Abstract
Visiting the showroom of a large printer and copier manufacturer, an attentive observer realizes that, although every copier has the same name tag on it, the design and the material used differ between products. This could be considered odd, as the products have the same colors and the company's brand name on it. However, this phenomenon called OEM has solidly penetrated into the market in the past years. The Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), is a manufacturer who buys finished products from another company and either modifies its components or leaves the product as it came. Then, these products are branded and brought to the market with the OEM's name, warranty and service. The term manufacturer is misleading to some extent, as the OEM is more of a customizer than a manufacturer. Considering that finished equipment is bought from suppliers, not changed but resold, the questions arises that how an OEM adds more value to products while offering these to customers, what is their sales approach and what are the reasons for buying finished products?
