GE Plastics: Using a Web Site for Industrial Marketing

GE Plastics was one of the innovators in using the Web to provide important product-related information to its customers. GE Plastics sells plastic polymer products used for packaging materials such as the shrink wrap used for packaging vegetables and the shrink wrap used for computer software products. Transparent plastic is used in both cases, the but requirements for strength, heat tolerance, and response to humidity and other factors depends on the type of product that is being packaged. In the early 1990s GE Plastics was one of the first companies to provide its sales people with laptop computers containing models that helped customers determine the specific type of plastic they needed. In the late 1990s, GE Plastics looked to the Web for a similar type of sales and customer service advantage.

The GE Plastics Web site (http://www.ge.com/plastics/) contains the usual information that most corporate Web sites contain, such as an overview of the company, and overview of the products, and contact information for the company, including a way to send email messages. A unique aspect of its Web site is the depth of the sales and customer service information that are available. Sales and marketing information for each product line includes not only product descriptions of different plastic products, but also spreadsheet models that can be downloaded by customers to help them decide which type of plastic film best meets their needs. To use these models the customers enter the desired characteristics related to strength, protection from humidity, and other characteristics. Among other things the models provide a cost-benefit analysis comparing alternative products that might meet the need.

Questions:

1. After exploring the GE Plastics Web site (without downloading the models), explain why this site seems different from most of the Web sites you have seen.

2. Identify some of the other conceivable ways GE Plastics might use its Web site for competitive advantage.

Sources:

http://www.ge.com/plastics/

O' Keefe, Robert M. and Tim McEachern. "Web-Based Customer Decision Support Systems," Communications of the ACM, Mar 98, pp. 71-78

Back to Additional Cases

Main Page About the Book Student Resources Instructor Resources Contact Us