台灣工業性產品製造商選擇經銷商之因素探討

Abstract

有別於消費性產品，工業性產品之在市場上之行銷有其獨有的特徵，如：集中購買量大、重視人與人之間的關係、強調合作關係與承諾等。若僅運用一般的行銷方法，則難見效果。如何與顧客維持長期且良好的關係，對工業性產品之銷售而言至為重要。這樣的特殊要求，正好給經銷商有很大的發揮空間，因為經銷商通常有較靈活的手腕來與終端客戶來往。為有效使用產能及維持產品在通路上的順暢，工業性產品之供應商大多依賴通路上的經銷商或配銷商來協助行銷其產品，甚至完全委託通路上的夥伴執行產品行銷的工作，以達到有效的專業分工，使雙方更有效益。 為了順應現今的貿易型態，工業性產品的製造商與經銷商的關係日益緊密。產品製造商對經銷商的選擇已成為供應鏈管理上重要的一個環節，在目前這樣高競爭的時代裏，製造商如何選擇一個適合自身企業文化與產品的經銷商絕對是攸關存亡的重要課題。令人詫異的是，這樣要緊的關鍵，在過往的研究上，卻是寥寥可數。本文即希望能在這個缺口，為供應商選擇的研究上，繼續往前推進。 在供應商選擇的條件上，最被廣泛認同與接受的有四大因素，分別是: 基礎條件(firm infrastructure)，市場能力(marketing capability)，關係強度 (Relationship intensity)及物流管理能力(Logistics capabilities)，本文即依據此四大因素，與台灣工業界的主管做深入的訪談，來探討台灣工業界對於這些因素的看法。希望與學界的理論作驗證，並協助台灣工業品的製造商深切思考如何選擇經銷商。也讓台灣的經銷商，藉由了解製造商的需求，提升自身的能力來成為製造造商不可或缺的夥伴。

Industrial products, distinct from consumer commodity, own their unique characters such as centralizing purchases, paying attention to the relationship between people, and emphasizing cooperation and commitment in the sales market. The trading results won’t be impressed if only apply the general marketing methods same as selling normal consumer products. For selling industrial products, it can’t be over emphasize the importance to maintain the long term and good relationship with customers. This special requirement gives the distributors a lot of rooms to show their values, because the dealers often have more finesse to rub shoulders with the end customers. To effectively use the capacity and smooth the sales channels, most of the suppliers of industrial products rely on distributors to sell products for them. In this way, it help achieve professional division of labors and get benefits for each other. In order to conform to today’s trade pattern, the relationships between manufacturers and distributors of industrial products have been closer. In the era of high competition, choosing a good distributor becomes one of the critical issues in sales channel management. It’s definitely an important subject of survival at stake for manufacturers to get a good distributor which suits company cultures and product features. Surprising is that the past studies are quite few in this crucial topic. This article tries to fill this research gap and press the studies of distributor selection to move continuously. There are four widely recognized and accepted constructs regarding the distributor selection obtained from marketing, supply chain and logistics literature: firm infrastructure, marketing capabilities, relationship intensity, and logistics capabilities. Our study is to discover the perception from Taiwan industrial field to these four factors by conducting several deep interviews with the top managers or owners of the industrial companies. Hopefully, it may validate the academic theories and assist the Taiwan industrial manufacturers to contemplate how to select right distributors. On the other hand, it also reveals a guideline for Taiwan industrial distributors to transform themselves into good partners for manufacturers