This article evaluates challenges buying and marketing groups face in today’s markets. Part 1 of this article, published in the Aug. 10, 2010, issue of MDM, looked at the benefits and evolving role these groups are playing for distributors and manufacturers.
While they have seen many successes, buying and marketing groups like other organizations that support the distribution industry face challenges in a marketplace besot by slow sales, cost and margin pressures, and consolidation.
Along with these economic challenges, about a third of respondents to a recent MDM survey on the topic said that loyalty and providing ongoing value to member distributors and vendors were top challenges.
Other challenges noted by respondents included:
