CHAPTER 5

STRATEGY IN
MARKETING CHANNELS
DR STEWART KAUPA
 Marketing channel Strategy

Marketing channel Strategy

The broad principles by which the firm expects to
achieve its distribution objectives for its target
markets.
Focuses on the principles or guidelines for
achieving the firms distribution objectives rather
than on its general marketing objectives.
Thus marketing channel strategy is concerned
with the place aspect of marketing strategy.
 Channel strategy is relevant to all six of the
basic distribution decisions faced by firms:
1) the role of distribution in the firms overall
objectives and strategies,
2) the role of distribution in the marketing
mix,
 3) the design of marketing channels,
4) the selection of channel members,
5) management of the channel, and
6) evaluation of channel member
performances
 In terms of the design of marketing
channels, channel strategy should guide
the design process in an attempt to gain a
differential advantage for the firm using
superior channel design.
 Strategic Questions
Managing the marketing channel calls for
the channel manager to answer three
strategic questions:
How close a relationship should be
developed with channel members?
How should channel members be
motivated?
How should the marketing mix be used to
enhance channel member cooperation?
Objective 8: 5
Channel Strategy & Managing the
Channel

How close a relationship How should the

should be developed marketing mix be used to
with the channel enhance channel
members? member cooperation?
3
Strategic
Questions

How should the channel

members be motivated to cooperate
in achieving the manufacturers
distribution objectives?
 To achieve its objectives a firm will have to
address six basic distribution decisions:

1. What role should distribution play in the firms

overall objectives and strategies?
2. What role should distribution play in the
marketing mix?
3. How should the firms marketing channels be
designed to achieve its distribution
objectives?
 4. What kinds of channel members should be
selected to meet the firms distribution
objectives?
5. How can the marketing channel be managed
to implement the firms channel design
effectively and efficiently on a continuing
basis?
6. How can channel member performance be
evaluated?
 A sound approach to dealing with distribution
decisions is to formulate marketing channel
strategy to provide the guiding principles for
dealing with distribution decisions on a
proactive rather than a reactive basis.
 Marketing Channel Strategy and the Role of
Distribution in Corporate Objectives and
Strategy
The most fundamental distribution decision for
any firm or organization to consider is the role
that distribution is expected to play in a
companys long-term overall objectives and
strategies.
The role of distribution should be considered by
the highest management levels of the
organization.
 When this three-cycle planning process is
undertaken in a large and diversified firm, all
three levels (corporate, business, and program
and functional departments) will become
involved in the strategic planning process.
A) Determining the Priority Given to
Distribution
The question of how much priority to place on
distribution is one that can be answered only by the
particular firm involved.
While there are no general guidelines and no body of
empirical research to indicate when distribution should
be viewed as a critical factor in a firms long-term
strategic objectives,
there is however, a growing belief among top
management experts that distribution does warrant the
attention of top management, because competition has
made the issue too important to ignore.
Marketing Channel Strategy and the
Marketing Mix
The role of distribution must be considered in
the marketing mix along with price,
promotion, and product.
How much emphasis to be placed on place has
no general answer. Each firm or marketing
manager must make that determination for his
or her self.
 What we do know is that a general case of
stressing distribution strategy can be made if
any one of certain conditions prevails:
1) Distribution is the most relevant variable for
satisfying target market demands.
2) Parity exists among competitors in the other
three variables of the marketing mix
 3) A high degree of vulnerability exists because of
competitors neglect of distribution.
4) Distribution can enhance the firm by creating
synergy from marketing channels.
 1) Distribution Relevance to Target Market
Demand
Firms have become more orientated to target
markets by listening more closely to their
customers.
The relevance of distribution has become
apparent to an increasing number of
companies because it plays such a key role in
providing customer service.
 2) Competitive Parity in Other Marketing
Mix Variables
It is increasingly more difficult for a company
to differentiate its marketing mix from that of
the competition.
Price, product, and promotional strategies can
easily and quickly be copied.
 Distribution (place), the fourth variable of the
marketing mix, can offer a more favorable
basis for developing a competitive edge
because the advantages achieved in
distribution are not as easily copied by
competitors as the other three.
 Distribution advantages, if manifest in a superior
marketing channel (rather than just the logistical
aspects of distribution), are based on a
combination of superior strategy, organization,
and human capabilities.
This is a combination not easily or quickly
imitated by competitors.
 3) Distribution Neglect and Competitive
Vulnerability

Neglect of distribution strategy by competitors

provides an excellent opportunity for those
companies who are willing to make the effort
to develop distribution as a key strategic
variable in the marketing mix.
 But to pursue this approach, the channel
manager has to make a conscious effort to
analyze target markets to determine if
distribution has been neglected by competitors
and whether vulnerabilities exist that can be
exploited.
 4) Distribution and Synergy for the Channel

By hooking up with the right kind of channel

members, the marketing mix can be
substantially strengthened to a degree not
easily duplicated with other variables.
The most obvious example of this is when a
channel members reputation or prestige is
stronger than the manufacturers.
 By securing distribution of its products
through such channel members at the
wholesale or retail levels, the manufacturer
immediately upgrades its own credibility.
In effect, the manufacturers products handled
by the famous retailers or well-established
wholesalers become anointed as superior
products to a degree beyond what the
manufacturer could have accomplished on its
own.
 Synergy through distribution goes well beyond
the enhancement of the manufacturers image.
Strong and close working relationships
between the manufacturer and channel
members which in recent years have been
referred to increasingly as distribution
partnerships, partnering, strategic alliances or
networks can provide a substantial strategic
advantage.
 Channel Strategy and Designing
Marketing Channels
Channel strategy should guide channel design to
help the firm attain a differential advantage.
1) Differential Advantage and Channel Design
Differential advantage: Also called sustainable
competitive advantage, this refers to a firms
attainment of an advantageous position in the
market relative to competitors
A place that enables it to use its particular
strengths to satisfy customer demands better than
its competitors on a long-term (sustainable) basis.
 Channel design, though just one component of
this attempt to gain a differential advantage
should nevertheless be viewed as a very
important part.
A differential advantage based on the design of
a superior marketing channel can yield a
formidable and long-term advantage because it
cannot be copied easily by competitors.
 2) Positioning the Channel to Gain
Differential Advantage

Channel position:
The reputation a manufacturer acquires
among distributors (channel members) for
furnishing products, services, financial returns,
programs, and systems that are in some way
superior to those offered by competing
manufacturers.
 Channel positioning: What the firm does with
its channel planning and decision making to
attain the channel position.
The key is to view the relationship with
channel members as a partnership or strategic
alliance that offers recognizable benefits to the
manufacturer and channel members on a long-
term basis.
 Channel Strategy and the Selection
of Channel Members
The approach taken to channel member
selection and the particular types of
intermediaries chosen to become channel
members should reflect the channel strategies
the firm has developed to achieve its
distribution objectives.
 Moreover, the selection of channel members
should be consistent with the firms broader
marketing objectives and strategies and may also
need to reflect the objectives and strategies of the
organization as a whole.
Channel Strategy and Managing the
Marketing Channel
Channel management from the manufacturers
perspective involves all of the plans and
actions taken by the manufacturer aimed at
securing the cooperation of the channel
members in achieving the manufacturers
distribution objectives.
 The channel manager attempting to plan and implement
a program to gain the cooperation of channel members
is faced with three strategic questions:

1) How close a relationship should be developed with

the channel members?
2) How should the channel members be motivated to
cooperate in achieving the manufacturers distribution
objectives?
3) How should the marketing mix be used to enhance
channel member cooperation?
 1) Closeness of Channel Relationships
How close a channel relationship any given
manufacturer should develop with its channel
members is really a question of strategy.
 If a channel member believes that a close
working relationship will help him or her do a
better job of managing the channel and achieve
the distribution objectives, then closeness
should be emphasized.
On the other hand, if the channel manager
believes that closeness is not necessary for
effective management of the channel, then it is
probably a waste of time and money to do so.
 2) Motivation of Channel Members
When motivating channel members, whether at
the wholesale or retail levels, the strategic
challenge is to find the means to secure strong
channel member cooperation in achieving
distribution objectives.
Channel strategy in this context involves
whatever ideas and plans the channel manager
can devise to achieve that result.
 The distribution portfolio analysis (DPA) has
been borrowed from finance and applied in the
context of marketing channels.
While DPA provides a comprehensive method for
categorizing channel members, the essence of
DPA is that it can help the channel manager focus
more insightfully on the channel members by
viewing all of the channel structures and/or
channel members as the portfolio.
 The essential idea behind the portfolio
approach to channel member motivation is that
different types and sizes of channel members
participating in various channel structures may
respond differently to various motivational
strategies.
 3) Use of the Marketing Mix in Channel
Management
Optimizing the marketing mix to meet the
demands of the target market requires not only
excellent strategy in each of the four strategic
variables of the marketing mix, but also an
understanding of the relationships or interfaces
among them.
 From the standpoint of distribution and
particularly of managing the marketing
channel, the channel manager should keep the
strategic concept of developing synergy clearly
in mind.
 Channel Strategy and the Evaluation of Channel
Member Performance

We are concerned only with the underlying

strategic significance of channel member
performance evaluation, which in practice is
concerned with one overriding question:
Have provisions been made in the design and
management of the channel to assure that
channel member performance will be
evaluated effectively?
END OF CHAPTER
FIVE