A firm that is marketing multimillion-dollar wastewatertreatment systems to cities has been unable to sell a new type ofsystem. This setback has occurred even though the firm’ssystems are cheaper than competitive systems and meet U.S.Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) specifications. To date, thefirm’s marketing efforts have been directed to citypurchasing departments and the various state EPAs to get onapproved bidder’s lists. Talks with city-employed personnelhave indicated that the new system is very different from currentsystems and therefore city sanitary and sewer department engineers,directors of these two departments, and city council members areunfamiliar with the workings of the system. Consulting engineershired by the cities to work on the engineering and design featuresof these systems and paid on a percentage of system cost, are alsoreluctant to favor the new system.
(a) What roles do the various individuals play in the purchaseprocess for a wastewater treatment system?
(b) How could the firm improve the marketing effort behind thenew system?