ASSIGNMENT

OF

B2B MARKETING

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the Post Graduate Diploma in

Management (Marketing)

By

Mayank Tigga (20)

Manmohan Jalan (33)

Under the Guidance of

Prof. Pratyush Ranjan

XAVIER INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SERVICE

DR.CAMIL BULCKE PATH, RANCHI

SESSION 2018-20
QUESTION 1:
Critically evaluate channel management. What would you recommend to Mr.
Jain?
ATL’s distributors appeared appreciative of the following policies:
• Maintaining fixed prices throughout the year.
• Giving sufficient time and notice to the distributors/ stockists to lift the existing stocks at
old rates i.e. before the new prices become effective.
• Uniform Prices throughout India.
• Incentive schemes were reflective of management’s concern for the channel members.

Some specific weaknesses/ problems identified by the channel members were:

• Range limited to 3” diameter.
• Prices are very high- at least 30 percent more than the competitors.
• Supplies are scanty and irregular.
• Insistence to lift all the sizes. This creates dead inventory of some sizes which have little
local demand.
• Appointment of stockists in small places is creating problems for the distributors in the
large redistribution centres like Delhi and Mumbai.
• At times, there is delay in adjusting the advance received due to short supplies. This delay
prevents the use of the funds of dealers already available with the company.

Recommendation to Mr. Jain:-

• Introduction of larger diameter tubes through modern technology would strengthen ATL’s
marketing efforts and improve the motivation levels of the channel members.
• More focus on the 55 distributors (tabled) who contribute 80% of annual sales.
• Takeover of local players.
• Reducing attrition rate of stockiest.
• To make sure there is use of authentic documents in transactions.
• Motivating channel members to market ATL tubes.
• Timely availability of limited product range.
• Bringing new technology so that there would be reduction in prices.
• Use of extensive market coverage
QUESTION 2:
Can the principles of relationship marketing (RM) be applied for the channel
partners for a product like steel tubes?
Mr. Jain rightly suggested instead of fault finding, he felt that more useful purpose would be served
by formulating a relationship model for ATL and its channel members. Mr. Jain felt that
identification of the areas and relevant issues would help in developing a relationship marketing
model to manage the channel.
Yes according to me the principles of relationship marketing (RM) can be applied for the channel
partners for a product like steel tubes. It is important to identify jointly the areas and issues to
strengthen the practise of relationship marketing.
Relationship marketing would motivate distributors to put in extra effort to move ATL tubes
because of price differential.
Relationship marketing would help in understanding customers better. Customer segregation can
be done into groups based on their characteristics like purchasing power, frequency and volume
of sale transactions. It will also help in getting valuable feedback from the customers and
understand their needs and expectations about steel tubes.
A happy customer will always promote the business by telling ten other people about the amazing
services or performance received from the company. They will be excited to recommend the
business to other people around them so they can try it too. Also, research suggests that people are
more motivated to try a product/service based on reviews from an existing customer they know
than they will be from persuasion by advertisements. Therefore relationship marketing will help
in making customer happy and thus at the same time making business grow.
Relationship marketing would result in minimization of customer price sensitivity- A happy
customer will be willing to pay more for the product if there is a guaranteed satisfaction of products
and after sales services attached to the price. Therefore, relationship marketing would make
customers to pay more for steel tubes even though the competitor’s price is less. Hence, the
business will gain repeat business from the existing customers in the long term even if there is a
rise in prices of the products and services. However, quotation for a premium price must come
with benefits of value addition. Customer loyalty and satisfaction are proven major contributors to
profit maximization.
QUESTION 3:
Identify some critical issues for Mr. Jain which could have strategic
importance for long term prosperity of ATL.

Some critical issues for Mr. Jain which could have strategic importance for long term prosperity
of ATL are:
ATL is following High price because as they are an old entrant and it requires more energy which
results in a cost disadvantage of nearly 30% as compared to new entrants. Competitive pricing
strategy should be adopted to survive in the price war and to hold the market share and to penetrate
in the market.

• Looking at the local players which are emerging which can have impact. So, they can go
for acquiring these small local players.
• Timely availability, as “Delivery is the essence of Supply”. And, focusing on relationship
marketing with the channel members.
• As, most of their distributors are in the ambivalent stage which can cause a concern for
ATL.
• Earlier, there was a bonus scheme but as many distributors have taken leverage of that
scheme selling it on discounts they have withdrawn that scheme. What they could have
done as bonus is released yearly, ATL could have broken it on quarterly basis or can
provide cash discounts or split the incentive allocation according to the workload for each
distribution.
• Proper grievance redressal mechanism to minimize the adverse effect of conflict among
channel partners.
• Channel motivation is almost similar to the motivation to HR. So proper training and
motivation of distributors and other channel members taken place.
• Strategies regarding to pricing and margins put by intermediaries need to be defined to
maintain the uniformity in the prices.
• Strategies regarding to minimize the manufacturing cost by installing modern technologies
and infrastructure.