Marketing Channel Strategy
tải về 5.39 Mb. Chế độ xem pdf
|
| service
outputs provided by the channel. Benefits for Downstream Channel Members Search Facilitation Marketing channels with intermediaries arise partly because they facilitate searches. The search process is characterized by uncertainty for both end-users and sellers. End-users need to be able to find the products or services they want; sellers need to know exactly how to reach their target end-users. If intermediaries did not exist, CHANNEL BASICS 38 sellers without an already established brand name would be unable to generate many sales. For example, consumers perceive product quality as higher when they can access products through retailers with strong reputations. 2 This type of guaran- tee is needed, because end-users rarely have enough information to know whether to believe manufacturers’ claims about the nature and quality of their products. Nor can manufacturers be certain that they are reaching the right kinds of end-user through their promotional efforts. Intermediaries such as retailers thus facilitate search on both sides of the channel. EXAMPLE: COBWEB DESIGNS (UK) Cobweb Designs, a high-quality needlework design firm headquartered in Scotland, is the sole licensee for needlework kits relating to the Royal Family, the National Trust for Scotland, the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and the great socialist writer and designer William Morris. Cobweb’s needlework kits are available at all retail outlets of the National Trust for Scotland, as well as on the company’s website (www.cobweb-needlework.com), but its proprietor Sally Scott Aiton also wanted to reach the large, dispersed market of potential buyers in the United States. Aiton sought retail placements in gift shops at major art museums and botanical gardens. Gaining shelf space in a gift shop of a museum like the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. or the Art Institute of Chicago could greatly enhance the company’s sales reach, because U.S. consumers who do not frequently travel to the United Kingdom still could find the compa- ny’s designs (or become aware of them). Such retailers, which offer compelling brand images on their own, thus facilitate the search process on the demand side: a consumer seeking museum- reproduction needlework kits knows that she can find them at museum shops, along with other museum-reproduction products. Similarly, from Cobweb’s point of view, museum shops have images that are consistent with the high quality of Cobweb Designs’ kits, such that they are likely to attract visitors who tend to represent Cobweb’s target market. Such access to a broad base of viable buyers again facilitates search, this time from the manufacturing end of the chan- nel. In short, the intermediary (retail museum shop) becomes the “matchmaker” that brings the buyer and seller together. Sorting Independent intermediaries perform the valuable function of sorting goods and thus resolving the natural discrepancy between the assortment of goods and ser- vices produced by a manufacturer and the assortment demanded by the end-user. This discrepancy arises because manufacturers typically produce a large quantity of a limited variety of goods, whereas consumers demand only a limited quantity of a wide variety of goods. Intermediaries can tải về 5.39 Mb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
|