Product-Centric customer-Centric

Product-centric Customer-centric

Customer orientation ? B2B only.

? Producer centric, and less customer orient/focused. ? B2B and B2C.

? Putting more orientation to customer needs.

Value proposition and product strategy ? ‘Take-it-or-leave-it', vendor-push strategy: the demand is pushed.

? Focused product offered (hardware; memory boards), No quality dealing or after-sale service offered at all.

? Off-the shelf products ? ‘Customer-pull' strategy: The demand is now being more met from the customer's side.

? A whole new pillar of ‘quality dealing' and ‘after-sale' service offered to customers.

Selling approach ? Aggressive selling approach

? Selling a product itself ? ‘High-Touch' approach

? Team based selling

Market research and customer intelligence ? EMC had a limited resource about their customers through market research, so they were more highly relying on sales force of EMC.

? Focus on 'average' customers

? Lack of customer preferences. ? Now customers have full wide range of information search and explore' options through internet web resource of EMC

? Concentrate on individual customers' distinct preference and tailor recommendations for each one of customers

Business practices and processes ? Aggressive, producer-pulled, limited customer resource, product-oriented and small range of customer focus.

? One size fits all processes

? Customization leads to complexity ? ‘Tailored business streams

? Long-term CRM focused' style comes with high quality service process offering that enables their ‘premium pricing' position in the market.

Organizational culture and structure ? Decision making power is centrally concentrated

? Strong boundary between organizations ? Innovations and decision-making is performed by direct interaction with customers

? Cooperation between organizations is encouraged

Marketing metrics and incentives ? Rushed sales per day type of metrics brought negative side effects of employees, and it affects to customer's product usage. ? More focused on customer satisfaction rates, customer retention rate, and customer base rates to constantly check their status of premium service.

Q: Think about customers' decision making process both prior to and after the rise of social media and Web 2.0. The B2B customer buying process has fundamentally changed due to the emergence of social media and Web 2.0. Consider how customer-centricity intersects with customers' decision making processes.

Can high tech replace high touch as customers change their decision making process? If so, how might technology enhance EMC's customer-centricity approach? Are there any potential perils that are associated with replacing high touch with high tech?

A: Prior to the rise of social media the customers' decision making was largely due to a high touch (face to face approach). This gave the customers a way to directly ask questions and receive help in real time with real people. Many people today still enjoy a high touch approach; however after the introduction of social