Marketing in supply chain perspectives

Today's business market is more competitive than ever. Consumers are faced with a multitude of options when it comes to making a purchase decision and if their satisfaction is not met with their first choice, there are other companies hungry for the opportunity to turn that unhappy customer into a happy one of their own. Looking at how organizations can work together to achieve a competitive advantage, Dr. Rajesh Rajaguru is taking an interdisciplinary approach to his research to uncover business success.

Focusing on the business to business market, Rajaguru's research has uncovered the importance of collaboration between business and supply chain partners. Rajaguru has found the secret of success in a B2B setting is through a successful integration of information systems and supply chain activities.

“In the process of integration, companies must be open to share operational and strategic information with their partners, with details ranging from the current demand, to availability of services, all the way to inventory and stock.

“Working in this cooperative way, a retailer can capture future demand from point of sale (POS) data and pass it on to the manufacturer, making a product available to the consumer at all times, resulting in satisfaction on the customers end and hopefully repeat business,” says Rajaguru.

Integrating supply chain and information systems

According to Rajaguru's research, integration of information systems and supply chain activities make sure the right product is available to the right consumers at the right time with the right quantity. To achieve this seamlessly, Rajaguru's findings stress the importance for business partners to be cooperative and in communication.

“As technology continues to grow, companies are investing huge amounts of money into their information systems but without compatibility across the supply chain partners, information systems failure is likely to happen. If it is correctly integrated, success will be seen at every level of the business, across the entire chain, ultimately ending with a cheaper price and a happy customer” says Rajaguru.

Hospitality industry to benefit from research

Sharing his studies with the broader business research community, Rajaguru's latest study on the determinants of franchise brand loyalty in emerging B2B markets was published in the Journal of Business Research. Rajaguru's interest across the marketing field has also lead to previous studies being published including his recent look at the hotel and hospitality industry which was published in the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.

This study investigated the role of trip purpose and the hotel star rating as influencing factors on guest satisfaction and the resulting word of mouth. In particular, Rajaguru's study focused on understanding how these factors together with the value for money and service quality perceived at hotels influenced guest's satisfaction.

“The findings suggest that managers in the hotel industry should understand the purpose of guests' trips and offer services based on their expectations. As the star rating of a hotel creates certain expectations for both leisure and business guests, providing an appropriate level of services and assuring value for money in accordance with the hotel rating contributes to guest satisfaction and word of mouth recommendation” explains Rajaguru.

Impacts on businesses and consumers

While businesses have been the main focus of Rajaguru's marketing research, he is curious in applying concepts from his earlier research and examining them from a consumer perspective.

“Consumers have so much power and sway on how a business operates. I'd like to uncover how they can better channel this power by forming groups and performing other activities and use this to their advantage.”

“The ultimate goal of my research is to support the local and global community by providing information that businesses and consumers can benefit from to provide happiness and satisfaction across all parties.”