USING PURCHASE INFLUENCE NICHING FOR BETTER FOCUS IN INDUSTRIAL MARKETING PLANS - OBSERVATIONS AND EXAMPLES

Drawing on applications with over 100 industrial product companies ove r the past twenty years, this article suggests that defining product m arket niches too broadly is a pervasive problem deterring most industr ial product firms from developing more transparent and more effective marketing plans. Using numerous examples, a method is proposed for res olving this problem by supplementing traditional niching efforts with ''Purchase Influence Niching.'' A more narrow, purchase influence-base d delineation of target niches reduces the number and the complexities of the strategic interrelationships considered when evaluating altern ative opportunities, thus paving the way for the logical and transpare nt development and communication of more effective marketing plans and strategies. Through examples of previous applications, this article s hows how to overlay current niching efforts with purchase influence ni ching and discusses how to both meet the challenges and reap the signi ficant benefits of this approach.