Tata Steelium, since its inception, had achieved a good market acceptance.

Their target
group comprised of the small customer segment of Cold Rolled Steel (CRS) market which
was neglected by Tata Steels competitors. Steelium trained its distributors to provide
customised service and focus on small customers who could give them the best premium.
Steelium was preferred over its local competitors because of its products superiority.
However, Steelium expected to face certain problems due to changes in the industry.
The challenges which stared Steelium in its face was how to retain the market created by
them. How should they insulate their B2B customers from competitive offers and leverage
its brand in the CRS market.

Key Challenges with respect to B2B customers

Future competition from major players could lead to a loss in their customer share.
This would create pressure on the margin.

Their competitive advantage was to provide dream customer service and customer
intimacy. The trouble was that though this value proposition was company driven, it
was distributor delivered, hence easy to replicate by competitors. This was a key
challenge for Steelium.

Another dilemma that they faced was whether to supply a rationed quantity to all
distributors or cut supplies to some distributors and supply the rest. For this it was
important to select those specific CRS customers who would, in the long run, provide
Steelium with the highest premium.

The Analysis
Steeliums marketing team needed to understand what mattered to its customers. Was it
product quality or service that they preferred? Was it the TATA brand that was doing all the
magic or did Steelium have a brand value too? What was the degree to which business
consumers were influenced by the emotive characteristics of the brand?
The marketing team found, after carrying out isolated interviews with customers, was that
information through marketing consumers is processed by buyers either 'peripherally or

centrally. If the buyer was highly motivated and highly involved, they would pay attention
to the core message in the marketing communication thereby taking the central route.
On the other hand, the buyer takes the peripheral route if he is not strongly involved or
motivated. They pay greater attention to contextual information.
While attitudes formed via the central route tend show a greater probability of forming
stronger relationships with less resistance. This does not imply that Steelium should not
focus on customers who have taken the peripheral route as research has indicated that
when brands are viewed as essentially similar, peripherally formed attitudes determine the
choice.
The most important takeaway was that it is necessary to orchestrate a range of experiences
around the brand so that it starts occupying an emotional and personal space. This takes
place when the brands promise starts rising above mere tangible and functional
characteristics to incorporate relevant emotions. This is because competitors would find it
difficult to replicate the promise of delivering a special, personal and emotional experience
even if they match the products features and functions.
This would lead to the creation of a brand community. Once a brand community is created,
a company can leverage it to increase willingness among customers to buy the brands
products. This loyal adoption would benefit the company. Thus, if TATA Steelium could
create a small brand community, it could extract more value.
The challenge for the marketing team is to keep distributors who were providing value
added services to Steeliums end customers were keeping them happy and aligning
themselves with Steeliums business strategy. Steelium had to differentiate itself from its
competitors through service delivery which could only be achieved through dealership. It
needed to incorporate key account management processes with its dealerships and include
a consumer loyalty program in its marketing process.
They could provide special dealer delivered customer service to create differentiation and
increase floor price of Steelium. This move could discourage less service oriented
distributors as well as price sensitive customers. Also, by leveraging the Tata brand it should
consolidate its lead in the CRS market.