Distribution Channels

* Sales reps secure the best product placement in stores, conducting taste tests in stores and convincing “individual store managers to pull the product from the central buyer.” (Singer, 2008)

2) Explain the role of channel intermediaries in the product distribution process. Why is their role important?

Costco’s business model is interesting because they are proficient enough to persistently promote to a niche market. By propounding the finest products feasible at

Kerin, R. A., Hartley, S. W., & Rudelius, W. (2013). Marketing. (11th ed.). New York, New

(Kern R. 2013) These distribution channels and their organizations will help the candy company better meet the needs of the niche candy market that they intend to target.

Different retailing businesses have very different distribution methods based on the types of product that they sell, some arguably more effectively than others.

Candy is not yet a “mature” industry in the United States. The compound annual growth rate for candy in the past ten years has been close to 6% a year, a very solid gain in an industry that is supposedly mature. In fact, within the chocolate confectionery subcategory, the United States ranks 11th in the world in per capita consumption and fifth in the world in growth since 1980. Based on current demographics, many analysts believe that there will be further growth for confectioneries. A “baby-boomlet” is on the way, significantly increasing the teenage population. By the time the population bulge peaks in the year 2010, it will top the baby boom in the 1960s in both size and duration. According to government statistics, the percentage of children between the age of 5 and 14 will rise during the 1990s, increasing from 14.2 percent of the population in the 1990 to 14.5 percent in the year 2000. This trend will serve as a strong foundation for increasing consumption of confectionery products through the end of the century. Nevertheless, spending for food and drink as a percentage of all personal consumption is declining in the United States, and most manufacturers recognize that future opportunities lie in using profits from domestic

In this report I will be comparing methods used by two different retailers on how they distribute two chosen products, of my choice, in two different retailing sectors. Seeing as the food and clothing sector both have very different styles of how they meet their product requirements, I will compare Tesco and JD; The products from these two companies itself that I’m going to compare is ‘Tesco Value Bread’ and Nike hoodies.

4. By expanding the distribution channel one single customer doesn’t dominates the market share, and limited distribution channels could affect company’s bottom line.

Jones Blair Company, JBC, currently faces a unique challenge in which the upper level management must act in order to maintain its profitability. Jones Blair current market position is in the process of being eroded due to the mass merchandising efforts of companies like Kmart and Sears. In developing their strategy forward, Jones must address two key issues to address the problem statement. First, Jones Blair must determine which marketing medium they will use to access their potential customers. Secondly, they must determine the geographic locations in which

The Pillsbury Cookie Challenge is a case study written by Natalie Mauro under the supervision of Professor Allison Johnson. The case study creates an open discussion about what the marketing manager of the refrigerated baked goods category for Canada General Mills should do to revive his products. Ivan Guillen, the marketing manager, was faced with tough challenges. He was initially “…faced with the challenge of developing a strategy that would lead to improved business performance on his category” (Johnson and Mauro, p.1, 2011). To clarify, Guillen’s category is refrigerated baked goods (RBG), which means, this category is his marketing responsibility. The issue here is that “RBG was GMCC’s fourth largest category, and its performance over the past two years had been less than stellar” (Johnson and Mauro, p.1, 2011). It is important to note that GMCC stands for General Mills Canada Corporation. Pillsbury has enjoyed majority market share in the RBG category in Canada, however, recently, the market was experiencing only moderate growth. Guillen was disappointed that their goal of 5%-7% market growth was not being achieved mainly in the refrigerated cookie dough segment. To be exact, their volume growth for two years was flat and they were having difficulty reaching new households. There was a shift among consumer’s purchases, which Guillen was challenged to figure out why.

Trader Joe’s forgoes advertising for a strategy of customer relationship management because advertising “can’t create an experience. It’s the personal relationship with these people that builds loyalty” according to St. John, vice president of Trader Joe’s (Guth, and Marsh 183-187). Through this strategy, Trader Joe’s has seen much success. At the time of this case study, analysts estimated annual revenues to be around 3 billion. Today they are estimated to be around 8.5 billion. The effect is that the company has grown and still continues to grow. Trader Joe’s has gone from having 220 stores in 17 states in 2004 to 356 stores in 28 states as of June 2011 (“Trader Joe’s”). One area of attention for Trader Joe’s is to not lose sight of this customer relationship strategy as it continues to grow into a national or even global company. The company needs to continue to “pay attention to the information it

Distribution for the brand is already exceptional; it is rare to see a vending machine or candy display without at least one variety of Skittles. The current method of distributing the product is a mixture of pull and push strategies. Retailers of candy demand Skittles because they know that consumers will purchase them often enough to move product and produce profit, while Wrigley actively offers the product to said retailers, using their already-present pull force to facilitate even wider distribution. The above analysis leads to the belief that changing the basic distribution strategy is unwise, yet

The study case further reveals that Marilyn takes a trial an error approach to promote her products. This approach is very time consuming and not an effective strategy for distributing perishable products or limited time and energy.

They hoped that by employing this distribution rationale they could fuel synergy within Quaker’s Beverage Division. Despite Quaker’s efforts distributors resisted this hybrid, and the strategy resulted in being far from successful.