Essentials of Marketing 7th Edition by Charles Lamb,Joe Hair,Carl McDaniel

Exercise 17

In Part 1 of your strategic marketing plan, you stated your business mission and objectives and performed a detailed SWOT analysis. In Part 2 of the plan, you identified and described target market segments, identified sources of competitive intelligence and the need for further marketing research. In Part 3, you began the process of defining the marketing mix, starting with the first component: product. The next stage of the strategic planning process continues defining the elements of the marketing mix, and this section focuses on place, or distribution. Use the following exercises to guide you through the distribution part of your strategic marketing plan.
1. Discuss the implications of dual/multiple distribution. If your chosen company sells through a major department store and its own catalog and then decides to have an online site or open its own store in a factory outlet, what will happen to channel relationships? To the final price offered to consumers? To promotional vehicles? Most e-marketers assume that a direct distribution channel, with no intermediaries, is the most efficient and least costly method for getting product offerings to customers. However, if you decide on a different distribution channel, you will also have to identify warehouses, fulfillment services, transportation firms, packing companies, and many other facilitating agencies. Does your company have the capabilities to handle this, or should your company invest in channel members to take over these tasks and functions?
2. Decide what channel(s) your company should be using. Describe the intermediaries involved and their likely behavior. What are the implications of these channels? Describe the conflict that might arise from having both an e-marketing offering as well as a brick-and-mortar offering. If distribution costs are different, will your company set the same or different prices for end customers?
3. Which distribution intensity level would be best for your company's product? Justify your decision.