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Strategies & Market Trends : Tang's school of business management for serious investors -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Arthur Tang who wrote (5)	5/20/2001 8:18:33 AM
From: Arthur Tang	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57

Business consulting on marketing? Or is it "one on one vs. mass marketing(distribution) shelf space? New economy hyped internet marketing, warehouseless(zero inventory, built to order) business with "one on one" boutique approach. Good print it is, but without muscles. Levy Strauss touted it, but the volume is so small that after a year or so, they pull the rug. "One on one" is special customer treatment for total satisfaction on the internet, where one's special requests get delivery. Dell did call center telemarketing(and got solid leads from service consultants), then moving to internet paperless processing, did well with "one on one but negotiated limited variation on their available products" approach, by using low cost vendors' resources on interchangeable parts to build special customers' orders(assembly of parts customers want, based on avalability). Vendors had to supply the assembly lines with merchandise stocked nearby. Using others' warehouses to advantage, Dell can shift the cost(or mistake) of stocking inventory on the vandors, thus Dell has larger margin of gross profit and less risk of its own capital. Walmart on the other hand is doing mass distribution shelf space allocation based on consultation with the leading manufacturer(some pay for the shelf space to lock out the competition). ie., Proctor Gamble advises them of the shelf space for different brands of laundry detergents. The muscle Proctor Gamble has will help them to maintain their own industry leadership position for many years to come. Three case histories, a tale of two cities, tells us quickly that text book marketing approach is still the way to build a business. Brick and Mortar rules, but whose brick and mortar counts.