Marketing Channel Strategy
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| channel strategy
, is the least amenable to global standardization. 5 Channel managers who seek to design channel strategies that can penetrate global markets need to segment end-users by their needs, even if standardized approaches might be sufficient for promotions or product designs. EXAMPLE: GROCERY SHOPPING IN CHINA In China in 2007, 80 percent of all food sold went through traditional “wet markets” that com- prised countless numbers of small stalls, each selling a very narrow assortment of products, such as fresh fruit or fish. The remaining 20 percent of sales were split about evenly among 1,500 large and 20,000 small supermarkets. 6 The larger supermarkets were mostly located in major cities. That is, about a decade ago, well-to-do consumers in the biggest cities shopped like Western consumers in modern, state-of-the-art supermarkets, but the vast population of middle- and lower-income consumers, especially those who lived in smaller cities, towns, and rural areas, shopped in wet markets that looked much like the channels available throughout the developing world. In the past 10 years, though, massive expansion has increased the ranks of hypermarkets and supermarkets. By 2015, China hosted more than 33,000 supermarkets and 8,500 hypermarkets. 7 Major international players such as Walmart, Metro, and Carrefour com- pete with leading domestic chains such as Yonghui. These supermarkets and hypermarkets push sophisticated in-store promotions and complex, seamless omni-channel experiences. The stores often coexist in the same geographic areas as wet markets and convenience stores, which target end-users who may prefer to buy in small quantities on a daily basis from a familiar neighbor- hood retailer by paying cash; these consumers often find the posh settings of supermarkets too intimidating and unwelcoming. These examples reiterate the need to identify how end-users want to buy, as well as what they hope to purchase. Different end-users have different needs; under- standing and responding to their demands can create new business opportunities for manufacturers (and failing to understand them can short-circuit such opportu- nities). We thus turn to a discussion of the types of preferences that are most critical to evaluate when segmenting end-users, through a definition of the concept of service outputs. END-USER ANALYSIS 323 E N D - U S E R S E G M E N T A T I O N C R I T E R I A : S E R V I C E O U T P U T S An existing framework codifies and generalizes how end-users want to buy particu- lar products, as a basis for determining channel structures. 8 We use this approach to discuss ways to segment markets for channel design purposes. According to this framework, channel systems exist and remain viable over time because they perform duties that reduce end-users’ search, waiting time, storage, or other costs. These benefits represent the service outputs of the channel. All else being equal (e.g., price, physical product attributes), end-users prefer a marketing channel that provides more service outputs. These service outputs in turn can be classified into six general categories, as outlined in Figure 10.1: 1. Bulk-breaking. 2. Spatial convenience. 3. Waiting or delivery time. 4. Product variety. 5. Customer service. 6. Information sharing. This generic list can be customized to different applications, but these six service outputs cover the main categories of needs that end-users demand from upstream channel partners. Bulk-Breaking tải về 5.39 Mb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
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