Intermediary Customer Purchasing from the Product Producer

Sell Steps: Sell steps include the activities Intermediary customers take in selling and delivering the product to their customers. These activities include their own customer recruitment and product delivery.

B.
Resources: Reduce resources required for the use of the product

1. Money – Reduce the money the customer uses with the product

d. Improve the customer's profits directly

Build demand for the customer's product

No.	SIC	Year	Note
1	2000	1991	Kraft runs several programs in which sales teams help grocers rearrange shelves and displays to maximize profits.
2	2080	1991	Coca-Cola liter bottle has a coupon on its label for a free small soft drink at a movie theatre.
3	2089	2002	Rubbermaid, the manufacturer of plastic storage and other products, has launched new initiatives to turn around sales, increase products and improve customer relations. The company has launched a Phoenix program in which new representatives go into stores to promote the products. These reps were recruited from college campuses around the country, recruiters looked for eager and personable students. They undergo intensive basic training and are assigned to specific retailers. While in the stores, these reps stock shelves demonstrate products and run promotions, increasing sales dramatically. The reps are encouraged to improvise retail-marketing tactics and are rewarded based on the success.
4	2800	2004	The relationship between Kodak and Walgreens flourished into the 1990s, when consumers began demanding more one-hour photo developing. Kodak helped Walgreen set up a national one-hour photo business. It provided machines called minilabs that could handle the developing on-site–collecting fees to lease the equipment–and trained Walgreen employees to operate them. It even gave Walgreen a $31.6 million interest-free loan to help Walgreen implement the systems.
5	3576	2000	The virtual ISP model of Spinway and 1stUp looks a lot more compelling over the long run than the model of Netzero, currently the biggest free ISP. The first two companies sell service to marketers as a customer giveaway. Netzero peddles its own brand.
6	3577	1999	Sun Microsystems wants to put Star, a new program type that transfers computing from the desktop to central centers online, out on the net and give it to users for free. Sun sees the Internet as quickly becoming a place where users either rent services and software or receive it as part of a package deal with their provider. In that environment, catering to service providers' needs becomes paramount.
7	4512	2003	United is adding email to its flight serrvices and it won't cost the airline any money. In fact, it is expected to provide the airline a new stream of revenue from user fees. The expense is being shouldered by Verizon Communication Inc.'s Airfone subsidiary, with Tenzing Communications Inc. providing the e-mail service to Airfone.
8	4724	2005	Traveler's Personal Lines, a member of St. Paul Travelers, has launched a new campaign to support its network of independent agents with advertising tools they can personalize in their local market. The Helping Agents Grow campaign includes template ads for print, radio, and TV that demonstrate the benefits of working with and independent agent.
9	5700	2004	Ajax Phila Inc. created a website for the business by using an off the shelf template. The company attracted customers to the website by signing up with GO-2 using a pay per click model. The company only paid when customers clicked on the listing.
10	5900	2000	The four main types of e-tailing business models are channel supporter, auctioneer, category killer, and vertical portal. The channel supporters deliver product information to customers, offer user forums and refer customers to stores.
11	5900	2001	FTD.com, the online florist in the Chicago suburbs, in fact washes its hands of both inventory and shipping. It merely takes customer orders and then forwards them for a fee to one of 17,000 independently owned florists in its network.
12	5900	2004	PriceGrabber is an online comparison site for shoppers. It doesn't charge the merchants it hosts in its Storefronts section to list their products, or for customer referrals. But it takes a cut of $1 if the product costs less than $15; 7.5% of the price if it costs more. Yahoo's shopping portal takes referral fees from the small merchants it hosts but it gives the sellers a 20% discount on those fees.
13	5900	2004	While only about 18% of America's online consumers use comparison sites while shopping online, those that do spend about 24% more than average online consumers. Listing products on comparison sites is generally free. Most sites make their money by charging merchants a fee whenever they send them customers, whether or not those shoppers end up buying anything. Many comparison sites offer perks for small merchants, like sections where they "host" product listings for small sellers.
14	6300	2005	Travelers Personal Lines uses database marketing and professional copywriters to provide high quality communications that agents can send to their customers. And, since agents pay for this direct mail program, they have a vested interest in it. This program has helped some agents increase their customer retention rate by 4 to 5%.
15	6411	2005	Included in the Helping Agents Grow campaign offered by St. Paul Travelers are tools that agents can personalize, including free-standing inserts, yellow page advertising and news release templates on topics such as home maintenance tips and how to save on auto insurance.
16	7375	2003	In 2002, Google went from running ads with its searches on a fixed-fee basis to selling advertisers the rights to given keywords so their ads pop up first when those words are entered in a query. Sponsors paid on a cost-per-click basis instead of the usual cost-per-thousand-visitors. It grew to 100,000 bidders in ten months, and thousands more advertisers are still signing up.
17	7832	1996	Turner Broadcasting System's Cartoon Network next month will introduce a new marketing program called "MaTOONays" aimed at one of its fastest-growing audience segments: adults. A 20-minute animated package followed by a family-oriented film will run.

<<Return to Sell Steps