Marketing Channel

Marketing Channel

marketing channel (noun)

DEFINITION OF MARKETING CHANNEL

Sets of interdependent organizations involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption, as well as providing a payment mechanism for the provider.

Source: Boundless Learning - CC BY-SA 3.0

RELATED TERMS

marketing channel  reseller  franchise  department store

EXAMPLES OF MARKETING CHANNEL IN THE FOLLOWING TOPICS:

Competitive Priorities in Marketing Channels

A marketing channel is a set of practices or activities necessary to transfer the ownership of goods, and to move goods from production to consumption.

An alternative term is distribution channel or 'route-to-market'.

A marketing channel can be short, extending directly from the vendor to the consumer; or may include several interconnected (usually independent but mutually dependent) intermediaries such as wholesalers, distributors, agents, retailers.

For example, brands of craft tools, or large appliances would fall into this marketing channel.

Managing and Motivating Marketing Channels During the marketing planning stage, marketers must choose and incorporate the most suitable channels for the firm's products, as well as select appropriate channel members or intermediaries.

A marketing channel is a set of practices necessary to transfer the ownership of goods from producer to consumer.

Distribution Centers versus Direct Store Delivery

Distribution Centers Versus Direct Store Delivery Depending on the product being sold and ultimate end user, companies can choose a marketing channel strategy that involves utilizing distribution centers (wholesalers) or moving their products directly to a store, or retailer.

In order to decide on the types of retailers to include in its marketing channel, a firm must first understand the buying specifications of its consumers.

The vast majority of all goods produced in an advanced economy have wholesaling involved in their marketing.

Wholesalers perform a number of useful functions within the channel of distributions.

Depending on customer needs, marketing channel strategies can utilize distribution centers or move products directly to a store.

Influence on the Entire Supply Chain

A brand’s entire supply chain also includes marketing, which can impact other functions such as sales, manufacturing, and distribution.

To move a finished product or service to customers, marketing works closely with printers, fulfillment houses, and other vendors to produce communications and execute marketing activities for different target audiences.

In physical distribution, the customer is the final destination of a marketing channel, and the availability of the product or service is a vital part of each channel participant's marketing effort.

It is also through the physical distribution process that the time and space of customer service become an integral part of marketing, thus linking the marketing channel with a company's customers (e.g., links manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers).

Marketing flows and processes encourage information sharing throughout the entire supply chain.

Marketing can play a key role in integrating supply chain processes and promoting collaboration between different stakeholders.

Cross-Channel Customer Experience

The process must be customer friendly and each marketing channel must operate in conjunction with the other channels within the system to provide seamless and efficient service.

To be effective, multi-channel marketing must be supported by good supply chain management systems, so that product information and prices of goods are consistent across the various customer channels.

Cross channel marketing offers businesses an opportunity to market with surgical accuracy enabling them to use specific channels to target different demographic segments of the market or to aim at different socio-economic groups of consumers.

Cross Channel Software Systems To effectively organize and operate cross channel marketing and to insure a positive customer experience, many companies utilize software that automates the campaign, creates flowcharts to track and integrate it and summarizes the results to report form.

A Wealth of Information A cross channel marketing approach lends itself to detailed analysis and enables a business to review the return on investment from each channel and to measure it against customer response and conversion of sales.

A cross channel experience involves customers accessing multiple marketing channels to make purchases and to retrieve information and services.

Types of Marketing Channels

Direct Selling Direct selling is the marketing and selling of products directly to consumers away from a fixed retail location.

Direct selling often, but not always, uses multi-level marketing (a salesperson is paid for selling and for sales made by people he recruits or sponsors) rather than single-level marketing (salesperson is paid only for the sales he makes himself).

Selling Through Intermediaries A marketing channel where intermediaries such as wholesalers and retailers are utilized to make a product available to the customer is called an indirect channel.

Dual Distribution Dual distribution describes a wide variety of marketing arrangements by which the manufacturer or wholesalers uses more than one channel simultaneously to reach the end user.

Using two or more channels to attract the same target market can sometimes lead to channel conflict.

There are basically 4 types of marketing channels: direct selling; selling through intermediaries; dual distribution; and reverse channels.

Selecting Marketing Channels

Introduction Before even evaluating specific marketing channel options, marketers must: Analyze the customer; Establish channel objectives; and Specify distribution tasks.

The type of product dictates the number of marketing channels to use.

For example, a perishable item must get to the consumer on a timely basis, therefore the marketing channels would have be as short and direct as possible.

Evaluating Channel Member Performance The need to evaluate the performance level of the channel members is just as important as the evaluation of the other marketing functions.

Clearly, the marketing mix is quite interdependent and the failure of one component can cause the failure of the whole.

There are four bases for channel alternatives marketers consider after conducting three preliminary activities which help determine goals.http://www.pingmyurl.com/site-stats/show.php?url=www.popforum.org