Chp 12 principle of marketing

Editor's Notes

• #3: This chapter explains why companies use marketing channels and discusses the functions these channels perform. It discusses how channel members interact and how they organize to perform the work of the channel. The chapter also identifies the major channel alternatives open to a company.
• #4: This chapter further explains how companies select, motivate, and evaluate channel members and discusses the nature and importance of marketing logistics and integrated supply chain management.
• #5: Time and again, Netflix has innovated its way to the top in the distribution of video entertainment. Netflix started as a DVD-by-mail service. Netflix set its sights on a then-revolutionary new video distribution model: Deliver the Netflix service to every Internet-connected screen. Netflix began by launching its Watch Instantly service, which let Netflix members stream movies instantly to their computers as part of their monthly membership fee. Netflix also began developing original content. Millions of subscribers were drawn to Netflix’s innovative distribution model—no more trips to the video store, no more late fees, and a selection of more than 100,000 titles that dwarfed anything Blockbuster could offer. Netflix’s $5-a-month subscription rate cost little more than renting a single video from Blockbuster. In 2010, as Netflix surged, once-mighty Blockbuster fell into bankruptcy. All along the way, Netflix has acted boldly to stay ahead of the competition. Despite its continuing success, Netflix knows that it can’t rest its innovation machine. Moving ahead, as the industry settles into streaming as the main delivery model, content will be a key to distancing Netflix from the rest of pack.
• #6: Producing a product or service and making it available to buyers requires building relationships not only with customers but also with key suppliers and resellers in the company’s supply chain. This supply chain consists of upstream and downstream partners. Upstream from the company is the set of firms that supply the raw materials, components, parts, information, finances, and expertise needed to create a product or service. Downstream marketing channel partners, such as wholesalers and retailers, form a vital link between the firm and its customers. The term supply chain may be too limited, as it takes a make-and-sell view of the business. A better term would be demand chain because it suggests a sense-and-respond view of the market. Yet, even a demand chain view of a business may be too limited because it takes a step-by-step, linear view of purchase-production-consumption activities.
• #7: A value delivery network is made up of the company, suppliers, distributors, and, ultimately, customers who partner with each other to improve the performance of the entire system. For example, Adidas makes great sports shoes and apparel. But to make and market just one of its many lines, Adidas manages a huge network of people within the company.
• #8: A marketing channel or distribution channel is a set of interdependent organizations that help make a product or service available for use or consumption by the consumer or business user. A company’s channel decisions directly affect every other marketing decision. Pricing depends on whether the company works with national discount chains, uses high-quality specialty stores, or sells directly to consumers online. Whether a company develops or acquires certain new products may depend on how well those products fit the capabilities of its channel members. Companies often pay too little attention to their distribution channels. Distribution channel decisions often involve long-term commitments to other firms. Management must design its channels carefully, with an eye on both today’s likely selling environment and tomorrow’s as well.
• #9: This figure shows how using intermediaries can provide economies. Part A of this figure shows three manufacturers, each using direct marketing to reach three customers. This system requires nine different contacts. Part B of this figure shows the three manufacturers working through one distributor, which contacts the three customers. This system requires only six contacts. In this way, intermediaries reduce the amount of work that must be done by both producers and consumers.
• #10: Producers use intermediaries because they create greater efficiency in making goods available to target markets. From the economic system’s point of view, the role of marketing intermediaries is to transform the assortments of products made by producers into the assortments wanted by consumers. Marketing channel members buy large quantities from many producers and break them down into the smaller quantities and broader assortments desired by consumers. In making products and services available to consumers, channel members add value by bridging the major time, place, and possession gaps that separate goods and services from those who use them.
• #11: Members of the marketing channel perform many key functions. Some help to complete transactions. These functions include gathering and distributing information needed for planning and aiding exchange, developing and spreading persuasive communications about an offer, finding and communicating with prospective buyers, shaping offers to meet the buyer’s needs, including activities such as manufacturing, grading, assembling, and packaging, and reaching an agreement on price and other terms so that ownership or possession can be transferred. Other functions help to fulfill the completed transactions. These include transporting and storing goods, acquiring and using funds to cover the costs of the channel work, and assuming the risks of carrying out the channel work.
• #12: Each layer of marketing intermediaries that performs some work in bringing the product and its ownership closer to the final buyer is a channel level. Because both the producer and the final consumer perform some work, they are part of every channel. The number of intermediary levels indicates the length of a channel. A direct marketing channel refers to a marketing channel that has no intermediary levels. While, indirect marketing channels contain one or more intermediary levels.
• #13: From the producer’s point of view, a greater number of channel levels means less control and greater channel complexity. Moreover, all the institutions in the channel are connected by several types of flows. These include the physical flow of products, the flow of ownership, the payment flow, the information flow, and the promotion flow. These flows can make even channels with only one or a few levels very complex.
• #14: This figure shows both consumer and business channels of different lengths. Part A of this figure shows several common consumer distribution channels. Channel 1, called a direct marketing channel, has no intermediary levels, that is, the company sells directly to consumers. The remaining channels are indirect marketing channels, containing one or more intermediaries. Part B of this figure shows some common business distribution channels. The business marketer can use its own sales force to sell directly to business customers. Or it can sell to various types of intermediaries, which in turn sell to these customers.
• #15: Channel conflict refers to disagreements among marketing channel members on goals, roles, and rewards. Horizontal conflict occurs among firms at the same level of the channel. For instance, Holiday Inn franchisees might complain about other Holiday Inn operators overcharging guests or giving poor service, which hurts the overall Holiday Inn image. Vertical conflict, which is conflict between different levels of the same channel, is more common. For example, KFC and its franchisees came into conflict over the company’s decision to emphasize grilled chicken and sandwiches over the brand’s traditional fried chicken. Some conflict in the channel takes the form of healthy competition. Such competition can be good for the channel because without it, the channel could become passive and noninnovative.
• #16: A conventional distribution channel consists of one or more independent producers, wholesalers, and retailers. Each is a separate business seeking to maximize its own profits, perhaps even at the expense of the system as a whole. No channel member has much control over the other members, and no formal means exists for assigning roles and resolving channel conflict. In contrast, a vertical marketing system (VMS) consists of producers, wholesalers, and retailers acting as a unified system. One channel member owns the others, has contracts with them, or wields so much power that they must all cooperate. There are three types of VMSs. First, a corporate VMS combines successive stages of production and distribution under single ownership. Second, a contractual VMS consists of independent firms at different levels of production and distribution that join together through contracts. The franchise organization is the most common type of contractual relationship. In franchise organizations, a channel member, called a franchisor, links several stages in the production-distribution process. There are three types of franchises: manufacturer-sponsored retailer franchise system, manufacturer-sponsored wholesaler franchise system, and service-firm-sponsored retailer franchise system. Third, an administered VMS coordinates successive stages of production and distribution through the size and power of one of the parties.
• #17: Another channel development is the horizontal marketing system, in which two or more companies at one level join together to follow a new marketing opportunity. By working together, companies can combine their financial, production, or marketing resources to accomplish more than any one company could alone. For example, Walmart partners with McDonald’s to place express versions of McDonald’s restaurants in Walmart stores. McDonald’s benefits from Walmart’s heavy store traffic, and Walmart keeps hungry shoppers from needing to go elsewhere to eat.
• #18: Almost every large company and many small ones distribute through multiple channels. A multichannel distribution system refers to a single firm that sets up two or more marketing channels to reach one or more customer segments. Multichannel distribution systems offer many advantages to companies facing large and complex markets. With each new channel, the company expands its sales and market coverage and gains opportunities to tailor its products and services to the specific needs of diverse customer segments. But such multichannel systems are harder to control, and they can generate conflict as more channels compete for customers and sales.
• #19: This figure shows a multichannel marketing system. In the figure, the producer sells directly to consumer segment 1 using catalogs, telemarketing, and the Internet and reaches consumer segment 2 through retailers. It sells indirectly to business segment 1 through distributors and dealers and to business segment 2 through its own sales force. These days, almost every large company and many small ones distribute through multiple channels.
• #20: Changes in technology and the explosive growth of direct and online marketing are having a profound impact on the nature and design of marketing channels. One major trend is toward disintermediation, which refers to the cutting out of marketing channel intermediaries by product or service producers or the displacement of traditional resellers by radical new types of intermediaries. For example, Barnes & Noble, the giant that helped put so many independent booksellers out of business, now faces disintermediation at the hands of online booksellers and digital e-book downloads.
• #21: Marketing channel design refers to designing effective marketing channels. Designing the marketing channel starts with finding out what target consumers want from the channel. The faster the delivery, the greater the assortment provided, and the more add-on services supplied, the greater the channel’s service level. Companies should state their marketing channel objectives in terms of targeted levels of customer service. The company’s channel objectives are influenced by the nature of the company, its products, its marketing intermediaries, its competitors, and the environment. Environmental factors such as economic conditions and legal constraints may also affect channel objectives and design. The company should next identify its major channel alternatives in terms of the types of intermediaries, the number of intermediaries, and the responsibilities of each channel member. Companies must also determine the number of channel members to use at each level. Three strategies are available: intensive distribution, exclusive distribution, and selective distribution. Each alternative should then be evaluated against economic, control, and adaptability criteria.
• #22: Global marketers must usually adapt their channel strategies to the existing structures within each country. In some markets, the distribution system is complex and hard to penetrate, consisting of many layers and large numbers of intermediaries. Distribution systems in developing countries may be scattered, inefficient, or altogether lacking. Sometimes local conditions can greatly influence how a company distributes products in global markets. For example, in low-income neighborhoods in Brazil where consumers have limited access to supermarkets, Nestlé supplements its distribution with thousands of self-employed salespeople who sell Nestlé products from refrigerated carts door to door.
• #23: Marketing channel management calls for selecting, managing, and motivating individual channel members and evaluating their performance over time. When selecting intermediaries, the company should determine what characteristics distinguish the better ones. It will want to evaluate each channel member’s years in business, other lines carried, location, growth and profit record, cooperativeness, and reputation. Once selected, channel members must be continuously managed and motivated to do their best. Many companies practice strong partner relationship management to forge long-term partnerships with channel members. This creates a value delivery system that meets the needs of both the company and its marketing partners. The company must regularly check channel member performance against standards such as sales quotas, average inventory levels, customer delivery time, treatment of damaged and lost goods, cooperation in company promotion and training programs, and services to the customer. Companies need to be sensitive to the needs of their channel partners. Those that treat their partners poorly risk not only losing their support but also causing some legal problems.
• #24: Many producers and wholesalers like to develop exclusive channels for their products. When the seller allows only certain outlets to carry its products, this strategy is called exclusive distribution. When the seller requires that these dealers not handle competitors’ products, the strategy is called exclusive dealing. Exclusive arrangements also exclude other producers from selling to these dealers. This situation brings exclusive dealing contracts under the scope of the Clayton Act of 1914. They are legal as long as they do not substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly and as long as both parties enter into the agreement voluntarily. Exclusive dealing often includes exclusive territorial agreements. The producer may agree not to sell to other dealers in a given area, or the buyer may agree to sell only in its own territory. Producers of a strong brand sometimes sell it to dealers only if the dealers will take some or all of the rest of its line. This is called full-line forcing. Such tying agreements are not necessarily illegal, but they violate the Clayton Act if they tend to lessen competition substantially. Finally, producers are free to select their dealers, but their right to terminate dealers is somewhat restricted. In general, sellers can drop dealers “for cause.” However, they cannot drop dealers if, for example, the dealers refuse to cooperate in a doubtful legal arrangement, such as exclusive dealing or tying agreements.
• #25: Marketing logistics, also called physical distribution, involves planning, implementing, and controlling the physical flow of goods, services, and related information from points of origin to points of consumption to meet customer requirements at a profit. Today’s customer-centered logistics starts with the marketplace and works backward to the factory or even to sources of supply. Marketing logistics involves not only outbound logistics, which is moving products from the factory to resellers and ultimately to customers, but also inbound logistics, which is moving products and materials from suppliers to the factory, and reverse logistics which involves reusing, recycling, refurbishing, or disposing of broken, unwanted, or excess products returned by consumers or resellers
• #26: This figure illustrates supply chain management, which involves managing upstream and downstream value-added flows of materials, final goods, and related information among suppliers, the company, resellers, and final consumers. Marketing logistics involves the entirety of supply chain management. The logistics manager’s task is to coordinate the activities of suppliers, purchasing agents, marketers, channel members, and customers. These activities include forecasting, information systems, purchasing, production planning, order processing, inventory, warehousing, and transportation planning.
• #27: Some companies state their logistics objective as providing maximum customer service at the least cost. Maximum customer service implies rapid delivery, large inventories, flexible assortments, liberal returns policies, and other services, all of which raise distribution costs. The goal of marketing logistics should be to provide a targeted level of customer service at the least cost. The major logistics functions are warehousing, inventory management, transportation, and logistics information management. Each of these functions are discussed in greater detail in the following slides.
• #28: Production and consumption cycles rarely match, so most companies must store their goods while they wait to be sold. A company must decide on how many and what types of warehouses it needs and where they will be located. The company might use either storage warehouses or distribution centers. Storage warehouses store goods for moderate to long periods. In contrast, distribution centers are designed to move goods rather than just store them. They are large and highly automated warehouses designed to receive goods from various plants and suppliers, take orders, fill orders efficiently, and deliver goods to customers as quickly as possible.
• #29: Inventory management affects customer satisfaction. Managers must maintain the delicate balance between carrying too little inventory and carrying too much. Carrying too much inventory results in higher-than-necessary inventory-carrying costs and stock obsolescence. Thus, in managing inventory, firms must balance the costs of carrying larger inventories against resulting sales and profits. Many companies have greatly reduced their inventories and related costs through just-in-time logistics systems. In the not-too-distant future, handling inventory might even become fully automated. RFID, or smart tag technology, involves the use of small transmitter chips which are embedded in or placed on products and packaging for everything from flowers and razors to tires. Smart products could make the entire supply chain intelligent and automated.
• #30: The choice of transportation carriers affects the pricing of products, delivery performance, and the condition of goods when they arrive, all of which will affect customer satisfaction. In shipping goods to warehouses, dealers, and customers, the company can choose among five main transportation modes: truck, rail, water, pipeline, and air, along with an alternative mode for digital products, the Internet. Shippers also use multimodal transportation, which combines two or more modes of transportation. Piggyback describes the use of rail and trucks, fishyback describes the use of water and trucks, trainship describes the use of water and rail, and airtruck describes the use of air and trucks. Combining modes provides advantages that no single mode can deliver.
• #31: Companies manage their supply chains through information. Channel partners often link up to share information and make better joint logistics decisions. Information can be shared and managed in many ways, but most sharing takes place through electronic data interchange (EDI), the digital exchange of data between organizations, which primarily is transmitted via the Internet. Many large retailers work closely with the major suppliers to set up vendor-managed inventory (VMI) systems or continuous inventory replenishment systems. By using VMI, the customer shares real-time data on sales and current inventory levels with the supplier.
• #32: Integrated logistics management emphasizes teamwork both inside the company and among all the marketing channel organizations. Most companies assign responsibility for various logistics activities to many different departments. The goal of integrated supply chain management is to harmonize all of the company’s logistics decisions. Some companies have created permanent logistics committees composed of managers responsible for different physical distribution activities. Companies can also create supply chain manager positions that link the logistics activities of functional areas. Smart companies coordinate their logistics strategies and forge strong partnerships with suppliers and customers to improve customer service and reduce channel costs. Many companies have created cross-functional, cross-company teams. Other companies partner through shared projects. Third-party logistics (3PL) provider refers to an independent logistics provider that performs any or all of the functions required to get a client’s product to market. Companies use third-party logistics providers for several reasons. First, because getting the product to market is their main focus. Second, outsourcing logistics frees a company to focus more intensely on its core business. Finally, integrated logistics companies understand increasingly complex logistics environments.