South-Western Ohio Steel Lp Market Research

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Company’s Profile and Facts

• Name: South-western Ohio steel LP
• Founded in 1945 By Bill Wolf as South-western Ohio steel
• In 1994 the company has over 500 employees
• Annual Sales -$250 million
• Annual Shipments- 400,000 tons
• One of the best Industry leaders in Technology and service
• They consider the concept of partnership with the customers to be very important
• Believe in Mutual Respect, Loyalty and Good business practice
• Top 25 customers Produced about 2/3rds of the company’s sales
• Did little advertising or promotions

Problem Statement

• In what ways SOSLP can manage customer expectations without adversely affecting sales/relations with their customers
• In what ways SOSLP can handle the request made by Matwork for sponsoring the event

Alternatives: -

1. To sponsor an event
2. To not sponsor an event

We can make this judgement based on certain evaluation criteria:-

1. Impact on customer expectations

2. Impact on SOSLP’s corporate image

3. Benefits to SOSLP:

a. Relationship with Matworks

b. Effect on other customers

Option 1.  Sponsor any event to be conducted:

1. Impact on customer expectations

Sponsoring the event will raise up the expectation of other competitors. We know that in 1993 they went down to the ninetieth in the list of top customers. So when top customers will request for sponsorship we will be unable to refuse them. Also top customers will demand higher amount for sponsorship which will be difficult for SOSLP to manage.

1. Impact on SOSLP’s corporate image:

Here two things can happen

• This may help build up the image of SOSLP. They will get limelight and compared to their competitors they will be in focus.  This might help them getting noticed among its customer.

• This may adversely affect the image of SOSLP. SOSLP was known for its integrity and honesty. There is high chance that other customer may see this as some sort of deal between these two companies.

Event to be sponsored—Sub-options: -

1. To sponsor the least costly event, costing $5000:

   Can sponsor golf tournament

a. Relation with Matworks: Despite being aware of company policies they are requesting sponsorship, implies that event is really important and it will help sustain the relation with Matworks