Supply-side
complexity
Companies are faced with many choices in customer
management. The larger the company, the more complex the choices. The choices
include:
-
Product and product variations (although products are
becoming more similar). Product marketers have done a good job of providing
subtle variations to differentiate their products from those of competitors. The
difficulty with this is maintaining the product line with the increased cost of
development and brochure ware.
-
Channels: which channels to use to access which customers -
retail, outbound/inbound call centre, kiosk, intermediary, direct sales force,
Web, wireless (for example, SMS), and mail.
-
Segment targeting: which customers to target for which
products.
-
Choice of partners: which partners to choose for which
products, segments and channels, and at what level of the supply
chain.
Is it any wonder this increased complexity is confusing to
marketers, and to the consumer? This is clearly one reason why IT vendors have
had such an easy time selling to companies who are desperate for a solution to
sort out this complexity. In reality, it rarely does.
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