Business to Business marketing and supply chain management Essay

Business to Business marketing and supply chain management - Essay Example A supply chain is an inter network for facilities and distribution solutions that does the functions for procuring the materials, transforming these raw materials into usable intermediate and finished goods, and finally distributing these finished goods to the customers (Hugos, 2006, p.3). It consists of all the stages that are related in completing a customer request. The goal of SCM should be to link the marketplace, the distribution network, the manufacturing process and the procurement (or purchasing) activity in such a way that customers are serviced at higher levels and yet at a lower cost (Business-to-business marketing and supply chain management, 2008, p.4). Business-to-business (B2B) describes the commercial transactions between businesses that can be between manufacturers and wholesalers or in between wholesalers and retailers. Relation between SCM and B2B For any supply chain management to sustain in a B2B environment, the focus must lie on providing the customers with th e best in quality of services. The B2B customers usually have very particular demands (Withey & lancaster, 2012, p.258), and the best solution in these situations is to have a consumer friendly supply network chain which would operate in a real-time, would be data driven and would be able to supply the products on demand. The key features of B2B marketing such as placing demands, the buying process need to be incorporated in the SCM of a company to boost sales (Business marketing and supply chain management, 2008, p.19). Relationship marketing in B2B communications Effective business to business (B2B) relationships in the context of supply chain management are mostly important for the organizations to strengthen their ability in order to be more competitive and leader in the marketplace (Clement, 2009, p.3). There has to be certain limitations between the supplier and the purchaser so as to maintain a healthy relationship. The relationships also need to focus on the pricing issues t hat are determined by the market forces. Apart from this, there must be continuous initiatives to strengthen the partnerships in the B2B marketing scenarios. Aim of the paper The paper is based on a case study what will try to highlight the importance of relationship management in SCM and in a B2B marketing. It will be based on the conditions of the chemical industry as presented in the case study and draw insights from it regarding the issues of supply chain management, B2B marketing, key account management and how they are related with each other. The case study – Chemco and the chemical industry Chemco is a company operating at the global level in the chemical sector. Its products include chemical additives designed to enhance a base chemical’s properties. These products are used by blenders/manufacturers to create branded products for the global market, including the oil and petroleum sectors. Chemco was once regarded as the highest owner in market share and the te chnical leader. This had been achieved through their investment in R&D and a widespread geographical coverage of the local agents by offering close customer liaison. Towards the end of the decade, the condition in the chemical industry was deteriorating because of which the demand was cut down. This forced the manufacturers to cut down on their costs. Chemco's