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CRM( customer relationship management) systems, with distribution or with marketing. For many food companies, collaborating with marketing expert Proctor & Gamble would be a major help. Collaborate with parties that can help you supply or service the customer in a flexible and customised manner, and so to boost your relevance for that customer. standardisation committees, who will formulate an ISO standard that defines the diameters, shapes and network protocols, which all manufacturers will then apply to their products. Other industries deliberately choose not to: because HP ink cartridges only work in HP printers, HP can afford to market the printer at very low prices, and then make a profit selling more expensive cartridges.
Many distribution channels have a customer relationship to some degree, and can be a good partner here. But bear in mind the importance of making agreements about exclusivity and customer ownership( see Chapter 5).
Recurrent turnover
Recurrent turnover, as through razor blades, printer cartridges and vacuum cleaner bags, but also maintenance contracts for a variety of appliances also represent an excellent source of profit. As it can be quite challenging for a company to supply both the initial product and the disposable items, this is an evident area for partnerships to be forged. Where it concerns complementary products( for instance rechargeable batteries and the recharger, paint and paint brushes), agreements can be made between the complementary suppliers to ensure that these products are compatible. Although this requires coordination and perhaps some after-care, this can constitute an important and distinctive sales argument.
Little beats the pleasure of knowing for sure that two components will work together; for example that a drill bit will fit your electric drill, a DVD will play in your DVD player, and that your Samsung hard disk will interface with your Dell computer. Many of such potential problems are solved by international
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Network-related profit
The value of a network is equal to the number of users squared 28. This already became clear at the time of the introduction of telephone and fax. The first person to own a fax could not put it to any use; owner 2 could fax 1 other person, and by owner 10 there were 45 fax connections available. With the advent of the Internet, all sorts of networks, market places and user groups could emerge and grow rapidly. Examples are sites such as YouTube, Hyves and LinkedIn.
The business profile site LinkedIn has some 90 million users, while the more informal profile site Facebook has over 400 million( as per 2010). Then there are sites such as Flickr, Myspace and Hyves, and Plaxo and Naymz for the business world. Such( business) sites allow one to upload some sort of CV and to establish network links with your relations. However, users tend to engage with just one or two networks, which means that not all relations can be reached.
If two or more parties bundle their customers or connections in a new network concept, the immediate result is a much wider reach of relations for the customer. This increases the value of the network, but can cause a loss of Internet traffic and hence of advertising revenue for certain providers. The impact will be less for larger, more established players than for newcomers.