Marketing Management, Millenium Edition - epiheirimatikotita.gr

Participants in the Business Buying Process 115Figure 3-5Major Influences on Business Buying BehaviorOrganizational FactorsEvery organization has specific purchasing objectives, policies, procedures, organizationalstructures, and systems. Business marketers need to be aware of the followingorganizational trends in purchasing:➤➤➤Purchasing department upgrading. Spurred by competitive pressures, companies arestaffing their purchasing departments with MBAs who aspire to be CEOs—likeThomas Stallkamp, DaimlerChrysler’s recently retired president. In his earlier roleas executive vice president of procurement and supply, Stallkamp was highlysuccessful in cost-cutting and in streamlining manufacturing processes. 14 These new,more strategically positioned “procurement departments” seek out the best valuefrom fewer and better suppliers. At Caterpillar and other multinationals, purchasingdepartments have been elevated into “strategic supply departments” withresponsibility for global sourcing and partnering. In response to this trend, businessmarketers must correspondingly upgrade their sales personnel to match the highercaliber of the business buyers.Cross-functional roles. In a recent survey, most purchasing professionals describedtheir job as more strategic, technical, team-oriented, and involving moreresponsibility than ever before. “Purchasing is doing more cross-functional workthan it did in the past,” says David Duprey, a buyer for Anaren Microwave Inc.,which makes microwave-signal processing devices for communication and defense.Sixty-one percent of buyers surveyed said the buying group was more involved innew-product design and development than it was 5 years ago. More than half of thebuyers now participate in cross-functional teams, with suppliers well represented. 15Centralized purchasing. In multidivisional companies, most purchasing is carried outby separate divisions because of their differing needs. Some companies, however,have recentralized their purchasing, identifying materials purchased by several