Various Marketing Channels - Coursework Example

Marketing Channels Name: Professor: Institution: Course: Date: Part One Explain how the shopping characteristics for the following consumer and industrial goods affect the channels for them (Question 4, page 103, chapter 3). Consumer Goods i. Bread Bread is a perishable and most consumed commodity, and it normally takes a shorter supply channel that will enable it to be utilized before it gets bad. The supply costs that are experienced with bread within the market are considered to be a function of the total number of prospective customers; the overall concentration of the prospective customers; the power of buying within a given period of time; and the significant costs that are connected to the realistic side of the supplying operation, such as transport and stockholding (Coughlan, Anderson, Stern, & El-Ansary, 2006). These are the factors that determine the overall channel for supplying bread in the market. ii. Breakfast cereal Breakfast cereals are considered to being ideal for breakfast especially when time is taken to be a limit to other chores on demanding mornings. Looking at the current trends in the fast moving global market, it clearly indicates that supply channels for breakfast cereals are determined by how fast such products are going in the market and how bulky they are, especially for convenience during transportation. This suggests the type of cereals that are ought to be supplied and the possible channels to be applied for effective distribution (Coughlan, Anderson, Stern, & El-Ansary, 2006). iii. Women's hosiery The current women’s fashion hosiery is unquestionably the essence of feminine attire that represents sexy. Women’s hosiery normally draws attention and they also plays a significant role in ensuring that the most sensual parts of the body are improved in form of appearance. Since they are non-perishable by nature, women’s hosiery may take a long supply channel depending on the length of the market selected (Coughlan, Anderson, Stern, & El-Ansary, 2006). iv. Refrigerators Home refrigerators are basically not set up for reaching them more often, have operations that are efficient, a consumer being able to see all products that have been placed inside, nor containing temperatures that have been put at a subzero level. All of these qualities are compared and utilized with a business refrigerator, which put all of the above factors into consideration. Being a bulky, a long lasting and well utilized product in the market, refrigerators can take a long channel of supply, where it involves a manufacture, a wholesaler, a retailer, and finally a consumer (Coughlan, Anderson, Stern, & El-Ansary, 2006). Industrial Goods i. Laser printer toner cartridges Laser printer toner cartridges are appliances highly utilized in the global market, where the current use and need is on the high rise. In its channel flow, it is found out that the end-user of the product derived from the acquisition of the cartridges does not experience the costs and challenges experienced within the process of supplying the product. In this case, the manufacture of the cartridges may use sales representatives when it comes to supplying the product to the market (Coughlan, Anderson, Stern, & El-Ansary, 2006). ii. Uranium for nuclear power plants Currently, most of the nuclear power plants are situated in the United States and are developed for the purpose of harnessing energy inside atoms and translating the results of this to electricity. Therefore, this requires that the supply Uranium to such nuclear power plant is consistent. Since the materials used in the whole process can also be used in other process like the production of bombs, the flow channel for Uranium is shorter, in the case where the manufacture of Uranium directly deals with a nuclear power plants (Coughlan, Anderson, Stern, & El-Ansary, 2006). iii. Cement Cement is an industrial product that is widely used by many individuals when it comes to constructions, and this may be for industrial or domestic purposes. Therefore, it is a product that involves intermediary within its supply or flow channel. The manufacturer of cement uses sales representatives who normally determine specific dealers for immediate supply of the product, especially in the case of domestic use. For industrial purposes, a direct channel for ordering the supply of cement is applied since it may be required in bulky (Coughlan, Anderson, Stern, & El-Ansary, 2006). iv. Medical machinery (such as ultrasound machine) Medical machinery are specifically designed for specific purposes in hospitals, therefore; the supply of such products do not involves a wide range of the market, and consists of a shorter flow of channel. A direct form of supply normally involves the manufacture of the machine, the supplier (may be through shipping), and the end-user (which in this case is the hospital) (Coughlan, Anderson, Stern, & El-Ansary, 2006). Why do greater sales and greater coverage go together? Should manufacturers always seek greater coverage? Conversely, should resellers always seek to carry more brands in their assortment for a given product category? Why or why not? (Question 4, page 150, chapter4). Greater sales are characterized with a process that focuses on overcoming specific issues within the business in relation to short term basis or strategizing for the overall growth of the business in relation to the longer term basis. On the other hand, greater coverage is the extend of the market that is being served by a specific company for given products or services. For greater coverage to exist there must be sales that had been made within the selected market over a given period of time. Greater sales are achieved by being able to diagnose the overall cause of issues within the business in relation to the short term basis; ensuring that sales within the range of medium to long term basis are increasing; and having a wide range of all achievable clarification for sales increase. In doing so, there are new markets that are achieved or exploration and utilization of the existing market niche is realized, which turns out to be a greater achievement for having a wider coverage for the selected product or service within the selected market (Coughlan, Anderson, Stern, & El-Ansary, 2006). Great sales consist of: i. Increased sales (in this case can be referred to as increased revenue) ii. Reduced expenses incurred on sales iii. Improved satisfaction for customers which can be achieved through the process of increasing customer acquaintances iv. Enhanced and changed patterns of buying and the overall customer behavior. On the other hand, a greater coverage of a selected product is characterized by the following aspects: i. Increased sales (revenue) of a selected product or service ii. Improved product marketing strategies iii. Enhanced and changed patterns of buying and the overall customer behavior. iv. Increased market segment Manufacturers should always seek greater coverage for their products and services since it is a process of increasing on their product and service sales. Having greater market coverage is frequently connected to the ability of having higher profits and consequently most of firms are encouraged to ensure that their sales are increased in relation to what competitors making within the same market. The reasons as to why manufacturers can be encouraged to always seek greater coverage for their products and services are (Coughlan, Anderson, Stern, & El-Ansary, 2006): i. Improving on economies of scale, and this is an aspect where higher size of the market is believed to be influential when it comes to developing a working cost advantage. ii. Enhancing the overall sales intensification within an industry that is stagnant. Increasing the overall market coverage of a firm is a way of improving on the overall sales of a selected product or service, and this is practical especially in an industry that has been considered to be stagnant. iii. Working on achieving a positive reputation over the products and services being offered in the market. This becomes a way of applying of the influence by most of the market leaders in deriving opportunities to their benefit. iv. Working within a greater market coverage helps in increasing on the overall bargaining power for the selected products and services. In this case, a larger player in the market is considered to have an advantage when it comes to negotiating with suppliers and also members within the identified channel. When resellers in any given business have acquired the stated reseller rights they should always seek to carry more brands in their assortment for a given product category. Acquisition of the stated reseller rights enables them to benefit from profits and losses that achieved in the process of selling the products or services. In this case, they have already acquired ownership of the products or services on the basis of profitability and other related advantages. Therefore, to ensure that they fully benefit from the whole process they are then eligible to always seek to carry more brands in their assortment for a given product category, since it can be one of the factors that will improve their marketing strategies. Part Two Give an example of a purchase occasion when you chose not buy a product at a particular outlet because the service output levels were not appropriate. Indentify whether the demand gap was in the provision of too low a level or too high a level of service outputs. What did you do instead? Buy would be happy to buy from the outlet that you rejected? Why would they be happy to do? (Question 2, page 192, chapter 5). I had decided offer a party of fifteen (15) individuals a full board dinner with all the entertainment at X-trim restaurant on January 05, 2011, where three tables had been reserved five days in advance and everyone was looking forward to having fun and enjoying the serenity of X-trim restaurant. This was a party that had involved individuals who were formally dressed and other respected persons who were academically educated and had respect of their own. The idea that provoked me and my party members was the surprising behavior and the overall service mind-set of the restaurant’s waiting staff. First, we were mishandled by the waiting staff even before making any order, and this happened when he requested for our Identification Cards. Something that shocked us beyond recovery is the way the waiting staff reacted after realizing that most of us were flabbergasted. He said that we would have to depart from the restaurant, if his request is not going to be respected. We sorted out this issue of Identification Cards and did our ordering by requesting for a menu, which turned out to another process that was going to last long than we had anticipated. To make it worse, the menu did not have a list for wines and everyone had disappeared meaning that we had to wait for sometimes before being served. Finally, the wine list was brought and it was only one for the whole group, quite astonishing. One of the wine bottles had been flawed and the waiter thought that no one amongst us had some knowledge and ideas about wines. I decided to taste one of the wines and the waiter loudly demanded to know why I had tasted, something that caused an awkward situation which later led to contradicting about the quality of the wine. At that moment, the demand for services in the hotel was high, and this could have been one of the reasons as to why the waiting staff was misbehaving in such a way. These were some of the worst services I have ever received in any restaurant, and this made me resign that I would not continue entertaining for the dessert that had been shown in that place. It is also right that I would not recommend the restaurant for others to go and experience such services, which are quite terrible. The restaurant manager even agreed with me that the service we were offered was not as good as it had been anticipated. The restaurant manager laid all the blame on the kitchen staff for working under rush, something I discovered that the kitchen staff had totally nothing to do with the humiliation we went through, but instead it was the negligence and inappropriate skills of the waiting staff that caused all the disappointments we went through. To disappoint us more, not a bit of the staff made a point to officially come and apologize to anyone of us for the caused annoyance. Surprisingly, the restaurant was charging high prices for meals and drinks, something that any customer should expect good service provision. I can make a conclusion that because of poor service that had been offered the restaurant forfeited both customers and the overall sales for the day. The reason as to why I feel this was unhealthy for the restaurant is that having better customer service within any business it is lifeblood dealing that happens. For profits to be realized in a long run, one should be able to have a consistent flow of customers for the services being offered, some of them making a revisit to the place. This cannot effectively be achieved by the idea of offering different promotions or other strategies like slashing prices for the purpose of bringing in new customers, but having people who are revisiting the place. Therefore, better customer service involves the aspect of bringing customers back to be served again (Coughlan, Anderson, Stern, & El-Ansary, 2006). DuPont Agricultural Chemicals is an extremely large and diversified supplier of herbicides and pesticides to farmers. It has several competitors, also large and diversified (such as Monsanto and Dow). Imagine a dealer selling a full line of whatever a corporate or individual farmer would use, including agricultural chemicals. Is it possible to imagine a scenario in which the dealer is more powerful than DuPont? What factors might make this possible? (Question 5, page 238, chapter 6). A case where a dealer can become more powerful than DuPont is when a dealer becomes an independent. This is a case where a person does not have to refer to the supplier on any issue dealing with the supply of agricultural chemicals or a full line of products that a corporate or even an individual farmer has opted to use. It can be a scenario where DuPont has involved dealers who are more experienced and are prudent in knowledge and other related information. This definitely makes to be more resistant towards any intrusion that may arise in the business. This will cause the input or behavioral control to become more complicated, especially to suppliers who are considered to be less powerful (Coughlan, Anderson, Stern, & El-Ansary, 2006). There are actions that are presumed to have an impact on the production costs or on the final demand within the stated channel, are applied by the supplier, who normally. On the existing side of the production, the supplier is always at liberty to carryout an upgrading process of the selected production. The supplier can also switch between the existing distribution technologies and the product production. On the other side, the demand side, the main supplier is supposed to put into consideration factors of introducing a new product or even improving on already existing quality of the product. Such incentive measures have an impact on the dealer’s power acquisition and application (Coughlan, Anderson, Stern, & El-Ansary, 2006). Finally, the end result will be the effect caused on the input performance measures, which will be of reduced appropriateness. The following are some of the factors that can make a dealer to be more powerful than a supplier: i. Independency of a dealer Being a truly independent dealer, a person becomes free to generate individualized vision and mission for the success of his or her business. This is also a person who has an absolute autonomy especially customizing finance the existing financial services for other individuals who have been doing investment. A dealer who is independent can either be or not be affiliated or even owned by an existing insurance firm and an investment company. ii. Wider experience of a dealer in the concerned field This is an independent dealer who is more experienced and is prudent in knowledge and other related information. Such competency in skill and knowledge application gives them a chance to exercise their powers over the channels that are under operation. iii. High incentives provided by the supplier for services offered The overall actions presumed to have an impact on the production costs or on the final demand within the stated channel, are applied by the supplier, who normally. On the existing side of the production, the supplier is always at liberty to carryout an upgrading process of the selected production. The supplier can also switch between the existing distribution technologies and the product production. On the other side, the demand side, the main supplier is supposed to put into consideration factors of introducing a new product or even improving on already existing quality of the product. Such incentive measures have an impact on the dealer’s power acquisition and application. iv. Better market support for the dealer. Having a better market support for the selected dealers, especially in the manufacturing industry, creates a clear platform for dealers to be more powerful in relation to supplier of the identified commodity. Since dealers are well positioned on the aspect of reaching out for the market segment, they have a significant role of ensuring that the product remains top in the market, and hence the need to be more powerful. Bibliography Coughlan, A. T., Anderson, E., Stern, L. W., and El-Ansary, A. I., 2006, Marketing Channels, 7th ed., New Jersey: Pearson/Prentice Hall. Read More