Final Customer Purchasing from an Intermediary of the Product
Use Steps: Use steps include all the Final customer’s activities to find the appropriate product category at the Intermediary, to choose among the alternatives to the product and to take delivery of the product.
3. Intellectual: Segment customers on the basis of their current knowledge and understanding of the company and its products
B. Understanding how product works with other products.
| No. | SIC | Year | Note |
| 1 | 5300 | 2002 | Consumers felt that digital pictures were a hassle to print. Now, about every major photo company is producing photo kiosks that would make it easy to print good photo shots from digital cameras. They even have features such as a photo editing program and can pop out a picture in about 30 seconds. The machines are aimed at winning over people who haven't bought a digital camera because they're unsure how to print the photos. For people who are intimidated by using photo kiosks, traditional photo centers are offering to produce photos for them. |
| 2 | 5411 | 1988 | Inter-Ad introducing a computerized directory, the Information Station. In addition to providing aisle locations of every product in the store, video station gives customers nutritional information, meal plans, coupons, recipes and other promotions. |
| 3 | 5731 | 2004 | Consumer electronics retailers have had to hone their businesses in recent years because of competition from giant discount chains like Wal-Mart, Costco and Target. Instead of focusing on selling commodity products like DVD players, consumer electronics dealers are looking to sell "solutions" like home theater systems and personal computer networks. The specialty retailers will offer advice and provide delivery, setup and installation services. That's something Wal-Mart and its peers can't afford to offer. Services tend to be more profitable for the retailers than typical hardware sales. The trend toward services is exemplified by Best Buy's 2002 purchase of Geek Squad, a company that sends technicians on house calls to set up and repair PCs and other tech gear. Retailers have also found that they can sell more high-margin accessories and peripherals if they spend the time finding out what a customer needs. |
| 4 | 6289 | 2000 | Charles Schwab's online trading website offers extensive research, planning tools, bill payments, and after hours trading. The company website offers account balances, IPO access, priority routing on phone calls, Internet road shows, conference calls and more research. |
<< Return to Use Steps