Marketing Channels

by Coughlan, Anne; Anderson, Erin; Stern, Louis W.; El-Ansary, Adel

• ISBN13: 9780130127723
• ISBN10: 0130127728
• Edition: 7th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-01-01
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Summary

For one-quarter/semester, senior/graduate-level courses in Distribution Channels, Marketing Channels, or Marketing Systems. This best-selling text has a new look and a new author helping to keep this classic at the leading edge of Channels research. Using examples taken from all over the world, this text shows students how to design, develop, and maintain effective relationships among channel members to achieve sustainable competitive advantage by using both strategic and managerial frames of reference. It emphasizes strategies for planning, organizing, and controlling the alliances among the institutions, agencies, and in-house units that bring products and services to market. The text focuses on the way in which marketing channels can provide customer serviceboth for the end-users they serve and the organizations that comprise them.

Table of Contents

I. INTRODUCTION AND ANALYTIC FRAMEWORK FOR THE BOOK.

1. Marketing Channels: Structure and Functions.
2. An Analytic Framework for Channel Design and Implementation.

II. CHANNEL DESIGN: DEMAND, SUPPLY, AND COMPETITION.

3. Segmentation for Marketing Channel Design: Service Outputs.
4. Supply-Side Channel Analysis: Channel Flows and Efficiency Analysis.
5. Supply-Side Channel Analysis: Channel Structure and Membership Issues.
6. Gap Analysis.
7. Vertical Integration: Owning the Channel.

III. CHANNEL IMPLEMENTATION AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT.

8. Channel Power: Getting It, Using It, Keeping It.
9. Managing Conflict to Increase Channel Coordination.
10. Channel Implementation Issues Regarding Distribution Intensity and Vertical Restraints.
11. Strategic Alliances in Distribution.
12. Legal Constraints on Marketing Channel Policies.

IV. CHANNEL INSTITUTIONS.

13. Retailing.
14. Non-Store Retailing and Electronic Channels.
15. Wholesaling.
16. Logistics and Supply Chain Management.
17. Franchising.

Excerpts

Preface This book is intended for an international audience of practicing and future managers. It is written in English, the international language of business. The subject is marketing channels, the companies that come together to bring products and services from their point of origin to the point of consumption. Marketing channels are the downstream part of a value chain.The originator of goods or services gains access to a market through marketing channels.Channels of distribution are a critical element of business strategy. The ideas in this book apply to any channel for any product or service in any market.The generality of the book is shown in its many examples taken from all over the world. These cover a wealth of different products and services, sold to businesses and consumers, selected from the worldwide business press, research, and consulting. Some examples are autopsies; dog and cat food; personal computers; pleasure boats; dolls; stereo speakers; fast food; tires; garden products; fast-moving consumer goods; maternity clothing; uninterruptible power supplies; maintenance, repair, and operating (MRO) goods; furniture; automobiles; airline travel services; and mutual funds. The variety of the list reinforces the generality of the principles. As is appropriate for an international readership, the presentation of each example is as though the reader is unfamiliar with the product or market in question. This book covers the highlights needed to frame the problem, then covers the channel issues in the examples. Channel Sketches provide detailed examples to improve the readability of the main text. Each chapter is designed to stand on its own.The chapters may be read in any order, and any chapter may be omitted. Each chapter is of a length that can be assigned for a single class or read in one sitting with a single issue in mind. The chapters are designed modularly. Essential definitions are repeated where necessary so that the reader is free to choose one chapter and defer or omit another. Reference is made to other chapters when appropriate for the reader to go further into any topic raised in the chapter at hand. In this way, the reader can select how deeply to delve into all the sections of the book that most closely fit the problem under consideration. The content of each chapter comes from the best of current research and practice.This book covers a vast and varied literature, bringing in findings, practice, and viewpoints from multiple disciplines (marketing, strategy, economics, sociology, law, political science) and from the best practices of channel managers worldwide. In presenting these works, the focus is on framing the problem and its solution in the language of business rather than on the technical aspects of the research. Yet the book introduces technical vocabulary in the appropriate instances for the manager. The theory, data, and methods that underlie the content of this book are not detailed. Instead, the relevant references are liberally noted and tied to the content, so that the interested reader may delve further into specific points. The text is organized into four parts. Part One, "Introduction and Analytic Framework for the Book," introduces the basic ideas and concepts underlying channel analysis. It explains why specialized institutions and agencies have emerged to assist in the task of making goods and services available for industrial, institutional, and household consumption. Among the more critical concepts introduced in Chapter 1 are the notions of "service outputs" and marketing "flows" on which the remainder of the book relies heavily. Chapter 2 provides a coherent framework for building, maintaining, and analyzing channel structure and function. It includes demand-side analysis, supplyside analysis of both channel flows and channel structures, the analysis of gaps on the demand and supply sides, and responses by chan