Supply Chain

Supply Chain

Introduction

In the highly competitive business environment, companies require external expertise for achieving competitive edge over other companies in the industry. The increase in the difficulty level is because of the changes in technological development and facilitated global access that affect markets. In this paper, we will be discussing the relationship of advertising agencies and their clients in terms of B2B relations that are based on daily interactions and meetings between agencies and their clients. Also, we will be analyzing that how companies plan and manage marketing services for their clients and how can it be done through better strategies.

B2B Relations between Advertising Agencies and Their Clients

Considering the business relationships between advertising agencies and their clients, it is completely dependent on various factors. It has been claimed in several studies that the relationship is not standard because each of the relationship depends on the content and consequences that varies from case to case. It is because of content and consequences that the partners can vary in their significance to each other, they might consider various factors and expect from each other with different experiences with others and with each other. In addition to that, the market of B2B is not random, where everyone can conduct business with everyone else at any point of time, if prices and products are right (Brown, Gilbert, Churchill & Peter 1993: pp. 127-139).

The following are the internal and external factors that influence the B2B relationships (Brady & Joseph 2001: pp. 34).

Internal Factors

Various products or services

Exchange of information

Social interaction, relationships,

Financial exchange

Balance, power and dependency

Experience and history

Expectations

External Factors

Partners that are alternate

Dynamics of the industry

Role in the business system

Opportunity for changing activities within the business system

The most important is that the relationship between Agents and Users is always stable. In fact, only 20% of surveyed companies (1,300 companies located throughout the country) operate through the Agency for less than a year. This figure was 38% in the recent years. Also, advertising agencies invest a significant proportion of their resources developing speculative presentations for new accounts but only a fraction of resources for speculating the strength of existing relationships.

As Carman (1990) suggested, companies are spending a significant amount of money just trying to win the business; however, the same amount of energy and expense is not always put into keeping existing clients happy. This supports the idea that if companies and agencies spent more time during the pitch process evaluating one another and assessing expectations, perhaps client-agency relationships may have an increased level of longevity. Many organizations have accumulated too much information after they have invested in the relationship management with customers to collect, analyze and segment customer data, but few companies have managed to wrap it in a real knowledge of customers, to manage the continuous flow of information with customers. The main features of B2B relationships are: 1) creation of relationships, 2) spontaneous interaction technique, 3) intense trade negotiations, and 4) special attention to after - sale services (Brown, Raymond ...