Page 234 - Marketing Management

ANALYZING BUSINESS MARKETS | CHAPTER 7 211

the business market and the business buying process, put- equity growing. Indeed, its brand equity was ranked
ting itself in the shoes of its business customers. Consider fourth and valued at $48 billion in the 2009 Interbrand/
its approach to pricing its aircraft engines. GE knows that BusinessWeek ranking of the “Top 100 Global Brands.”
purchasing an aircraft engine is a multimillion-dollar expen- “The GE brand is what connects us all and makes us so
diture, and one that doesn’t end with the purchase. much better than the parts,” Chief Marketing Officer
Customers (the airlines) face substantial maintenance costs Comstock said.
to meet FAA guidelines and ensure reliability of the engines.
So in 1999, GE pioneered a new pricing option called Questions
“Power by the Hour.” This concept gives customers an 1. Discuss the importance of B-to-B marketing and a
opportunity to pay a fixed fee each time they run the strong B-to-B brand to GE.
engine. In return, GE performs all the maintenance and
2. Have “Imagination at Work,” “Ecomagination,” and
guarantees the engine’s reliability. When demand for air
“Healthymagination” successfully communicated GE’s
travel is uncertain, “Power by the Hour” provides GE’s
focus on its newer endeavors? Why or why not?
customers with a lower cost of ownership.
This kind of B-to-B marketing savvy has helped GE
Sources: Geoffrey Colvin, “What Makes GE Great?” Fortune, March 6, 2006, pp. 90–104; Thomas
cement its top position in the Financial Times’s “World’s A. Stewart, “Growth as a Process,” Harvard Business Review, June 2006, pp. 60–70; Kathryn
Most Respected Companies” survey for years. Its under- Kranhold, “The Immelt Era, Five Years Old, Transforms GE,” Wall Street Journal, September 11,
2006; Daniel Fisher, “GE Turns Green,” Forbes, August 15, 2005, pp. 80– 85; John A. Byrne, “Jeff
standing of the business markets, its way of doing
Immelt,” Fast Company, July 2005, pp. 60–65; Rachel Layne, “GE’s NBC Sale Brings Immelt Cash,
business, and its brand marketing have kept GE’s brand Scrutiny,” BusinessWeek, December 3, 2009.