Evidencias cualitativas para la diferenciación de los gases refrigerantes a través de la distribución en España

Abstract

In the current state of the art there are several articles and publications that point out the need of an improved differentiation of the offers in the B2B markets across different industries, with an special focus on food industry (Pettersen & Myrland, 2016), the cement and concrete market (Van Rensburg & Ven Niekerk, 2010) and also in the chemical industry (Unger, 1983); being this need of the differentiation a consequence of the pressure in the bottom line results that companies are suffering since the last crisis (Niño Becerra, 2009) due to the fact that the sustainability of the profits cannot be based only in cutting expenditures but also is essential to add a positive price effect (Nagle & Holden, 1995). This paper shows how differentiation gives a surplus of positive price effect to the P&L. This article makes a scientific contribution in the area of the differentiation of the commodity products offer in B2B markets, particularly in the activity of refrigerant gases in the Spanish market, through the conceptualization of the commodity and, therefore an analysis of the factors that can provide differentiation into the offer of refrigerant gases according to the tactics available in the literature. This investigation is justified not only by the need of the differentiation from the financial perspective but also as the development of the distributors’ functions that have brought to a channel that actually connects the offers with the customers; satisfying the customers’ needs in a enhanced way. In order to set the uncontested knowledge, this article reviews the papers and publications of the authors that address the conceptualization of commodity, the differentiation and its tactics. The paper continues gathering these tactics within the marketing mix model provided by Alexander Chernev, professor at the Northwestern University in Chicago, that points out a model of seven variables instead of the classical four P’s of the marketing mix model (McCarthy, 1960). The differences between both rely on the updated proposal of Chernev due to the independent approach on service and brand, outside of the product as variables with enough content to be addressed separately; those are included in the variable product in the model of McCarthy. In addition, Chernev has disaggregated the variable Promotion in two variables: communication and incentives; both under the umbrella of the same variable in the McCarthy’s model. Furthermore, the hypotheses are elaborated to contrast them through the hypothetical deductive method and determine the contribution of the described tactics to the differentiation of the refrigerant gas offer through the distribution channel. Finally, original conclusions are provided thanks to the application of the hypothetical deductive method in the research scope, with a managerial approach to draw these final conclusions in a way that allows their direct use by the marketing professionals of the refrigerant gas market in Spain through tailor made action plans for the distribution channel. Consequently, this paper provides several points to differentiate the refrigerant gas offer in the field of the customer-distributor interaction. These differential points have broad relevancy and applicability in the market both for manufactures and distributors of refrigerant gas, for all the companies that have deployed a purposive strategy focused on differentiation and added-value.