Business markets

                As we said before, The Meat Love is a company which deals with professional customers, so we are into the business to business market. The main difference between our market and a consumer market is that agents in Business markets buy products and services to reselling or renting them to other companies. We sell our meat to restaurants, resorts gourmet boutiques etc, and after that, they introduce our products in their production line to elaborate a new product and obtain a profit through it.

Characteristics of the markets

                1-When we decided to locate ourselves in Denia we thought that it was the best choice because among other reasons (explained in unit 1) this way we could be near to high income and  touristic places in which there are lots of potential final customers for our potential users. This is one of the characteristic of Business Markets, companies are usually geographically concentrated.

2-In the Business markets we should talk about derived demand. There is a direct relation between the demand of the final consumers of our products and the demand from our customers (seen in unit 3).  But our sales can fall or grow not only because of the increase or the decrease in demand of the final customers but there are plenty of reasons for it. As an example, it could happen because our customers might be afraid of the financial market and then they will buy fewer products.

3- As a company which operates in the b2b market, and is dedicated to the distribution of products, one of our main goals is to avoid the problems derived from the highly fluctuating demand. We shall consider the nature of the restaurant guests to control the temporality and avoid shortages or excesses of stock.

4-The nature of our customers is quite different to the consumer market customers. The purchasing method its more complex. There are ironclad contracts that  have been signed long time ago, relations with suppliers that could have started many years back ,the stages that a purchasing process follows  are more numerous and sometimes there are more people involved than in the b2c, agents have better bargaining skills and more bargaining power... In short, this market is characterized because the in-elasticity of its demand over the short run

5-Finally in business to business markets we can see that buyers and seller are much more dependent. In our case, we can see a strong dependence between them and us because we provide of an exotic product that is hard to find it in the market, and that there are not many companies dedicated to this sector. However, we must take care of our customers because there are not many customers interested in the kind of products we serve either

The Meat Love purchasing process

           
            We use our commercial network to show or products and introduce them to our potential customers. We create this external stimulus because our products are not that well known. Most of customers will not come to our doors looking for our services. It is us who will have to go and find them, especially, since we are a new company and the product we offer is in an introductory stage.

It is possible that once our products and ourselves get known customers will recognize the need of offering something new in their menu so they could come to us searching for a supplier which can provide those exotic meats.

As we said before it is probable that the ignition of the buying process would be started from us and not from our customers. However the number of items that we will have in list to sell will be not too high. It will be the task of our sales force to let potential customers know about the products we offer and hand them all the necessary specifications of our meats.

In this case our sales people will act as a seller as well as a product adviser. With this we attempt to make the customer totally aware and ready to buy our products. It will know exactly what it will receive. All this effort is due to we provide not standard products so we shall introduce them carefully.

On the other hand, by doing so, we will be setting up a relation with our customers even before we started to exchange our products with them. We want to be perceived as the only reliable and trusty suppliers, the suppliers that are working focusing on their needs and wants. All this, aims also to make the supplier decision the easiest possible and obviously in our side.

Actually, we are not trading with very complex stuff which its incorrectness could carry further heavy consequences ,as it  could happen if it was a engineering piece for a car. Also our products are neither that expensive so there is the need of creating a whole committee to discuss about the purchase of our products.

Truth is that most of the restaurants in our country are family businesses. This composition calls to a less rigid structure while talking of a purchasing process.

Usually we will deal with the head chef of the restaurants. This person is in many occasions the one that takes almost all decisions affecting the kitchen and also it is the one in charge of elaborate the menu.Sometimes the head chef and the owner of the restaurant are the same person and in this case roles affecting the purchasing decision are performed all by the same human.

In the case in which the head chef and owner are different persons, the first have to take in consideration the opinion of the second since the owner is the one who pays in the end so  the cook is the user and the buyer but not the decider which is the owner.

There are cases, and it is likely to happen in the hotel industry, in which we can easily observe different people that embodies each role.

The Head chef is clearly the user, the one that sees the need and probably the initiator of the buying process.
The influencers are the ones that shape some of the specifications that the product to be purchased should fulfill. This role is played by some medium managers as well as other people that work around the master cook. 
In the hotels there is usually a department or at very least a person specialized in decide which are the suppliers that they will use, which are the payment conditions etc... This is obviously the buyer.
This is not a high risk operation, so usually the decider and the buyer will be the same person.
However if there was another person which should decide over the buying department, because it is a new operation or because it is an annual purchase or whatever, this person would be someone of the top management of the hotel.