Page 91 - DMGT408DMGT203_Marketing Management

Marketing Management/Essentials of Marketing

Notes Self Assessment

Multiple Choice Questions:
1. Wholesalers and retailers are examples of …………………….

(a) Agricultural buyers (b) Resellers
(c) Producers (d) Non-profit institutions
2. …………………… are also known as Original Equipment Manufacturers.
(a) Resellers (b) System buyers

(c) Traders (d) Manufacturers

4.2 Business Buyer Characteristics

Organisational buyer characteristics differ from final consumers in several important aspects.
1. Group-based Decision-making: Many organisational purchases are often costly and complex
and may involve a group of personnel from engineering, production, finance, purchasing
and even top management in making a purchase decision.

2. Technical Knowledge: Professional buyers, called purchasing agents in industrial,
governmental and institutional organisations, make purchases and are highly
knowledgeable about products or services. In case of resellers such as supermarkets, these
individual experts are referred to as buyers and make purchases on their behalf.

3. Rational Motives Dominate: Organisational buyers are generally strongly directed by
rational motivations because of the technical nature of purchases involved. Such factors
are usually economically based and can be translated into monetary terms to carefully
weigh the costs and benefits.

Example: Factors such as quality specifications and consistency, assurance of prompt
delivery, price, terms of credit, warranty and post-sale service etc. are all rather objective criteria
that influence buyers in their selection of vendor.
W. S. Penn, Jr and Mark Mougel note that besides rational considerations, buyers are also
influenced by emotional motivations that are often difficult for vendors to assess. Influence of
emotional motivations is understandable. Organisational buyers too are human in their like or
dislike of vendor sales personnel. They are also concerned about their job security, willingness
to take risks and need to be respected in their job etc. These are important elements and can cause
variety of stresses for purchasing agents.

Self Assessment

Fill in the Blanks:
3. …………………… make all the purchases in the institutional firms.

4. For organisational buyers, ads with …………………… appeal would work more.

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