Anne Maarit Jalkala and Joona Keränen
Despite increasing interest in customer solutions, and the importance of brand management in the B2B context, prior research provides little understanding on brand positioning…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite increasing interest in customer solutions, and the importance of brand management in the B2B context, prior research provides little understanding on brand positioning strategies adopted by solution providers. The present study aims to examine the possible brand positioning strategies for industrial firms providing customer solutions.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical part of the present study consists of a multiple case study, involving four industrial firms providing customer solutions. Primary data was gathered by semi-structured interviews from a total of 22 business managers from the case companies.
Findings
The present study identifies four possible brand position strategies for industrial firms providing customer solutions: customer value diagnostic, global solution integrator, high quality sub-systems provider, and long-term service partner. The identified strategies highlight the tendency of solution suppliers to position their brands around different capabilities that are needed at different phases of the solution delivery process.
Research limitations/implications
The present study was conducted from the industrial supplier's perspective and is context-bound to companies operating in solution-oriented process and information technology industries.
Practical implications
Managers need to identify the capabilities that are central to delivering customer value and acquire and/or develop capability configurations that differentiate their brand positioning from competitors.
Originality/value
Existing literature on branding lacks understanding about the specific characteristics of building brands in solution-oriented B2B contexts. The present study identifies four brand positioning strategies that illuminate the special characteristics of branding customer solutions.
Details
Keywords
Minna Oinonen and Anne Maarit Jalkala
Innovations in business-to-business markets often result from co-development activities between multiple actors, all of which have their own goals for the collaboration. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Innovations in business-to-business markets often result from co-development activities between multiple actors, all of which have their own goals for the collaboration. The purpose of this paper is to study how the actors’ divergent goals reflect on their perceptions of the supplier-customer co-development process.
Design/methodology/approach
A grounded theory approach is adopted to reveal the actors’ perceptions of eight studied supplier-customer co-development processes, of which, four also involve an expert partner.
Findings
The findings suggest that because of the supplier’s aim to commercialize the resulting product, a supplier has a wider ranging perception of the co-development process, whereas the customer and expert partner focus on those phases that support their goals to improve the efficiency of the process or to develop new technology.
Practical implications
As each actor operates according to its own goals and is involved in those phases of the process that facilitates their achievement, the study recommends that managers consider each actor’s goals which are reflected on their perception of the co-development.
Originality/value
This is among the first studies to focus on the co-development process from multiple perspectives and include data from various actors involved in the process. The paper contributes to the co-development literature both by presenting actors’ divergent perspectives on the process and proposing an empirically grounded dyadic framework of the supplier-customer co-development process.