Abstract
D.Comm. (Marketing Management)
Repeat purchasing of newly developed products is critical for new product success and
customer profit maximisation. Yet this topic has received little or no attention from the
literature. Today, as profitability is being challenged from global competition, marketers of consumable industrial products (MRO) have to understand better than ever before how to effectively and efficiently manage repeat purchasing to achieve their profit maximising objectives.
The study investigates industrial consumable repeat purchasing from a high involvement purchasing perspective and identifies four purchasing constructs and their variables whichimpact customer purchasing decision making. These constructs relate to pre-trial purchase, trial purchase, first repeat purchase and long term repeat purchase decision making dimensions, each containing purchase decision making factors which the marketer is able to influence.
The findings reveal that customers decide which vendor to select for a trial- purchase,
heavily influenced by the transactional value offered and the customer's perceived probability of transactional value satisfaction with the offer. Retaining the vendor for a first repeat purchase requires confirmation of the perceived pre purchase satisfaction likelihood with the evaluation of the purchase and consumption experience. To be retained for continued repeat purchasing and profitability maximisation over the long term, requires marketing strategies that are based on the customer's repeat purchase orientation and the firm's ability to meet the customer's rising value expectations. Such orientation consists of either transactional or relational repeat purchasing. In the transactional case, vendor preference has to be maintained from a perspective of superior transactional value and transactional value .satisfaction whereas in the relational repeat purchasing case, vendor preference requires in addition.. vendor loyalty and buyer-seller relationships for retention.
The empirical study verifies these findings which lead to a repeat purchasing framework and a predictor for measuring vendor retention. As vendor retention reflects a customer's attitudinal intent towards the product/vendor entity, marketers are advised to develop favourable customer attitudes before, during and after a purchase. By implementing customer relationship management (CRM), customer value, satisfaction, loyalty and value laden buyer-seller relationships can be created to achieve sustainable repeat purchasing and enhanced stakeholdervalue