Technology-Enabled Marketing and Supply Chain Collaboration

Introduction

The concept of inter-functional coordination to create superior customer value has long been the main goal of marketing. This concept has led the development of several research streams that includes relationship marketing and R&D, Marketing and finance and the integration of marketing with other interdisciplinary functions (Juttner et al., 2007). It was argued that the customers' value could also be created through the integration of the other typically non-associated areas of Marketing (Ardito et al., 2019).

The interactions between various disciplines that focus on the same customer and market segments considers the important functions and the way they add value to the organisation. Marketing is criticised generally for not being able to efficiently manage out of the box and interdisciplinary matters and hence confronted with various innovative concepts in the area of operations, manufacturing and technology. One of the concepts that have become the strategic priority for the companies in today's world is the SCM. Though the SCM concept was introduced in the early 1980s (Oliver & Webber, 1982) but it is early 199Os when it started becoming an important strategic priority for the businesses (Juttner et al., 2007). The synergistic benefits between SCM and marketing are extensively recognised (Svensson, 2002), and this led to appreciating the importance of coordination between the disciplines to bring superior competitive performance.

Juttner et al., (2007) noted that the synergies between SCM and Marketing could be captured by demand chain management where customers’ requirements will be fulfilled through designing the chain starting from customers to the manufactures and the suppliers, not the other way around. In today’s market place this concept is becoming even more pervasive due to the technological development that facilitated real-time access to the customers on their accounts to change, amend, customise and communicate, and these will have an impact on the way supply chain is responding to fulfil customers’ needs.

The purpose of this chapter is to present the role of technology-enabled marketing in supply chain collaboration. This chapter outlines the supply chain management, supply chain integration, and technology-enabled marketing. The chapter also highlights the technologies in supply chain management that can be used for improved marketing. Supply chain management is not a new concept rather a new terminology. The concept of movement of materials and information to fulfil customers’ needs has always been there. Regardless of the industry and whether it is for the profitable or not-for-profit organisation, the concept of supply chain and the activities are at play. The supply chain also covers the wider concept of logistics, which is mostly linked with transportation and warehousing.

Background And Context

Supply chain and supply chain management (SCM), which gained recognition in the 1980s, have drawn significant attention among the practitioners and the scholars alike. The businesses are in no illusion given the fact that the organisations in isolation cannot compete and withstand the ever-increasing competitive pressure in this globalised technology-enabled connected marketing era. Contemporary understanding of SCM portray its ever-increasing influences in the areas linked with the integration of supply and demand management (i.e. marketing) within and across organisations that includes greater integration and collaboration among the partners (i.e. customers, suppliers, logistics providers and other channel partners)in the chain (Mentzer and Gudnlach, 2010).