Marketing Channel Strategy
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| service output needs
, by segmenting the market into groups of end-users who differ not in the product(s) they want to buy, but in how they want to buy. For example, at the very high end of service valuation in any market, there is a (usually small) segment of buyers who are both very service-sensitive and very price-insensitive and who can be profitably served through a specialized channel. Consider men’s clothing. Albert Karoll, a custom tailor in the Chicago area, sells fine custom men’s clothing by visiting his customers, rather than making them visit him, as most fine clothiers do. He takes fabric, buttons, and all the makings to the customers, helps them choose the clothing they want, fits them, and then has the clothing made up before personally returning it, to deliver the finished goods and offer any final alterations. His target buyer segment clearly has a very high demand for spatial convenience, as stated by one of his loyal suburban customers: “For me to travel downtown is very hard to do. I’d much rather have him come here. It saves me time and money, and I get the same quality that I’d get going downtown to his store.” The target customer also values custom clothing made to order—the ultimate in assortment and variety. Karoll provides quick service and delivery, both pre- and post-sale; he once flew from Chicago to Birmingham, Alabama, to alter some clothing sent to a client there, just two days after the client received the clothes and found they needed alterations. Ultimately, Karoll’s target customer is a man whose most scarce asset is time and who thus has extremely high service out- put demands with little price sensitivity. Karoll does not seek to serve every man who would like to buy a suit; instead, he has carefully crafted a business centered around the delivery of service, rather than just the sale of a high-end piece of busi- ness clothing, and he knows who is in his target segment . . . and who is not. In this sense, the targeting decision, when applied to channel design, entails a choice of whom not to pursue, just as much as which segments to pursue. 24 EXAMPLE: KIRANA STORES IN INDIA 25 There are an estimated 10–12 million Kirana stores in India. These neighborhood grocers account for 96 percent of grocery sales, 26 whereas modern, air-conditioned supermarkets have failed to make headway in India, for several reasons. The Kirana stores have intimate knowledge of their customers and know to stock items preferred by individual households, sometimes bought reg- ularly only by a single family or two. They are willing to take orders over the telephone, then END-USER ANALYSIS 331 deliver the selected items for free and nearly immediately. For regular customers, they often offer credit services. 27 Many Kirana stores cluster near other stores that offer different wares, so together they create a convenient shopping site for multiple items, even if it is not officially one-stop shopping. Shoppers do not have to drive on India’s notoriously potholed, congested roads, as they would to access the supermarkets that tend to be more distant. Furthermore, many consumers prefer to shop for produce and dairy daily or every few days. Supermarkets are also stymied by India’s laws, which favor the small Kirana stores, and by the high cost of real estate and air conditioning, which make it challenging to operate large supermarkets cost-effectively. 28 In contrast, Kirana stores use their wholesalers like warehouse services and seek to turn over all their merchandise quickly. The supermarket chains have not been able to change Indian shoppers’ preferences; e-commerce also has proven difficult. Finally, without the influence to demand better deals from manufacturers, Indian supermarket chains cannot pass on deep savings to end-customers, which is often the basis of supermarkets’ appeal in other nations. From a tải về 5.39 Mb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
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