Final Customer Purchasing from the Product Producer

Acquire Steps: Acquire steps include all activities the customer completes preceding the use or the consumption of the product. These steps include the customer's efforts needed for evaluation and acquisition of the product.

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

2.
Time – Reduce the time the customer must spend with the product

A. Reduce steps the customer must use with the product

Bring products closer to the customer
Place current products closer to current customer's location of purchase or use
Increase number of channels used to serve current customers
Increase sales channels serving current customers

Retail channels

No.	Year	SIC	Note
1	2002	2095	Peet's Coffee has started selling 12-ounce bags of coffee in the 1,200 Safeway supermarkets across the U.S.; it signed a distribution pact with the company in April 2002. This will spread the brand into more East Coast markets.
2	2002	2389	Levi's sales peaked at $7 billion in 1996. By 2001 its sales had fallen to $4.25 billion. To help its turnaround Levi needs the huge volume of the mass merchandisers where denim pants sell for under $25. Levi's announced a new line of discount denim to be sold through the 3000 Wal-Mart stores by the summer of 2003. Wal-Mart is the leader among discounters. The discounters, themselves, sell an estimated one third of all jeans in the United States.
3	1992	2851	Sherwin-Williams is concentrating on increasing market share by increasing company-owned locations where product is sold and selling to Wal-Mart.
4	2003	3571	Gateway uses multiple sales fronts to create an opportunity for cross-channel shopping, for instance the consumer going to a store to test a product in person and then going home to order it online or over the phone.
5	2001	3571	In order to regain market share, Apple Computers has to spread beyond its loyal niche customer base into the more general buying public. Apple's risky approach to this goal is to open its own retail stores.
6	1988	3578	Eventually, calculator manufacturers made acquisition of their products easier by offering their machines through discount stores, later in prestigious retail dept. stores, & eventually even in hardware stores & supermarkets.
7	2004	3600	Sony began opening storefronts last year, quietly opening stores in different cities, making retailers of Sony goods uneasy. They worry that the manufacturer is becoming a potential competitor. Other manufacturers like Apple and Dell do this, but the two electronics manufacturers do not rely heavily on retailers to sell their product. Sony is moving into high-end shopping malls to sell to women, who are often alienated by big-box stores in strip malls. The stores are outfitted with a concierge to greet shoppers. Aisles are wide enough for strollers. Televisions are arranged to allow shoppers to visualize how the products will look in their homes. And sports are verboten. Competitor Samsung opened up a showroom in Manhattan but focused on showing off the products, those who wished to make purchases were directed to nearby retailers.
8	2002	3652	Today, Universal Music Group, the world's biggest label, is expected to announce it has licensed music from its roster of stars–including Eminem, Sheryl Crow, Beck, Jay-Z and Usher–to the online music subscription service offered by Listen.com Inc.
9	2003	3652	For years, the major record labels balked at licensing their song catalogs to legitimate music sites, and most of them burdened the music with unwieldy technical safeguards that prevented consumers from recording songs onto CDs or transferring them to portable music players. Now, the labels have gone headlong in the other direction. Increasingly, the recording industry has made attractive licensing agreements far easier to come by, as it grows more comfortable with the Internet, and the terms of the contracts it strikes with online distributors become more routine.
10	2001	4512	In 1994, Southwest Airlines negotiated an agreement with Sabre Holdings for basic listings in its computer-reservations system at discounted prices.
11	2001	5731	RadioShack stores have been key distributors of Sprint PCS. It signed about one-quarter of its 9.85 million subscribers at the retailer's outlets the last three years.

<< Return to Acquire Steps