Marketing has been refined as a function that concerns all activities impacting on a customer (Gronroos 1990). It is the process of planning and executing the conception of ideas, and the pricing, promotion and distribution of goods and services. A company operates in a dynamic environment and researches and understands its customer, in order to design a marketing mix that exerts influence over the market, causing a reaction from the customer. An understanding of organisational buying behaviour is essential for the development of appropriate industrial marketing strategy (Baker 1991). A car component supplier, for example Michelin (the world's largest tyre manufacturer, would use this understanding in order to meet the needs of their customers, in this case car manufacturers (such as Volvo and Fiat).
Buyer behaviour encompasses all the reasons why customers buy, their choice criteria, when, how and where they buy. Business marketing is a different concept but both are heavily linked. It is the task of selecting, developing and managing customer relationships for the advantage of both customer and supplier, with regard to their respective skills, resources, technologies, strategies and objectives (Ford 2002). It relates to the exchange and flow of goods and services from business to business, enabling them to operate, produce, add value and/or resell a certain product or service, in this case to use the tyre to produce a finished product.
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