University of Texas at Dallas

School of Management

BA 4338 MARKETING CHANNELS

Section 001

Professor Andrei Strijnev

Spring 2008
TR 10:00 AM - 11:15 AM SOM2.803

Office SOM3.610 Office Phone (972) 883 4825

E-mail strijnev@utdallas.edu Office Hours W 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Teaching Assistant David Richardson (SOM 3.611) [and by appointment]
E-mail: dwr062000@utdallas.edu

Course Overview and Objectives

This course will expose students to the fundamental concepts and management of modern marketing channels.
Students will gain an understanding on how institutions can effectively and efficiently transmit things of value
from points of conception, extraction, and/or production to points of consumption.

We will analyze marketing channels using a framework for analysis that can be used for consumer product sales,
business-to-business sales, and sales of services. We will first discuss how to interpret the demands consumers
have for the productive outputs of the channel. We will then show how to describe the productive activities of
channel members that produce these valued service outputs. We will identify the types of gaps that can exist in
channel design and how to close them. We will then discuss how to manage the channel to control channel
conflict and enhance channel coordination through the constructive use of channel power. Throughout these
sessions, we will use lecture/discussion, case discussion, and a major channel audit project to develop and use the
course knowledge. We will also discuss some important channel issues, such as pricing through the channel and
gray marketing, in light of the analytic framework for the course.

The orientation of this course is toward the management of relationships within and among organizations that are
linked together in a distribution system. The successful management of these relationships, whether through the
creation of consistent incentive systems for all channel members or through the exertion of other types of
influence, is crucial for the long-term competitive viability of the firm.

Course Material

Textbook: Coughlan, Anderson, Stern, and El-Ansary (2006), Marketing Channels (Seventh Edition),
Pearson Prentice Hall

Cases: Seven cases listed in Appendix A are available at the bookstore

Grading

The grades for the course will be computed from the following components:

ASSIGNMENT GROUP/INDIVIDUAL? WEIGHT

Individual case memos (3) Individual 30%
Midterm Exam Individual 15%
Class participation Individual 15%
Major group case Group 15%
Channel audit assignment Group 25%
Case Memos: We will discuss six cases in class other than the major case (see the list in Appendix A). You are
required to complete individually done case memos for three of the six cases. Each memo is worth
10% of your course grade. You will have a chance to choose which case memo to hand in, subject
to an approximately even number of students doing each case memo. I will have sign-up sheets
available in class for you to sign up for your preferred case memo times.

Class Participation and Case Discussion:

Each student is expected to participate regularly in class discussions. A substantial part of the
benefit that you will derive from the assignments is a function of your willingness to expose your
viewpoints and conclusions to the critical judgment of the class, as well as of your ability to build
upon and evaluate critically the judgments of your classmates.

It is very important that all of you come prepared to air your views in class. I will provide
suggested questions for you to prepare in studying the cases before class. In general, you should
view preparing the cases as an opportunity to practice using the analytical tools we are developing
in class. 15 percent of your grade depends on class participation. Effective (i.e., quality as well as
quantity of) participation can therefore mean the difference between a higher and lower grade.
Regular class attendance is crucial to good class participation.

Written Group Case Assignment:

15% of your final course grade will depend on your written analysis of the Mary Kay case (due on
Tuesday, April 1). The case assignment should be done by you in teams. Teams should normally
include three people. Your team will submit a joint document (not individual ones) summarizing
your evaluation and analysis of the firm's problems, and your suggestions for action. It is up to
you to analyze the workings of the current channel, identify problems in its design or
management, and suggest solutions to those problems. You will be evaluated on your ability to
apply the general analytical concepts we develop in class to the specific situation you see in the
case. Your written case is limited to 2000 words of text, plus no more than 10 exhibits.

On the case analysis due date, one team will have the opportunity to present their case analysis
orally to the class, rather than submitting a written paper to me. Teams wishing to do an oral
presentation should see me upon forming your team, and I will randomly choose from among the
interested teams to allocate the oral presentation slot. If no teams volunteer for the oral
presentation, I will allocate the oral presentation randomly to one of the teams.

Group Channel Audit Assignment:

You will be required to perform an audit of a specific firm's existing distribution channel as part of
the course requirements. The group composition will be the same as for the group case
assignment. Your audit will count for 25% of your final course grade, and is due at the beginning
of class on Tuesday, April 22. This audit will consist of a report describing the current state of the
channel (its structure, members, allocation of channel functions and flows, ability to meet target
customer segments' demands for service outputs, gap analysis, and power and conflict
characteristics), as well as suggestions for improvement of the channel design and management.
You will be introduced to templates and analytic tools over the course of the course that will equip
you to do this real-world analysis. You are responsible for finding a firm whose distribution
channel you wish to study. You should do your best to use both primary (e.g., personal interview)
and secondary (e.g., library research) data to perform your analyses. Your audit should include
bibliographic references and citations to any secondary sources you use (business press articles,
journals, books, etc.) as well as mentioning the names, titles, and company of any people you
interview for the audit. You will be graded on the quality of your analysis and recommendations
and on your ability to apply the analytic concepts from class to your chosen distribution channel
situation. The report should be no more than 2500 words long, plus no more than 10 pages of
exhibits.
Exams: There will be a midterm exam covering first five chapters from the book consisting of essay type
and short answer questions. The exam is closed book and closed notes. Your exam will count for
15% of the final grade. There is no final exam in this course.

Class Policy

You are expected to:

• be prepared: if you for some reason failed to prepare yourself for class, please notify me before the
beginning of the class period. This avoids embarrassment as I will be cold-calling students.
• attend regularly: try to attend each class as absences will lower your class participation grade. Also, if
changes in exam procedure, exam date, exam coverage, assignments, etc. are announced in class you are
responsible for knowing this information.
• arrive on time: late-comers are very disturbing. Tardiness will have a significant negative impact on your
participation grade.
• respect assignment deadlines: assignments have to be submitted at the beginning of a class period on the
due date. If you do not submit on time, you forfeit a grade on the assignments.
• be honest: cheating and plagiarism will result in a grade of "F" for the assignment/test for all parties
involved. The University of Texas at Dallas has several procedures to deal with students who commit acts
of scholastic dishonesty. Refer to http://www.utdallas.edu/student/slife/TitleV.html for further information
on this topic.

Feedback

If you have any question or concerns about the course content, teaching, grading; or if you have any suggestions
for improvement in the above area, please do not hesitate to discuss them with me.

Tentative Course Schedule

Week Date Topic Readings/Deadlines

1 1/08 Tue Overview Ch. 1

1/10 Thu Service output Demands Ch. 2

2 1/15 Tue Discussion of Service Outputs Ch. 1, 2

1/17 Thu Service Output Demands Clust.com case (class discussion)

3 1/22 Tue Channel Flows Ch. 3

1/24 Thu Channel Flows Ch. 4

4 1/29 Tue Channel Flows Verklar case (class discussion)

1/31 Thu Discussion of Channel Flows Ch. 3, 4

5 2/05 Tue Gap Analysis Ch. 5

2/07 Thu Gap Analysis Invisalign case (class discussion)

6 2/12 Tue Channel Power Ch. 6

2/14 Thu Channel Conflict Ch. 7

7 2/19 Tue Channel Power Ch. 8

2/21 Thu Channel Coordination and Power Gino SA case (class discussion)

8 2/26 Tue Channel Coordination Ch. 9

2/28 Thu Channel Coordination and Power Auto collection case (class discussion)

9 3/04 Tue Exam Review

3/06 Thu Midterm Exam Ch. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

10 3/11 Tue *** University Closing for Spring Break ***

3/13 Thu *** University Closing for Spring Break ***

11 3/18 Tue Pricing through the distribution channel Ch. 10

3/20 Thu Channel Institutions Ch. 11

12 3/25 Tue Channel Institutions Ch. 12

3/27 Thu Discussion of Retailing and Wholesaling Ch. 11, 12

13 4/01 Tue Managing Multiple Channels Mary Kay case presentation

4/03 Thu Channel Institutions Ch. 13

14 4/08 Tue Channel Audit Meetings with Teams Sign up for team meetings
(no regular class)

4/10 Thu Pricing through the Distribution Channel Owens & Minor case (class discussion)

15 4/15 Tue Channel Institutions Ch. 14

4/17 Thu Course Review and Wrap-up

16 4/22 Tue Oral Channel Audit Presentations Written Channel Audit Projects Due

4/24 Thu Oral Channel Audit Presentations

 Appendix A

Case List

This is the list of all the cases we will cover during the semester, along with the brief explanation of the general
setting (locale; industry; years covered).

Regular Cases

1. Clust.com: Dream More and Pay Less

a. Paris; Internet & online services industries; 2000

2. Verklar Austria
a. Austria; Building materials industries; 2001

3. Invisalign: Orthodontics Unwired

a. United States; Dental industry; 2001

4. Gino SA: Distribution Channel Management

a. China; Fabricated metals; 2000

5. Auto Collection: Ford's Better Idea for Selling Cars and Trucks
a. United States; Automotive industry; 1999

6. Owens & Minor, Inc.

a. Richmond, VA; Health care industry; $3 billion revenues; 4,200 employees; 1996-1999

Major Case

Mary Kay Inc.: Direct Selling and the Challenge of Online Channels
Setting: United States; Cosmetic; 1999
 Appendix B

Peer Evaluation Form

Please fill out the following form to determine each person’s contribution. Rate yourself and each of your group
members on the following parameters:

• the time and effort spent on the project

• the quality of inputs

Use the following 5-point scale for this purpose. Enter the number from this scale that you think most appropriately
describes each person’s contribution on the two parameters.

1 2 3 4 5

⎢____________⎢_____________⎢____________⎢____________⎢
Poor Excellent

Effort Quality of inputs

Your name: ________________________ ______ ______

Member #1: ________________________ ______ ______

Member #2: ________________________ ______ ______

Member #3: ________________________ ______ ______

Member #4: ________________________ ______ ______

Member #5: ________________________ ______ ______

Please make any comments that you have regarding this group on the back of this sheet. This is due with your final
exam.