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Chapter 13 Designing and Managing Integrated Marketing Channels stores. Philips has created an organization designed around these retail customers, with dedicated Global Key Account Managers serving leading retailers such as Best Buy, Carrefour, Costco, Dixons, and Tesco. The company also sells to consumers via its own online store as well as through other online retailers.1
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uccessful value creation needs successful value delivery. Holistic marketers are increasingly taking a value network view of their businesses, examining the whole supply chain that links raw materials, components, and manufactured goods and shows how they move toward the final consumers. This chapter discusses the strategic and tactical issues of marketing channels and value networks; Chapter 14 will examine marketing channel issues from the perspective of retailers, wholesalers, and physical-distribution agencies.
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Part V Delivering Value there is low brand loyalty in a category, brand choice is made in the store, the product is an impulse item, and product benefits are well understood. In a pull strategy, the manufacturer uses advertising and promotion to persuade consumers to ask intermediaries for the product, thus inducing the intermediaries to order it. This is appropriate when there is high brand loyalty and high involvement in the category, people perceive differences between brands, and people choose the brand before they shop. Top marketing firms such as Nike and Intel skillfully employ both push and pull strategies.
Value Networks
The company should first think of the target market and then design the supply chain backward from that point, a view called demand-chain planning. Northwesterns Don Schultz says: A demand chain management approach doesnt just push things through the system. It emphasizes what solutions consumers are looking for, not what products we are trying to sell them. He suggests replacing the marketing four Ps with a new acronym, SIVA, which stands for solutions, information, value, and access.6 The concept of a value networka system of partnerships and alliances that a firm creates to source, augment, and deliver its offeringstakes an even broader view. A value network includes a firms suppliers and its suppliers suppliers, and its immediate customers and their end customers. The value network includes valued relations with others such as university researchers and regulatory agencies. Demand chain planning yields several insights. First, the firm can estimate whether more money is made upstream or downstream, in case it might want to integrate backward or forward. Second, the company is more aware of disturbances anywhere in the supply chain that might cause costs, prices, or supplies to change suddenly. Third, companies can go online with business partners for faster, more accurate, and less costly communications, transactions, and payments.
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Chapter 13 Designing and Managing Integrated Marketing Channels Still others (information, negotiation, finance, and risk taking) occur in both directions. If the flows for forklift trucks shown in Figure 13.1 were superimposed in one diagram, the complexity of even simple marketing channels would be apparent. The question is not whether these channel functions need to be performedthey must bebut rather who is to perform them. All channel functions have three things in common: They use up scarce resources; they can often be performed better through specialization; and they can be shifted among channel members. If a manufacturer shifts some functions to intermediaries, its costs and prices go down, but the intermediaries must add a charge to cover their work. Still, if the intermediaries are more efficient than the manufacturer, prices to consumers should be lower. If consumers TABLE 13.1 Channel Member Functions
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Gather information about potential and current customers, competitors, and other actors
be effected.
Place orders with manufacturers. Acquire the funds to finance inventories at different levels in the marketing channel. Assume risks connected with carrying out channel work. Provide for the successive storage and movement of physical products. Provide for buyers payment of their bills through banks and other financial institutions. Oversee actual transfer of ownership from one organization or person to another.
FIGURE 13.1
1. Physical Flow Suppliers Transporters, warehouses Manufacturer Transporters, warehouses Dealers Transporters Customers
3. Payment Flow Suppliers 4. Information Flow Suppliers Transporters, warehouses, banks Manufacturer Transporters, warehouses, banks Dealers Transporters, banks Banks Manufacturer Banks Dealers Banks Customers
Customers
Advertising agency
Manufacturer
Advertising agency
Dealers
Customers
A Framework for Marketing Management, Fourth Edition, by Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Part V Delivering Value perform some functions themselves, they should enjoy still lower prices. Changes in channel institutions thus reflect the discovery of more efficient ways to combine or separate the economic functions that provide assortments of products to target customers.
Channel Levels
The producer and the final customer are part of every channel. Well use the number of intermediary levels to designate the length of a channel. Figure 13.2a illustrates consumer-goods marketing channels of different lengths, while Figure 13.2b illustrates industrial marketing channels. A zero-level channel (also called a direct-marketing channel) consists of a producer selling directly to final customers through door-to-door sales, Internet selling, mail order, telemarketing, home parties, TV selling, manufacturer-owned stores, and other methods. A one-level channel contains one intermediary, such as a retailer. A two-level channel contains two intermediaries; a three-level channel contains three intermediaries. From the producers perspective, obtaining information about end users and exercising control becomes more difficult as the number of channel levels increases. Channels normally describe a forward movement of products, but there are also reverse-flow channels, important for bringing products back for reuse (such as refillable bottles); refurbishing items for resale; recycling products; and disposing of products and packaging. Several intermediaries play a role in these channels, including manufacturers redemption centers, community groups, traditional intermediaries such as trash-collection specialists, recycling centers, trash-recycling brokers, and centralprocessing warehousing.7 FIGURE 13.2 Consumer and Industrial Marketing Channels
(b) Industrial Marketing Channels 3-level Manufacturer 0-level Manufacturer 1-level Manufacturer 2-level Manufacturer 3-level Manufacturer
(a) Consumer Marketing Channels 0-level Manufacturer 1-level Manufacturer 2-level Manufacturer
Wholesaler
Wholesaler
Manufacturer's representative
Jobber
Retailer
Retailer
Retailer
Industrial distributors
Consumer
Consumer
Consumer
Consumer
Industrial customer
Industrial customer
Industrial customer
Industrial customer
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CHANNEL-DESIGN DECISIONS
Designing a marketing channel system involves analyzing customer needs, establishing channel objectives, identifying major channel alternatives, and evaluating major channel alternatives.
Providing greater service outputs means increased channel costs and higher prices for customers. The success of discount resellers (online and offline) indicates that many consumers will accept lower outputs if they can save money.
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Part V Delivering Value Channel objectives vary with product characteristics. Perishable products require more direct marketing. Bulky products, such as building materials, require channels that minimize the shipping distance and the amount of handling. Nonstandard products, such as custom-built machinery, are sold directly by company sales representatives. Products requiring installation or maintenance services, such as heating systems, are usually sold and maintained by the company or franchised dealers. High-unit-value products such as turbines are often sold through a company sales force rather than intermediaries. Channel design is also influenced by such environmental factors as competitors channels, economic conditions, and legal regulations and restrictions. U.S. law looks unfavorably on channel arrangements that substantially lessen competition or create a monopoly.
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Chapter 13 Designing and Managing Integrated Marketing Channels sale are payment terms and producer guarantees. Most producers grant cash discounts to distributors for early payment. Producers might also provide distributors a guarantee against defective merchandise or price declines. A guarantee against price declines gives distributors an incentive to buy more. Distributors territorial rights define the distributors territories and the terms under which the producer will enfranchise other distributors. Distributors normally expect to receive full credit for all sales in their territory, whether or not they did the selling. Mutual services and responsibilities must be carefully spelled out, especially in franchised and exclusive-agency channels. McDonalds provides franchisees with a building, promotional support, a recordkeeping system, training, and general administrative and technical assistance. In turn, franchisees must satisfy company standards for the physical facilities, cooperate with promotional programs, furnish requested information, and buy supplies from specified vendors.
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FIGURE 13.3
High
Sales force Value-added partners Distributors Retail stores Telemarketing Internet Direct marketing channels Low Low Cost per Transaction
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Value-add of Sale
"Indirect" channels
High
Source: Oxford Associates, adapted from Dr. Rowland T. Moriarity, Cubex Corp.
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Part V Delivering Value Using a sales agency poses a control problem because the agency is an independent firm seeking to maximize its profits. Agents may concentrate on customers who buy the most, but not necessarily of the producers goods. Furthermore, agents might not master the details of every product they carry or handle all promotion materials effectively. To develop a channel, the members must make some mutual commitments for a specified period; this reduces the producers ability to respond to a changing marketplace. In dynamic, volatile, or uncertain environments, producers need channels and policies that provide high adaptability.
CHANNEL-MANAGEMENT DECISIONS
After a firm has chosen a channel system, it must select, train, motivate, and evaluate individual intermediaries for each channel. It must also modify channel design and arrangements over time.
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actually doing. One manufacturer compensating a distributor for holding inventories found that the stock was actually held in a public warehouse at its own expense. Producers should set up functional discounts in which they pay specified amounts for the intermediarys performance of each agreed-upon service. Underperformers need to be counseled, retrained, remotivated, or terminated.
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Part V Delivering Value Types of Conflict and Competition Vertical channel conflict means conflict between different levels within the same channel. General Motors came into conflict with its dealers in trying to enforce policies on service, pricing, and advertising. Horizontal channel conflict is conflict between members at the same level within the channel. Some Pizza Inn franchisees complained that other Pizza Inn franchisees were cheating on ingredients, maintaining poor service, and hurting the brand image. Multichannel conflict exists when the manufacturer has established two or more channels that sell to the same market. Its likely to be especially intense when the members of one channel get a lower price (based on larger volume purchases) or work with a lower margin. Independent dealers were angered when Goodyear began selling its popular tire brands through Sears, Wal-Mart, and Discount Tire. Goodyear eventually placated them by offering exclusive tire models not sold in other retail outlets. Other strategies to reduce multichannel conflict are creating and enforcing rules of engagement beforehand and compensating both parties that participate in a sale regardless of which one books the order.23 Causes of Channel Conflict One major cause of channel conflict is goal incompatibility. For example, the manufacturer may want to achieve rapid market penetration through a low-price policy. Dealers, in contrast, may prefer to work with high margins for short-run profitability. Sometimes conflict arises from unclear roles and rights. HP may sell PCs to large accounts through its own sales force, but its licensed dealers may also be trying to sell to large accounts. Territory boundaries and credit for sales often produce conflict. Conflict can also stem from differences in perception, as when the producer is optimistic about the short-term economic outlook and wants dealers to carry more inventory, while dealers are more pessimistic. At times, conflict can arise because of the intermediaries dependence on the manufacturer. The fortunes of exclusive dealers, such as auto dealers, are greatly affected by the manufacturers product and pricing decisions, creating high potential for conflict. Managing Channel Conflict Some channel conflict can be constructive and lead to more dynamic adaptation in a changing environment.24 Too much conflict can be dysfunctional, however, so the challenge is not to eliminate conflict but to manage it better. There are several mechanisms for effective conflict management (see Table 13.2).25 One is the adoption of superordinate goals, with channel members agreeing on the fundamental goal they jointly seek, whether its survival, market share, high quality, or customer satisfaction. Members usually come to agreement when the channel faces an outside threat such as a more efficient competing channel, an adverse piece of legislation, or a shift in consumer desires. TABLE 13.2 Strategies for Managing Channel Conflict
Adoption of superordinate goals Exchange of employees Joint membership in trade associations Co-optation Diplomacy, mediation, or arbitration Legal recourse
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Source: Excerpted from Hallie Mummert, Multi-Channel Marketers Earn a C+ on Returns, Target Marketing, October 2003, p. 158.
A Framework for Marketing Management, Fourth Edition, by Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Chapter 13 Designing and Managing Integrated Marketing Channels A useful step is to exchange persons between two or more channel levels. General Motors executives might work briefly in some dealerships, and some dealership owners might work in GMs dealer policy department, to help participants appreciate the others viewpoint. Marketers can accomplish much by encouraging joint membership in and between trade associations. Co-optation is an effort by one organization to win the support of another organizations leaders by including them in advisory councils, boards of directors, and the like. As long as the initiating organization treats the leaders and their ideas seriously, co-optation can reduce conflict. Diplomacy takes place when each side sends a person or group to meet with its counterpart to resolve the conflict. Mediation means having a skilled, neutral third party reconcile the two parties interests. Arbitration occurs when the two parties agree to present their arguments to an arbitrator and accept the arbitration decision. When none of these methods proves effective, a company or channel partner may choose to file a lawsuit. Dilution and Cannibalization Marketers must also avoid diluting their brands through inappropriate channels. This is especially a concern with luxury brands whose images are built on the basis of exclusivity and personalized service. To reach affluent shoppers who work long hours and have little time to shop, high-end fashion brands such as Dior and Louis Vuitton now sell through e-commerce sites. These luxury makers also see their Web sites as a way for customers to research items before walking into a store and a means to help combat fakes sold over the Internet.26
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Pure-Click Companies
There are several kinds of pure-click companies: search engines, Internet service providers (ISPs), commerce sites, transaction sites, content sites, and enabler sites. Commerce sites sell all types of products and services, notably books, music, toys, insurance, travel services, clothes, and so on. Breakthrough Marketing: Amazon describes that quintessential commerce site. Although the popular press has given the most attention to business-to-consumer (B2C) Web sites, even more activity is being conducted on business-to-business (B2B) sites, which make markets more efficient. In the past, buyers had to exert a lot of effort to gather information on worldwide suppliers. With the Internet, buyers have easy access to information from (1) supplier Web sites; (2) infomediaries, third parties that add value by aggregating information about alternatives; (3) market makers, third
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Chapter 13 Designing and Managing Integrated Marketing Channels parties that create markets linking buyers and sellers; and (4) customer communities, sites where buyers can swap stories about suppliers offerings. The net impact of these mechanisms is to make prices more transparent.28 In the case of undifferentiated products, price pressure will increase. For highly differentiated products, buyers will gain a better picture of the items true value. Suppliers of superior products will be able to offset price transparency with value transparency; suppliers of undifferentiated products will have to drive down their costs to compete.
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Brick-and-Click Companies
Many brick-and-mortar companies debated adding an e-commerce channel, fearing that channel conflict would arise from competing with their offline retailers, agents, or company-owned stores.29 Most eventually added the Internet as a distribution channel after seeing how much business their online competitors were generating. The question is how to sell both through intermediaries and online. There are at least three strategies for trying to gain acceptance from intermediaries: (1) offer different brands or products on the Internet; (2) offer offline partners higher commissions to cushion the negative impact on sales; and (3) take orders on the Web site but have retailers deliver and collect payment. Harley-Davidson asks customers who want to order accessories online to select a participating dealer. The dealer, in turn, fulfills the order, adhering to Harleys standards for prompt shipping.30
M-Commerce
Consumers and businesspeople no longer need to be near a computer to go online. All they need is a cellular phone or personal digital assistant to wirelessly connect to the Internet so they can check the weather, sports scores, and more; send and receive e-mail messages; and place online orders. Many see a big future in what is now called m-commerce (m for mobile).31 M-commerce success will be driven, in part, by convenience, ease of use, trust, and widespread availability.32 For example, in Japan, millions of teenagers carry DoCoMo phones from NTT (Nippon Telephone and Telegraph). In addition to voice and text communication, they can use their phones to order goods or make purchases at participating outlets like McDonalds. Subscribers receive a monthly bill from NTT listing the subscriber fee, usage fee, and cost of all other transactionsand they can pay the bill at any 7-Eleven convenience store.33
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Most producers dont sell their goods directly to final users. Between producers and final users stands one or more marketing channels, a host of marketing intermediaries performing a variety of functions. Companies use intermediaries when they lack the financial resources to carry out direct marketing, when direct marketing isnt feasible, and when they can earn more by doing so. The most important functions performed by intermediaries are information, promotion, negotiation, ordering, financing, risk taking, physical possession, payment, and title. Manufacturers can reach a market by selling direct or using one-, two-, or three-level channels, depending on customer needs, channel objectives, and their
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Part V Delivering Value identification and evaluation of major channel alternatives. Effective channel management calls for selecting intermediaries, then training and motivating them to build a long-term, mutually profitable partnership. Three key channel trends are the growth of vertical marketing systems, horizontal marketing systems, and multichannel marketing systems. All channels have the potential for conflict and competition. Marketers have to consider legal and ethical issues relating to practices such as exclusive dealing or territories, tying agreements, and dealers rights. As e-commerce has grown in importance, channel integration must recognize the distinctive strengths of online and offline selling to maximize their joint contributions.
NOTES
1. Leila Abboud, New Treatment: Electronics Giant Seeks a Cure in Health Care, Wall Street Journal, July 11, 2007, p. A1; Kerry Capell, Thinking Simple at Philips, BusinessWeek, December 11, 2006, p. 50; PhilipsUnfulfilled, brandchannel.com, June 20, 2005; Royal Philips Electronics Annual Report, 2006; Jennifer L. Schenker, Fine-Tuning a Fuzzy Image, TIMEeurope.com, Spring 2002. 2. Anne T. Coughlan, Erin Anderson, Louis W. Stern, and Adel I. El-Ansary, Marketing Channels, 6th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001). 3. Louis W. Stern and Barton A. Weitz, The Revolution in Distribution: Challenges and Opportunities, Long Range Planning 30, no. 6 (1997): 823829. 4. For a summary of academic research, see Erin Anderson and Anne T. Coughlan, Channel Management: Structure, Governance, and Relationship Management, in Bart Weitz and Robin Wensley, eds., Handbook of Marketing (London: Sage Publications, 2001), pp. 223247 and Gary L. Frazier, Organizing and Managing Channels of Distribution, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences 27, no. 2 (1999): 226240. 5. Asim Ansari, Carl F. Mela, and Scott A. Neslin, Customer Channel Migration, Journal of Marketing, 2007, forthcoming; Jacquelyn S. Thomas and Ursula Y. Sullivan, Managing Marketing Communications, Journal of Marketing 69 (October 2005): 239251; Edward J. Fox, Alan L. Montgomery, and Leonard M. Lodish (2004), Consumer Shopping and Spending Across Retail Formats, The Journal of Business 77 (2): S25S60; Sridhar Balasubramanian, Rajagopal Raghunathan, and Vijay Mahajan (2005), Consumers in a Multichannel Environment: Product Utility, Process Utility, and Channel Choice, Journal of Interactive Marketing 19 (2): 1230. 6. Chekitan S. Dev and Don E. Schultz, In the Mix: A Customer-Focused Approach Can Bring the Current Marketing Mix into the 21st Century, Marketing Management 14 (January/February 2005). 7. For additional information on reverse-flow channels, see Marianne Jahre, Household Waste Collection as a Reverse ChannelA Theoretical Perspective, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics 25, no. 2 (1995): 3955; and Terrance L. Pohlen and M. Theodore Farris II, Reverse Logistics in Plastics Recycling, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics 22, no. 7 (1992): 3537. 8. Katherine Boehret, The Mossberg Solution: How the Big Photo-Sharing Sites Stack Up, Wall Street Journal, August 1, 2007, p. D8; William M. Bulkeley, Kodak Revamps Wal-Mart Kiosks, Wall Street Journal, September 6, 2006; Faith Keenan, Big Yellows Digital Dilemma, BusinessWeek, March 24, 2003, pp. 8081. 9. Louis P. Bucklin, A Theory of Distribution Channel Structure (Berkeley: Institute of Business and Economic Research, University of California, 1966). 10. Allison Enright, Shed New Light, Marketing News, May 1, 2006, pp. 910. 11. For more on relationship marketing and the governance of marketing channels, see Jan B. Heide, Interorganizational Governance in Marketing Channels, Journal of Marketing (January 1994): 7185. 12. Anderson and Coughlan, Channel Management: Structure, Governance, and Relationship Management, pp. 223247. 13. Bert Rosenbloom, Marketing Channels: A Management View, 5th ed. (Hinsdale, IL: Dryden, 1995). 14. Bruce Horovitz, Cranium Guys Have Their Inner Child on Speed Dial, USA Today, May 8, 2006, p. 7B; Christopher Palmeri, March of the T oysOut of the Toy Section, BusinessWeek, November 29, 2004,
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18. 19.
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21.
22.
23.
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25. This section draws on Coughlan, Anderson, Stern, and El-Ansary, Marketing Channels, ch. 6. See also Jonathan D. Hibbard, Nirmalya Kumar, and Louis W. Stern, Examining the Impact of Destructive Acts in Marketing Channel Relationships, Journal of Marketing Research 38 (February 2001): 4561; Kersi D. Antia and Gary L. Frazier, The Severity of Contract Enforcement in Interfirm Channel Relationships, Journal of Marketing 65 (October 2001): 6781; James R. Brown, Chekitan S. Dev, and Dong-Jin Lee, Managing Marketing Channel Opportunism: The Efficiency of Alternative Governance Mechanisms, Journal of Marketing 64 (April 2001): 5165. 26. Christina Passriello, Fashionably Late? Designer Brands Are Starting to Embrace E-Commerce, Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2006, pp. B1, B4. 27. Mylene Mangalindan, Amazons MP3 Store Takes Aim at Apple, Wall Street Journal, September 26, 2007, p. B3; Jim Carlton, Amazon Looks to Keep Sales Momentum, Wall Street Journal, July 25, 2007, p. A3; Riva Richmond, Amazon Offer: Its Gigabytes Now for Sale, Wall Street Journal, June 27, 2007, p. B5D; Click to Download, The Economist, August 19, 2006, pp. 5758; Robert D. Hof, Jeff Bezos Risky Bet, BusinessWeek, November 13, 2006; Erick Schonfield, The Great Giveaway, Business 2.0, April 2005, 8086. 28. For an in-depth academic examination, see John G. Lynch, Jr. and Dan Ariely, Wine Online: Search Costs and Competition on Price, Quality, and Distribution, Marketing Science 19 (Winter 2000): 83103. 29. Described in Inside 1-to-1, Peppers and Rogers Group newsletter, May 14, 2001. 30. Bob Tedeshi, How Harley Revved Online Sales, Business 2.0, December 2002/January 2003, p. 44. 31. Douglas Lamont, Conquering the Wireless World: The Age of M-Commerce (New York: Wiley, 2001); Marc Weingarten, The Medium Is the Instant Message, Business 2.0, February 2002, pp. 9899. 32. Gordon Xu and Jairo A. Gutierrez, An Exploratory Study of Killer Applications and Critical Success Factors in M-commerce, Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations 4.3 (July-September 2006): 63+. 33. Kanako Takahara, McDonalds, DoCoMo Team Up on Marketing, Japan Times, February 27, 2007.
2008933525 A Framework for Marketing Management, Fourth Edition, by Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.