Marketing Channel Strategy
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| marketing channel
or marketing channel system , composed of inter- and independent organizations that work to go to market with a product or service, so that it is available for use or consumption. Developing a go-to-market strategy that deploys the most optimal combina- tion of actors in an efficient manner, such that the product or service is available and easily accessible for purchase, is indispensable to firm success. Conversely, inadequate distribution is a primary cause of failure. 2 A go-to-market strategy is the blueprint used to deliver the firm’s offerings to end-users in a manner that conforms to their preferred mode and method of buying and also is efficient and cost-effective, so that it confers a competitive advantage on the firm. When developing a go-to-market strategy, the firm must know its consumers’ or end-users’ buying preferences, including the information and education end-users might need before they can make purchase decisions, the services and after-sales support they seek, their expectations, their willingness to pay for extras, their deliv- ery preferences, their financing needs, and the mode of ordering they like best. As a firm devises its go-to-market approach, it also must be cognizant of the costs and benefits associated with various routes to market and balance them against custom- ers’ preferences, as well as with the firm’s own desire for market coverage, willingness and ability to invest to acquire this necessary market coverage, and desire for control. Thus, developing a go-to-market strategy requires three main steps. 3 First, the firm must perform a thorough analysis of industry channel practices to isolate critical successful factors. Second, channel managers should identify areas of improvement in their practices. Third, the firm can develop policies and procedures to incentiv- ize and alter channel partners’ behaviors to motivate their efficient execution of channel tasks. That is, most distribution systems rely on independent third par- ties, whose incentive systems may not align with the seller’s, so implementing a go-to-market strategy also entails managing the relationship with partners, to get them to do what the firm wants from them. Firms have many alternatives when it comes to designing a channel system, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Consider two massive restaurant chains, McDonald’s and Starbucks. Franchising is the preferred route to market for the fast food giant McDonald’s, such that 82 percent of its 36,000 outlets are fran- chised. 4 But Starbucks typically operates company-owned stores and has avoided franchising, at least in the United States, due to fears about diluting the brand and customers’ in-store experience. 5 Yet even Starbucks makes some concessions, such that it uses licensing to operate stores in airports and college campuses and has also The OmnI-ChAnnel eCOsysTem 3 adopted franchising as a go-to-market strategy in European markets, where the high rents made company-owned stores infeasible. 6 Some firms take over distribution functions, by building an in-house distribu- tion system over which they maintain complete control, but such a system also requires developing internal expertise and making considerable investments to build company-owned distribution channels—such that this option might not be feasible or desirable in all cases. Furthermore, most products and services need to go through multiple marketing channels before reaching end-users. A direct distribution model, in which items move straight from the manufacturer to the end-user without any intermediaries, is rare, due to the conflicting demands asso- ciated with resource availability, cost, coverage, specialization requirements, and end-consumer preferences. Intermediaries can perform many required tasks at lower costs or with greater efficiency and effectiveness, especially when they possess supe- rior operational expertise, better infrastructure (e.g., warehousing facilities), market knowledge, or connections to consumers. It likely would be cost and time prohibi- tive for manufacturers to acquire such expertise, resources, and connections, so, for example, many firms use Amazon or Alibaba as a key channel to market, granting the massive retail channel partner the responsibility for most channel tasks. EXAMPLE: FULFILLMENT BY AMAZON (USA) Amazon is the 237th largest corporation in the world. 7 Among its customer base of about 120 million people, 63 million are Prime members and pay an annual membership fee to receive enhanced services, such as free shipping. 8 Amazon also offers its business clients a service, Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), 9 that permits them to ship their products in bulk to Amazon. For a fee, it will store the product and then complete individual customer orders as they come in and provide the customer support service. Thus, businesses get access to Amazon’s huge customer base and delegate many channel functions to it, all for a relatively small fee. W H A T I S A M A R K E T I N G C H A N N E L ? A marketing channel goes by many aliases, including “place” in the 4P framework, distribution channel, route to market, and go to market, or simply channels. We define a tải về 5.39 Mb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
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