Organisational buying behaviour : Criteria and influences in the buying process within high commercial value restaurants

In 2005 the wine importer and supplier Pernod Ricard Sweden acquired Allied Domecq, a company with a wide assortment of wines. However, due to Pernod Ricard Sweden’s strategic focus on spirits the last decade they now experience a lack of knowledge of how to best sell and endorse wine to restaurants. After thorough research of present academic literature we have found that there is a theoretical gap of knowledge regarding the relationship between wine suppliers and restaurants and the interactions between them. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of the influences on organisational buying behaviour when purchasing in a B2B environment. We have investigated what criteria and services are more important for restaurants when purchasing wine, in order for the supplier to understand the behaviour of the buyer and act accordingly. A qualitative research has been conducted where 18 high commercial value restaurants in the region Mälardalen in Sweden were interviewed via telephone. The interview questions consisted of both open-ended questions and close-ended Likert scale questions, in order to receive both deeper answers including the respondents’ own opinions and comments, as well as preference data and attitude measures. In the analysis of our data we have discovered the importance of offering a concept and not just a product to the restaurants. In this concept the price in relation to quality is vital, as well as value adding activities such as education, which is important since there is a lack of documented knowledge among the persons responsible for the purchasing of wine. Support and sales meetings have proven to be efficient ways for the supplier to communicate their message to the restaurants rather than the use of traditional communication channels e.g. TV and printed advertisement. Furthermore, we have observed that the relationship between the supplier and the restaurants is crucial. This is due to the fact that most high commercial value restaurants only have one supplier and their emphasised need for the business to run smoothly. Therefore, previous experience of the supplier and the established degree of trust are highly influencing factors. We believe that if the results of our study are taken into consideration, the supplier has a great chance of becoming successful and creating profitable long-term relationships with high commercial value restaurants