Industrial Marketing in Nepal

Meaning of Industrial Marketing

Industrial marketing is the marketing of goods and services to the industrial and institutional customers. Industrial and institutional customers include manufacturers, governments, service organization, industrial distributors, and other middlemen.Industrial marketing is also known as business marketing. Under industrial marketing, there is marketing of goods and services by one businessman to another.

In another word, industrial marketing performs the sale of goods between businesses. Industrial marketing discovers the need, wants, expectations, and requirements of industrial customers and try to fulfill those needs, wants expectations etc. through effective promotion, pricing, distribution channel and after sale service. Under industrial marketing, the industrial seller sells goods to the industrial customers. Industrial customers include commercial or business enterprise, government organizations, institutions, and service organizations.

Industrial marketing requires a complex skill set that pulls from multiple disciplines of business. It has components of advertising, sales, number-crunching, and cutting edge telecommunications. Industrial marketing is the marketing of goods and services from one business to another. Industrial goods are those which are used in Industry for producing different end products from one or more raw materials. The word "industrial" means machinery run by a power to produce goods and services. But "industrial marketing" is not confined to these types of business activities.

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Features of Industrial Marketing

Following are the important features of industrial marketing:

• Complex function:

Industrial marketing is considered as complex function. A number of activities have to be accomplished by buyers and sellers for performing their business activities. Industrial marketing includes the function like prospecting, qualifying, convincing request for proposal, selecting process, request for tender etc.

• Rational buying:

Industrial marketing also functions as a rational buying of goods and services.Industrial marketing activities are not quite simple like consumer product marketing. Highly professional and trained people are involved for making purchase plan and selling plan for industrial products.

• Easy to identify prospective customers:

It is easy to identify the particular consumers in industrial marketing.Since the number of potential buyers is limited in industrial marketing, they are easy to identify and seller can keep face to face relationship with those prospective customers.

• Time-consuming activity:

It is the marketing which consumes more time.Industrial marketing activities could not be performed in a short time period. Numbers of formal activities have to be accomplished by buyers and sellers for performing their business activities and it takes more time.

• Higher volume of business transaction:

Industrial marketing helps in the production of goods in high volume. In industrial marketing, the volume of business transaction is higher in comparison to business to consumer transaction. In other words, more goods are sold in industrial marketing.

• Shorter distribution channel:

Industrial marketing has the shorter distribution channel for selling the goods and services.Generally very short or direct distribution channel is used in the industrial marketing for distributing industrial goods. Industrial distributor and manufacturers representatives play a very important role in distributing such goods.

• Promotional tools used:

In industrial marketing, many promotional activities are done.Personal selling is the most important tool of promotion in the industrial market. Manufacturer’s representatives and industrial distributors are the important middlemen for the industrial distribution channel. Such middlemen in distribution channel possess more technical background.

• Profit margin:

In industrial marketing , there is more profit margin due to the large selling of products.There is a large volume of business transaction in industrial marketing. But there is a low-profit margin in comparison to the consumer marketing. Traders in industrial marketing can earn more by selling large volume of goods.

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Problems of Industrial Marketing in Nepal

Nepal belongs to the group of least developed country in the world. It is a landlocked mountainous country with a small but open economy. This country is facing the problems of poverty, weak industrial capacities and financial and technical constraints.

Following are the important problems of industrial marketing in Nepal:

• Lack of infrastructural development:

Lack of infrastructures is the great problem in industrial marketing.Industrial marketing cannot prosper without sufficient infrastructural facilities. Such facilities may be road facility, facility of power and water, bank, insurance, communication, etc. which are not sufficient for industrial development within the country.

• Lack of modern technology:

Lack of modern technology has also bring great effect in industrial marketing.Advancement of industrial activities needs modern technology. In our country, Nepal traditional technologies of productions are being used. Generally, an expired technology of developed countries is imported in our country as a new technology. So, mass and quality production of a product becomes difficult.

• Lack of sufficient natural resources:

Lack of sufficient natural resources is also a problem of industrial marketing in Nepal. Industrial marketing needs sufficient natural resources like mine, medicinal herbs, forest, etc. But,such natural resources are lacking in our country. There are natural resources in Nepal but lack of utilization of it has brought a great problem.

• Lack of skilled manpower:

Lack of skilled manpower is also another problem for industrial marketing in Nepal.Qualified human resources are essential for industrial development. Existing industries of Nepal are lacking such experienced, qualified manpower. Unskilled and unqualified manpower cannot produce a better quality of product and services.

• Landlocked nature of country:

Our country Nepal is landlocked country. It cannot use sea route directly for transporting raw materials, finished goods, etc. from different countries and to the countries. Sea route is the cheapest means of transporting goods. But in our country, it is impossible to carry seaways transportation. Due to this, there is the problem of transporting goods and services.

• Political instability:

Political instability is a big problem for the development of industrial activities. The government of Nepal is continuously changing within short time period. Rules, policies, strategies, etc. for industrial sector are being changed accordingly. There is no stability of industrial rules and policies. Such situation has brought a great effect in the industrial marketing in Nepal.

• Lack of sufficient foreign investments:

Lack of foreign investments is also a problem in Nepal. Due to lack of money and a high degree of risk, people of Nepal are unable and hesitate to invest in industrial activities. Nepal lacks effective policies for attracting significant amounts of foreign investments. Foreign investors feel unprofitable and unsecured to invest in industrial field in Nepal because of unstable government.

• Lack of innovative capacity:

There is a lack of innovation and development activities in industrial field in Nepal. Research activities for new product development are lacking in our country. Only innovated methods in developed countries are applied in our country. In Nepal, there is no innovative capacity for performing the marketing activities.

Prospects of Industrial Marketing in Nepal

Following are the important prospects of industrial marketing in Nepal:

• Diversity of physical geography:

Nepal has a good physical geography. Due to the diversity of physical geography, Nepal possesses all types of climate. The diversified climatic condition is suitable for biological diversity. Different plants, medicinal herbs are found in Nepal. Industries of Nepal can take benefits from the diversified physical geography of Nepal.

• Availability of less expensive labor:

In Nepal, there are availability of labor who takes a low amount of money to do the work.Unemployment is one of the major problems of Nepal. Industrial sector can get less expensive labor in this country. Less labor cost can minimize total production cost. Less production cost maintains the low price of the product. The low price of the product may increase competitive strength of business organizations.

• Enormous water resource:

Nepal is rich in the field of water resources. It has enormous water resources. There is the possibility for development of hydropower projects in the country. It has more irrigation capacity. If water resource is properly utilized, most of the productive land can get irrigation facility. Produced electricity can be exported to neighbor countries too. Nepal has the great prospects in the industrial development with the help of water resources.

• Prospect for extractive industries:

In Nepal, there are possibilities of finding many mines like iron, coal, copper, petroleum, etc. If such mines could be utilized properly, they may provide raw materials for operating several other industries like petroleum refining industry, automobiles industries, etc. It helps in the industrial development of Nepal.

• Increase demand:

In Nepal, the population is increasing day by day. Due to high population ,demands for products are also increasing. Increasing demand of the product helps to establish new industries. Increasing demand may attract investors to invest more capital in large-scale industries. It also helps in the creation of more employees. Thus, the increment in demand for products helps in the development of industrial marketing.

References:

Koirala, Dr. Kundan Dutta. Elementary Marketing. Kathmandu: Buddha Academic Publishers and Distributors Pvt. Ltd, 2014.

Thapa, Gopal, Dipendra K. Neupane and Dilli Raj Mishra. Introduction to Marketing. Kathmandu: Asmita Books Publishers and Distributors (P) Ltd., 2014.