elements. And then, the customer will repurchase the product, increase the frequency of purchasing, and this will make positive words of mouth effect to new customers and build the brand equity. We call this inter-relationship as Customer Relationship Management Process. This can facilitate to seek and keep the customers, And this will increase market share and sales, bring about cost-saving and improving profit by the experience curve, reserve the resource to maximize the customer value again. This is a desirable cycle as a result of the Customer Relationship Management Process.
Generally speaking, the industrial goods are purchased by organizations, but, we can find some industrial goods which are purchased by individual owners like construction machineries, commercial vehicles etc. These kinds of goods are suitable for DB marketing.
