Is it taking segmentation to another level when you talk about key account management? Is that the next step? -Joe
Related Podcasts and Transcription: The Process of Marketing Segmentation
Professor Malcolm McDonald: Now key account management that’s my other passion in life. What’s happened today as you know in the world is that the 80/20 rule has gone mad. You’ve only got 10 car companies left in the world. More and more, the world is becoming concentrated in the hands of a few very, very, very large global players. And once you understand that, you’ve then got to start saying, okay segmentation is something that happens for your marketing strategy, and you have to have a marketing strategy for your markets. But within that marketing strategy, you’ve also got to understand somebody like General Motors, or IBM, or 3M or whoever happens to be the customer and that’s where key account management comes in. Now I don’t call it segmentation but there is a form of segmentation in there, and it’s exactly the same process whereby you’re trying to understand who makes the decisions in those companies and what do they really, really need.
I don’t call it segmentation but it’s a very similar process to it. When I came over not so long ago to Washington DC and spent the day with the main board of a mega, mega American company, I better not say what products they’re in otherwise you might guess who the
y are but their products cost mega, multi-billion dollars for each one. Now if you’re going to sell those to somebody like the American Air Force, my God, you better understand how the American Air Force operates. You better understand their structure. You better understand what they really need. You better understand what you can do for them that’s going to create an advantage for them as opposed to just avoiding a disadvantage, and that’s key account management Joe, which is another highly specialized product. I’m kind of enjoying coming to the States and doing key account management programs with all the lovely companies, and they all fairly enjoy it and they all make loads and loads of dosh as a result of it.
People say to me, they say, what do you do a Malcolm? You’re a professor of marketing. I say, yeah, yeah but I’m not. My job I say is to teach people how to make money and if they’re already making money, my job is to teach them how to make even more money. So I’m not a professor of marketing; I’m a professor of money.
Professor Malcolm McDonald has consulted to many major companies from the UK, Europe, USA, Far East, South-East Asia, Australia and Africa, in the areas of strategic marketing and marketing planning, market
segmentation, key account management, international marketing and marketing accountability. His company is Malcolm McDonald International.
Related Podcasts and Transcription: The Process of Marketing Segmentation
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