« A Lesson in Web 2.0 Marketing...From A Car Dealer! (Rated R ;-) | Main | You Don't Want To Buy A Drill, You Want To Buy A Hole.... »
April 23, 2007
Dealer 2.0 -- The Web 2.0 Remake of Dealers As We Knew Them
It has been a little over two weeks since my last posting...an inexcusable lapse for any true "blogger." I have been on the road a tremendous amount -- visiting customers, making sales calls, spending time with suppliers and also executing projects. It was an exciting time that left me with many ideas for writing about.
Last week, I presented a customer a new concept for their channel partner programs: "Dealer 2.0". The idea behind this was the fact that Web 2.0 phenomena are requiring distribution channels to evolve and adapt. Here is my thinking.
Operating in the world of channel marketing, I see a dizzying amount of change happening...and and equally amazing amount of disorientation. Customers are spending more time online researching and planning their purchases. That means that the dynamic of what a dealer, retailer or distributor needs to do to be successful is different. Customers are not so easily "bamboozled." Real-world customers want different types of support today, not just help picking out whether they should buy the 28 PPM or 35 PPM multifunction printer model, or the Metallic Blue or Gunmetal Grey paint on their new SUV. Add to this the fear of sales disruption that is pervading many manufacturers. As manufacturers jockey for stability in sales, they are continually rejiggering their channel programs -- at the same time that market forces are also disrupting routine operations. Not a pleasant combination for the channel partners.
My Dealer 2.0 concept is built around the fact that distribution channels must think about the value they add. There is not room for "dumb" channel partners who simply add cost without commensurate value. Pricing transparency brought on by the Internet has made it increasingly difficult to integratre simple "markups." I encourage people to leverage Ted Levitt's venerable whole product concept when thinking this through. For example, the following diagram is a whole product mapping for an office products dealer:
The old standby of "a good product at a good price" (think Wal-Mart) is no longer enough...even for Wal-Mart. The Dealer 2.0 concept is a valuable one for both ends of the distribution chain. As a manufacturer, are your programs adapting to meet the needs of an evolving, increasinlgy electronic-tools savvy set of partners? As a dealer, are your programs and customer service initiatives evolving to meet the demands of an increasingly savvy customer base?
I have long believed that "where there is change, there is opportunity." But, seizing the opportunity can be a scary thing.
Posted by jcioban at April 23, 2007 8:02 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.freshsqueezedmarketing.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/54.
