Purchasing orientations

In the past purchasing departments occupied a low position in the management hierarchy in spite of often managing more than half the company’s costs. Recent competitive pressures have led many companies to upgrade their purchasing departments and elevate administrators to vice presidential rank. Today’s purchasing departments are staffed with MBA’s who aspire to be CEO’s. The new, more strategically oriented purchasing departments have a mission to seek the best value from fewer and better suppliers. Some multinationals have even grand them to strategic supply departments, with responsibility for global sourcing and partnering.

Marketers need to understand how business purchasing department work. These departments purchase many types of products and the purchasing process will vary depending on the type of products involved. Products that we use as a routine have low value and cost to the customer and involve little risk. Customers will seek the lowest price and emphasize routine ordering. Whereas on the other end, strategic products have high value and cost to the customer and also involve high risk. In such a category, customer will want a well known and trusted supplier and be willing to pay more than the average price. The supplier should seek strategic alliances that take the form of early supplier involvement, co-development programs and co-investment.

As the customers belong to different living style and different categories, it’s the responsibility of the purchasing as well as the marketing department, to make a detailed study about the changes that has happened with the customer preferences and choices and then to make their ultimate decisions. There will be different categories of photoagraphy models for hire, but the choice depending upon the findings that has been made by the concerned departments. The more accurate their findings, the more economical their selection will be.