Value for a customer like Kimura KK

In B2B decisions there are normally many players involved, whereby each player has its own goals and therefore his own individual understanding of value. Kimura expected to be treated as a special customer and that Pramtex would understand the significance of their machines as an important part to satisfy their need. Trust, initially put into the service of Pramtex, started to diminish when Pramtex missed out on assisting them properly after the emergency breakdown. It seemed unexpected that Pramtex, a company striving to be the technology leader in their sector, acted in such an unprofessional way.

Key players at Kimura and their respective roles

Kimura has a decision making unit (DMU) that has the typical characteristics of a buying center: All those players have different motives and jobs to fulfill and therefore have different ideas of value.
Mr. Kimura is the President and final decision maker of the company (the decider). His goal was to minimize the start-up curve, so his production employees could adapt faster to the new machines. Mr Nomura, who is the top scientist of Kimura KK and Senior R&D Advisor was highly convinced by the performance and features of the Spartacus machines. He might have been influenced by emotional value and therefore thrilled Kimura on the buying decision (influencer). He therefore carries a large responsibility in the final buying decision. Dr. Komoda , the chief of production and therefore the user of the Spartacus machines had to deal with the problems that came up during the pilot run. He insists on a short delivery time (6 months) in order to be able to test-run the machines before dispatching the first order to Disney. He cares about functional value and intangible. He also looks for easy to use machines, high numbers of output (15.000 DVD/day) and the capability to handle