Understanding the Buying Center can help B2B Marketers and Supply Chain for innovation

[ Note: Thank you dear readers for your overwhelming interest in this post originally published on June 7, 2012.The image is updated March 9, 2021.If you are a business and want to get more success out of your B2B Digital Marketing budget, and would like to consult with Dr. Roy- please send an email to Serve@StratoServe.com to schedule a Zoom call.}
Understanding and talking about the Buying Center can help B2B Marketers and Supply Chain Managers for innovation. The Buying Center is a 40 year old concept attributed to Webster and Wind and can be hugely useful to both B2B Marketers and Supply Chain /Procurement managers today. The Buying Center is a part of the informal organization and involve a bunch of people who have varying influence on the B2B buy decision. The individuals in the Buying Center can have one or more of the following roles:

Innovation in video gaming to go mobile and social: the monetizing challenge

The E3 trade show for computer,video games and related products has got underway at Los Angeles. And there is excitement around developing mobile and social gaming applications amidst the monetizing challenge of these apps.  The buzz around mobile and social apps  tie in to the changing behavior of gamers who are moving out of controllers,Continue reading “Innovation in video gaming to go mobile and social: the monetizing challenge”

May Jobs Report: What can college students do?

The May jobs report is devastating. It's estimated that over half the graduating class of 2012 will not have jobs. Yes the economy is slow, it's slowing in emerging markets as well besides Europe that seems very bad. However, those US  students who are entering college in the fall need to consider the following things:Continue reading “May Jobs Report: What can college students do?”

Understanding the Supply Chain in the knowledge age of search and social media

Thinking of the supply chain in a manufacturing setting is easy but understanding the supply chain in the knowledge economy of search and social media is more difficult. For example, if you make cars, you need to either make or buy its components. The sourcing of tires by an auto manufacturer is the classic B2BContinue reading “Understanding the Supply Chain in the knowledge age of search and social media”

Innovation in tracking marketing results: GM dares to withdraw Facebook and Superbowl advertising

GM marketing folks seem to be innovatively tracking marketing results- and doing so  really well. You would recall that on  the eve of the Facebook IPO the marketing folks at GM committed at least a minor transgression by declaring that advertising on Facebook was not working for them and they were going to stop advertisingContinue reading “Innovation in tracking marketing results: GM dares to withdraw Facebook and Superbowl advertising”

Google Rankings: more about being true to the searcher than popularity

This blog has closed comments for some time being deluged by spammers whose primary  purpose is to try and get their link to appear in the comments section. This is the infamous part of the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) industry that is able to post comments from IP addresses originating in interesting places like RussiaContinue reading “Google Rankings: more about being true to the searcher than popularity”

2012 Yale Consumer Insights Conference gets better as Practitioners and Academics engage

The 2012 Yale Center for Consumer Insights Conference was the 7th one and reached a new level of excellence over the last weekend. This blog has covered past YCCI conferences but this year both Academics and Practitioners seemed really wanting to engage. Perhaps both groups feel overwhelmed with rapid technology changes,globalization, uncertain economies and aContinue reading “2012 Yale Consumer Insights Conference gets better as Practitioners and Academics engage”

Innovation is always in context of customers,stakeholders and society

If  we think of innovation, invariably  we think of radical innovations like the iPhone or Facebook. By doing so, individuals succeed in just beating up themselves and their organizations – and for no reason. Consider that after the iPhone or Facebook started taking off entire industries (eg. smartphone for iPhone) and social media (eg. LinkedInContinue reading “Innovation is always in context of customers,stakeholders and society”

Interactivity: why the video gaming industry is booming

An earlier popular post on video gaming being three times music and twice the movie industry begs the question why? The answer will  be apparent if you try this experiment with millennials i.e. those born between 1981 to 2000. Here is the experiment: Put a bunch of millenials in a room with each in frontContinue reading “Interactivity: why the video gaming industry is booming”

Organizational bases of power: what’s up and what’s down with the Internet ?

"Power" in distribution channels is a fascinating topic and so is the notion of organizational power on which Jeffery Pfeffer had a book out that this blog discussed in an earlier post. But this post is about the six bases of power (see the lower part of the Wikipedia page)  that seem to be changingContinue reading “Organizational bases of power: what’s up and what’s down with the Internet ?”