The processes of openness and globalization that affect the business climate have led many of our companies to dramatically decrease their gross profit margins; translating in many cases, in negative management results.
Price increases are not always possible; Today we are permeable to international prices and competition before local, has become international, and we see how our products are displaced by substitutes from other countries with lower prices, in many cases even at our production costs.
This reality qualifies as vital the management of previously not directly related aspects such as logistics and marketing; today, important alternatives for achieving profitability and productivity goals via optimization of customer management.
This, through logistical methods, constitutes a plan that seeks to optimize the entire supply chain, from raw materials to final marketing.
The fundamental concept is referred to the management centered in the client, and the vision is the one of a flow of materials faster and with greater value to the client; without interruptions, where information flows quickly and in a timely manner to all parties involved, from the end consumer.
Logistics, oriented to the positioning of resources in place and time, today shares this work with marketing: deliveries on time, at the right time, and where the customer needs it, force to reduce spaces in the different processes of supply, production and channel management at the lowest possible level; with cost reduction and development of new value opportunities for the customer.
Today logistics fulfills a main service function, supporting production and marketing operations, and adding significant opportunity value to the product. A well-designed logistics action, coordinated with marketing and customer-oriented, is one of the most powerful tools to create loyalty via greater value to the product that is delivered.
Other benefits such as increased profitability due to lower costs, and inventory management for a quick return on investment are also definitive as logistics and marketing goals.
Changes in the points of purchase and sale, physical and virtual networks, telemarketing, catalog purchases and plastic money, are growing rapidly; Electronic data interchange, channel management changes, supplier-partner manufacturing, the continuous flow of materials, information and value throughout the supply chain, and the role of marketing in it, has transformed the latter into a new business model.
We believe that the future of marketing is completely tied to the value that logistics adds to the product, and that they can no longer be separated. The perception that consumers have about our products and services in the short term is already associated with this two-sided coin: marketing and logistics…
