Usefulness Of Symbiotic Relationships In Marketing Marketing Essay

Usefulness Of Symbiotic Relationships In Marketing Marketing Essay Symbiotic Marketing, also known as Co-Marketing Alliances and Joint Marketing Activities, has remained sporadic, especially in Indian Small Scale Sector. The studies focusing on the applicability of these Symbiotic Marketing strategies in the Indian context are conspicuously absent. The existing literature, conveniently assuming that the Indian Small Scale entrepreneurs possess the knowledge of the operationalities of the concept, has suggested this as a valid alternative system to their marketing problems. The present study is aimed at comprehending the perceptions of the Small Scale entrepreneurs towards Symbiotic Marketing strategies. The analysis is useful in developing programs aimed at facilitating these inter-organizational cooperative marketing strategies. In marketing channel strategy literature, a number of channel alternatives have been identified which firms utilize in distributing their products and services. These alternatives include the traditional marketing channel, the vertical marketing system, vertical integration, strategic alliances, network organizations, and the horizontal marketing system. These channel forms have been studied by market researchers relatively thoroughly and from a number of perspectives. However, one other strategic alternative has been identified and discussed by a few authors but has yet to receive the same level of attention as other forms of marketing and distribution. This cited strategy is the more holistic concept of symbiotic marketing, originally defined as an alliance of resources or programs between two or more independent organizations designed to increase the market potential of each (Adler, 1966). The concept was first introduced in 1960s, but has rarely been discussed by the market resea rchers and is generally dispatched as a synonym for horizontal marketing system (Kotler, 1991). However, the concept is much more powerful and comprehensive, than conceived by the lack of research in the area. The symbiotic marketing is comprehensive in the sense that firstly, it provides a strategic direction to channel considerations. Rather than develop strategically important core competencies and resources internally, firms which practice symbiotic marketing are actively and continually scanning both the external and the competitive environments for likely partners with such resources. This shifts the firm from being primarily internally- oriented to externally oriented. Secondly, the modes of symbiotic marketing comprise virtually all of the various forms of distribution identified in extent marketing and management literature. Modes of symbiosis include strategic alliances, joint ventures, co-marketing agreements, vertical marketing systems, horizontal marketing systems, and traditional buyer-seller marketing channels. However, distribution strategy employing mergers and acquisition as a tool, violate the spirit of symbiotic marketing, since the firms are integrated and are no longe r independent organizations, which is a requisite for symbiotic marketing. Thus all forms of distribution strategy other than vertical integration lie within the scope of symbiotic marketing. Since, not enough research has been done on the subject, extent literatures existing on strategic alliances and organizational networks has been used for the analysis since virtually all modes of symbiotic marketing is based on some form of organizational collaborations. Once the basis for symbiotic marketing has been established network analysis will be proposed as a tool for symbiotic partner selection and market selection. The underlying framework for this research is that the use of symbiotic marketing can return to a firm superior market success, if applied in a strategic manner, via such measures as first mover advantage, superior profit returns, and the ability to overcome barriers of entry into market niches dominated by well-entrenched competitors. Hypotheses will be proposed to test these assumptions. STATEMENT OF PROBLEM The usefulness of Symbiotic Relationships in Marketing for firms to compete successfully in the local global markets and its acceptance by small business units in India. TOPIC JUSTIFICATION OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY The primary objective of this paper is to address an apparent gap in the strategic or purposeful use of symbiotic marketing as a delivery system for a firms product or service in the current stream of marketing literature. Only recently has the market researchers focused on an attempt to understand the vertical marketing systems (VMS) and horizontal marketing systems(HMS), of which HMSs such as joint ventures, strategic alliances and partnerships have been studied most heavily. However, the researchers of these strategies have focused only on a single mode of HMS, whereas Symbiotic Marketing provides a broader framework for the researchers, to apply their desired analysis tool. Apart from the handful of extant literature existing on HMS, much of the research on channel strategy has focused on vertically-oriented channels such as VMS and vertical integration. This focus on Vertically-oriented Structures has discounted the emergence of horizontal strategies such as strategic alliances, partnerships and co-marketing agreements. The rationale behind vertically- oriented alliances or integration primarily gravitates around reducing transaction costs or achieving economies of scale (Heide,1994). On the other hand Symbiotic Relationships allow the firm to achieve significant leverage in the marketplace by not only accessing external resources but also identifying and exploiting market voids at reduced capital outlays. Furthermore, as the market segment boundaries are becoming increasingly undistinguishable, the firms focus is shifting from market share to designing strategic distribution programs that provides some degree of isolation from competition (Day, 1991), which is achievable through the use of Symbiotic Marketing strategies in niche markets, or using external resources for competing successfully in the global marketplace. Once the foundation for Symbiotic Marketing has been established and justified, network analysis can be used to explain how and why the firms will achieve superior markets via Symbiotic Marketing, providing a method for identifying potentially profitable market niches and guidance for selecting symbiotic partner firms for penetrating these market segments. Moreover, understanding the formation of Symbiotic Marketing in the network analysis framework is important because, firstly no adequate framework for understanding the Symbiotic relationships exists in the marketing literature; secondly business competition is increasingly between distinct networks or groups of independent firms operating as a single competitive entity; finally, there is a lack of marketing literature, focusing on the specific conceptualization of Symbiotic relations which need to be addressed. Thus an integrative framework needs to be developed to understand why and how firms enter into these types of partnership s, which will be useful to both academicians and practitioners. To achieve these goals, this paper will first, introduce and review the extant literature available on the subject matter which will provide the basis for developing the framework. The framework will be developed which builds on that introduced by prior researchers and will focus on developing a typology of possible modes of symbiosis available to businesses and their symbiotic opportunities. Secondly, the general concept of market segmentation discussed which is applicable to our study presented. Thirdly, the powerful concept of network analysis will be introduced. However, the focus will be on the qualitative, managerial implications and applications of network analysis, not on its usefulness as a quantitative structural analysis tool. Finally, a model of Symbiotic Marketings usefulness as a strategic tool will be presented and justified. CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW Recent research has pointed the importance of nurturing relationships for effective marketing. There is a paradigm shift in marketing from transaction marketing to relationship marketing. Firms are also considering relationship marketing as crucial for sustaining competitive advantage. The center has provided impetus for an in-depth look at relationship marketing from the perspective of both theory and practice. The term relationship marketing encompasses some of the constructs suggested by past research. These constructs are relational contracting, internal marketing, symbiotic marketing, relationship marketing, strategic alliances, working partnerships, co-marketing alliances, and long-term orientation. Morgan and Hunt emphasize the process and their definition states relationship marketing refers to all marketing activities directed toward establishing, developing, and maintaining successful relational exchanges.We suggest that relationships lead to value creation that has become an area of interest to researchers. Firms realize that both customers and suppliers create value. The value can manifest itself into access to technology, access to markets, and access to information. Firms realize that customers and suppliers provide access to value creation that will provide them with sustainable competitive advantage. Value creation can be divided into three domains. The first domain is value creation through supplier partnering that forms the first set of articles for this special issue. Value creation through alliance partnering form the second set of articles. Finally, value creation through customer partnering form the third set of articles. The issue of value creation through relationships with suppliers is examined by the first four articles. The first paper is Supplier Relationships: Emerging Issues and Challenges, written by the co-editors of the special issue. The paper proposes that effective relationship with suppliers will provide firms with next-generational competitive advantage. We suggest that this shift toward supplier relationships will change the role, processes, and strategies of firms and, therefore, new areas of inquiry will emerge. These include understanding suppliers as customers; cross-functional supplier teaming; economic value of supplier equity; supply experience curves; hub and spoke organization; bonding with suppliers; global sourcing processes; cross-cultural values in purchasing; cross-national rules and regulations; and service procurement. The second article also addresses the issue of the importance of supplier relationships and discusses the use of portfolio approaches to examine supplie r relationships. In previous papers, authors suggest that firms should examine supplier performance to classify suppliers into groups. This classification will aid firms in designing strategies to enhance relationship with firms. The next two articles discuss the effect of JIT and information technology on supplier relationships. In The Effect of JIT Purchasing Relationships on Organizational Design Purchasing Department Configuration, and Firm Performance, by Richard Germain and Cornelia Droge, the authors suggest that JIT relationships involve close supplier collaboration on product development and specifications, product, and information flows. Based on a survey of 200 US firms, the article suggests that JIT increases a firms formalization, integration, and specialization. Also firms that use JIT have enhanced performance. Employing Information Technology in Purchasing: An Empirical Study of the Impact on Buyer-Supplier Relationships and Size of the Supplier Base, by Rodney L. St ump Ven Sriram, and Earl G. Graves, discusses the role of information technology on relationships. They find that information technology investments enhance buyer-seller relationships and the degree of information technology used in transaction processing affects this relationship. Interestingly, they also find that information technology investments reduce the supplier base. The next set of two articles discuss value creation through alliance partnering, an emerging area of interest to marketers. The fifth article in the special issue is Scope and Intensity of Logistics Based Strategic Alliances: A Conceptual Framework and Managerial Implications, authored by Walter Zinn and A. Parasuraman. The article examines logistics based strategic alliances and proposes a typology to classify these alliances along the dimensions of scope and intensity. They also offer strategies for firms involved in strategic alliances as well as areas for future research. The next article, Selling Alliances : Issues and Rights, by Brock Smith, examines the issues of selling alliances, an emerging area of interest in personal selling. The issues of selling alliances at both the organizational as well as the personal level are discussed. A sample of 175 salespeople who are in sales partnerships is used to validate the expectations. The final set of articles discuss value creation through customer partnering. Customer Value Change in Industrial Marketing RelationshipsA Call for New Strategies and Research, by Daniel J. Flint, Robert Woodruff, and Sarah F. Gardial, addresses the issue of customer perceptions of value. The authors suggest that suppliers perceptions of value are changing. To design strategies that give business marketers a strategic advantage, firms need to understand customers present value needs, marketers ability to deliver value, and change in perceptions of value. The next article discusses the issue of customer perceptions of the marketer and value provided by the mark eter. As firms survey their customers to determine their performance, the issue of the validity of customer evaluations comes into question. What Information Can Relationship Marketers Obtain from Customer Evaluations of Salespeople? by Douglas M. Lambert, Arun Sharma, and Michael Levy, addresses this issue. The results of a survey from business customers in the health care industry suggest that buying firms that give higher evaluations to business salespeople also give higher performance ratings to the selling organization. Also, salespeople who are evaluated as being better and more credible by customers also receive superior evaluations from their managers. The final three papers in the special issue discuss case studies in value creation through customer partnering. The first paper, Managing Business Relationships and Positions in Industrial Networks by Brian Low, examines the issues of industrial networks. The article views networks as providing access to resources and activiti es and examines a network in the context of a dealer for office equipment. The second article, Building Supplier-Customer Relationships: Using Joint New Product Development, by James Comer and B. J. Zirger, examines the evolution of a supplier-customer relationship. The paper examines a relationship in the case of an automobile project. The final paper by Pierre Filiatrault and Jozee Lapierre, Managing Business-to-Business Marketing Relationships in Consulting Engineering Firms, (accepted by Peter LaPlaca) examines relationships in the context of business services. In conclusion, we feel that the papers provide a broad look at the academic research in the area of business relationship marketing. The articles in this special issue address value creation through supplier relationships, alliances, and customer relationships. The papers make an important contribution to relationship marketing thinking in the domain of business markets. The research is both useful to managers and serves as an impetus to future research in this area. We hope that you find the articles as exciting and interesting as we have. CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY DATA SOURCES UNIT OF ANALYSIS SAMPLE SELECTION The present investigation is prescription type of study undertaken to estimate the effectiveness of the Symbiotic Relationship in the Indian Marketing Scenario in various business units and its impact on the Partnered Business profits, Market Share, Level of Competition and Customer Loyalty and Retention. The present study identifies the views of people engaged in different businesses, generally small-scale, about their interpretation, importance and understanding of the advantages of developing a Symbiotic Relationships with different aspects of their supply chain or competitor base in order to cater to new market segments, or expanding their resource base and thereby improving their productivity, profitability and survivability in the highly competitive and rapidly expanding Indian Markets. Moreover, due to lack of availability of enough time, the scope of research has been restricted to the local area markets in the Mumbai region covering the areas of Andheri, Vile-Parle, Kandivali, Santacruz, which are small scale businesses such as shop-owners or factory outlet managers and marketing and operations team-members of some large scale firms. Considering the time criteria in which the report had to be prepared, we considered small scale businesses as the population with the size of 68. However, 24 participants did not fill the questionnaires provided to them completely, a requisite when using the likerts scale, and about 8 people were not willing to fill such questionnaires, the number of actually completed forms was drastically reduced to 36. Considering the fact that, for conducting a Z-Test for the analysis, the minimum size should be 30, the sample size of 35 was considered appropriate for the analysis and was carried forward for the purpose of research. TOOLS TECHNIQUES The tool used for conducting the research was administering the questionnaires to the business owners and conducting interviews, so as to determine whether their response in the questionnaire and on-face does not contradict. The questionnaire consists of open-ended questions which need to be answered on Likerts 5 Point Scale. For the analysis of the responses of the respondents, a 2-tailed Z-test will be used and the feasibility of the Symbiotic Marketing in the Indian Context will be determined based on the mind-set of the people involved in the analysis. Although, the sample size is 35, but it will be indicative of the entire population in the local areas considered for this study. Also random sampling (and in some cases systematic sampling) has been used to distribute the questionnaires and collect the responses for conducting the analysis. DATA SOURCES Market research requires two types of data i.e. secondary data and primary data. Primary data has been used abundantly for the study. Well-structured questionnaires were prepared the survey was undertaken. Feedback for the display has been taken by asking questions observation has also done to gather primary information. There is also a use of secondary data, collected from the extant literature available on the subject matter in various journals, books, and websites from various marketers and business owners. PRIMARY DATA The primary data to be selected was based upon the response of the respondents to the questionnaire designed. The questionnaire consists of open ended questions. The Questionnaire was targeted to know about the views of the business owners and planning and marketing department people towards the adoption of symbiotic relationship in the long term opportunities for the businesses especially in the Indian Context. SECONDARY DATA The secondary data was collected by referring through various companys marketing strategies in online manuals, Reports, journals and research papers, web sites, and the final data was analyzed systematically to accomplish the objectives of this research paper. CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY PROPOSED FRAMEWORK RATIONALE OF FRAMEWORK VARIABLES HYPOTHESIS Symbiotic Marketing increases the competitive Advantage of the participating firms over their respective competitors companies with complementary products or services can also achieve symbiotic marketing by carrying out lateral cooperative marketing Growth Oriented firms prefer bigger firms for Marketing Symbiosis. Survival Oriented firms prefer equal sized or smaller firms for Marketing Symbiosis. Sharing of operational resources and mutually-complementary advantages among interrelated companies, will increase their production efficiency. CHAPTER V DATA ANALYSIS INFERENCE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS INTERPRETATIONS CHAPTER VI SUMMARY CONCLUSION SUMMARY OF FINDINGS CONCLUSION SCOPE RECOMMENDATIONS LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY CHAPTER VII REFERENCES [1] Kotler, P., Fernando, T. D.(2005).Lateral Marketing. Beijing: China Citic Press,25. [2] Lee, A. (1966). Symbiotic Marketing. 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[18] Scope and Intensity of Logistics Based Strategic Alliances: A Conceptual Framework and Managerial Implications, authored by Walter Zinn and A. Parasuraman. CHAPTER VIII APPENDIX Insert the questionnaire hereà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦