Holcim Italia - Case
Case 2 – Possible solutions
Group 2 made a good presentation on the case ”Holcim Italia: Segmentation and Targeting in Business-to-Business Marketing” and it is my task to discuss the possible solutions. Group 2 had five different solutions to get Holcim going again:
Improving their geographic proximity
Increase product assortment
More flexible payment conditions
Improve technical assistance
More promotion and personal relationship
Improving their geographic proximity: Holcim had 3 different factories in northern Italy witch made them quite big in the area but are small in the market all of Italy. One important criteria for the costumers was that they needed fast deliveries when they were in need of cement. So a solution would be to buy storage around Italy so they could have fast deliveries. This solution will be the cheapest instead of starting new factories witch group 2 suggested.
Increase product assortment: This solution will probably help Holcim to get better products to different segments of the market. One example would be the retail costumer’s witch didn’t need the best quality but would like better prices. So if they got some different products they could get even more buyers from this segment. But at the same time this will probably don’t lead to a big change in their market share so I don’t believe this the best choice of solution.
More flexible payments conditions: This is a way for Holcim to satisfy some segments and especially the manufactures witch answers for 17% of their customers. I believe that if they increase the payment time fore maybe just one type of costumers other costumers would like the same deal witch would lead to Holcim having a lot of capital bound in there customers. This will probably make Holcim weaker in other areas because the shortage of cash.
Improve technical assistance: One of Holcim’s best strengths is their knowhow and the technical assistance and of course this could always be better. But in my
Group 2 made a good presentation on the case ”Holcim Italia: Segmentation and Targeting in Business-to-Business Marketing” and it is my task to discuss the possible solutions. Group 2 had five different solutions to get Holcim going again:
Improving their geographic proximity
Increase product assortment
More flexible payment conditions
Improve technical assistance
More promotion and personal relationship
Improving their geographic proximity: Holcim had 3 different factories in northern Italy witch made them quite big in the area but are small in the market all of Italy. One important criteria for the costumers was that they needed fast deliveries when they were in need of cement. So a solution would be to buy storage around Italy so they could have fast deliveries. This solution will be the cheapest instead of starting new factories witch group 2 suggested.
Increase product assortment: This solution will probably help Holcim to get better products to different segments of the market. One example would be the retail costumer’s witch didn’t need the best quality but would like better prices. So if they got some different products they could get even more buyers from this segment. But at the same time this will probably don’t lead to a big change in their market share so I don’t believe this the best choice of solution.
More flexible payments conditions: This is a way for Holcim to satisfy some segments and especially the manufactures witch answers for 17% of their customers. I believe that if they increase the payment time fore maybe just one type of costumers other costumers would like the same deal witch would lead to Holcim having a lot of capital bound in there customers. This will probably make Holcim weaker in other areas because the shortage of cash.
Improve technical assistance: One of Holcim’s best strengths is their knowhow and the technical assistance and of course this could always be better. But in my