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

Exercise 6

Discuss the issues that influence channel strategy. When determining marketing channel strategy, the channel manager must determine what market, product, and producer factors will influence the choice of channel. The manager must also determine the appropriate level of distribution intensity. Intensive distribution is distribution aimed at maximum market coverage. Selective distribution is achieved by screening dealers to eliminate all but a few in any single area. The most restrictive form of market coverage is exclusive distribution, which entails only one or a few dealers within a given area.
5.1 Decide which distribution intensity level-intensive, selective, or exclusive-is used for each of the following products, and explain why: Piaget watches, Land Rover sport-utility vehicles, M Ms, special edition Barbie dolls, Crest toothpaste.
5.2 Now that you have a basic channel structure for Scoops (from question 3.3), form a team of three to four students and list the market, product, and producer factors that will affect your final channel structure.
REFERENCE :
3.1 : Building on question 1.1 determine a new channel structure for Scoops. Write a proposal to present to your key managers.
1.1: Your family runs a specialty ice cream parlor called Scoops. It manufactures its own ice cream in small batches and sells it only in pint-sized containers. After someone not affiliated with the company sent six pints of its ice cream to a popular talk-show host, she proclaimed on her national TV show that it was the best ice cream she had ever eaten. Immediately after the broadcast, orders came flooding in, overwhelming your small-batch production schedule and your limited distribution system. The company's shipping manager thinks she can handle it, but you disagree. List the reasons why you need to restructure your channel of distribution.