Channel Strategy
Channel strategy refers to the plan and approach a company uses to reach and engage its target customers through various distribution channels. It involves decisions about which channels to use, how to manage them, and how to optimize their performance. A well-defined channel strategy helps businesses effectively deliver their products or services to the market.
8 Key excerpts on "Channel Strategy"
eBook - ePubTaking Technology to the Market
A Guide to the Critical Success Factors in Marketing Technology
- Ian Linton(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...You can also conduct business across multiple time zones with no restrictions on opening or closing times. Summary Your Channel Strategy makes an important contribution to marketing success. The right channel gives you access to a wide customer base and enables you to deliver a level of service that you would not be able to provide from your own resources. To use a channel effectively, you have to manage it carefully and provide the right level of support. Channel support helps your distribution partners grow business for you and deliver the right level of service to your customers....
eBook - ePubMarketing Methods to Improve Company Strategy
Applied Tools and Frameworks to Improve a Company's Competitiveness Using a Network Approach
- Marcos Fava Neves, Luciano Thome e Castro, Matheus Alberto Consoli(Authors)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...3 How to Build Competitive Advantage through a Marketing Channel Plan After reading this chapter, you will be able to: • Evaluate a firm’s actual marketing Channel Strategy; • Establish marketing channel objectives; • Understand how to develop and implement a marketing channel plan; • Monitor a firm’s marketing Channel Strategy; • Have an understanding of marketing channels, and apply theories such as transaction cost economics and relationship marketing. Applications: • Marketing channels and supply chain management; • Strategic alliances with channel members; • Marketing channels contracts. 3.1 Introduction Many firms are unsatisfied with the distribution of their products and services. On the other hand, distribution channels, once strategically planned, may build stable competitive advantages, since they are designed and implemented over a long period of time, with a consistent structure, and are focused on people and relationships...
- Ray Donnelly, Colin Linton, Colin Linton(Authors)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...In other words a distribution channel is the way an organisation gets its product to the consumer. Sometimes distribution channels are referred as marketing channels. Distribution channels do not just involve physical products, but can equally apply to services which tend to have a shorter channel. Channels can extend beyond geographical boundaries and have an important role to play in overseas markets. Without an effective distribution channel, products, even the best products, are more likely to fail, so organisations are continually looking to develop cheaper and faster ways of selling their products. Organisations use distribution channels for a variety of reasons including the need to reduce cost, maximise sales and customer satisfaction...
eBook - ePubStrategic Shopper Marketing
Driving Shopper Conversion by Connecting the Route to Purchase with the Route to Market
- Georg August Krentzel(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...In direct sales channels shoppers purchase products and services directly from the company. The choice of sales Channel Strategy is dependent on its effectiveness in reaching and activating target shoppers and its efficiency in optimizing profits. Direct sales strategies will therefore be associated with more complex products and services, high sales values, the importance to further the brand image and shopper experience, or when direct sales can be more cost efficient, as in some cases with e-commerce and telephone selling, such as banks and communication operators. Reach is closely related to direct and indirect sales channels. Direct channels do not normally have the same reach as indirect mass channels, such as retailers. The more mass-oriented the channel, and the more the variety of categories, the less able the channel to offer tailor-made solutions or provide specific expertise. With the spread of the internet, shoppers can seek information and expertise, and in an omnichannel mode combine high information abilities with potential price advantages of mass channels. Another distinction is between digital and brick-and-mortar sales channels. In brick-and-mortar channels the shopper can normally encounter the product and service and evaluate them with his or her senses. In digital channels this is not possible from the outset. E-commerce companies and retailers therefore often allow for generous return policies. Digital channels have revolutionized the route to market in industries such as travel, banking and retailing. Size of the sales channel is an important dimension as it defines the potential of shopper reach. Modern retail makes it possible to reach a large number of shoppers, including shoppers who did not plan to buy that specific category, brand, product or service when entering the point of purchase...
eBook - ePub- Lawrence Friedman(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...5 Go-To-Market Strategy Choosing the Right Channels and Partners C ompanies large and small, across all industries, are facing crucial strategic questions such as these: Can we reduce sales costs, and increase profits, by using alternative, low-cost channels? How much savings can we expect? What should we be doing on the Internet – and are we doing the right things today? What is the right partnering model for our company? Are we making the best use of our business partners? Do we need more of them, less of them, or different ones? What should we do with the sales force? Leave it as is? Focus its efforts on big-ticket accounts, and use other channels to capture smaller deals? Downsize it? Grow it? Should we have an ‘integrated multi-channel model’? What’s the payoff – and how do you build one? These are all channel questions, and they are now ‘top of mind’ concerns at many companies. When my last book The Channel Advantage came out three years ago, few people were paying attention to sales channels. 101 Today, scores of marketing firms, strategy consultants, and IT software and services vendors have sprung up to advise companies on their channel models, and major consulting firms such as McKinsey & Company have started up entire Channel Strategy practice groups. A recent online search on the phrase ‘marketing channel’ turned up over 76,000 responses, and ‘sales channel’ turned up 49,100. 102 Channels in general, and the Internet channel in particular, are the most widespread and persistent topics at industry and company conferences. Why all the sudden interest? There are basically three reasons. First, over the past ten years the benefits of channel expansion have become increasingly evident. A decade ago, you could go whole years without encountering the word ‘channel’...
eBook - ePub- Geoffrey Lancaster, Lester Massingham(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...We need to consider the way a company is perceived in the marketplace, so any change in channel selection can radically affect perceptions of the company. Three major strategies are: intensive (every available outlet), exclusive (a single outlet) and selective (a few outlets). Each has merits depending on the type of product made by the company. Despite the relative advantages and disadvantages of each strategy, there is often a trade-off in selecting the right one: for example, if a company decides on a strategy of intensive distribution it might lose some control over the marketing of its products. To maintain control of its own destiny the company needs to assume greater participation in each of the marketing flows. Differences between conventional marketing systems (based on isolated and autonomous units) and vertical marketing systems (where participants desire interdependence) are important. The role of intermediaries in the management of channels is critical in that each channel member has a position and a role. In this context, ‘position’ is defined as where each channel member chooses to locate in the overall scheme of things, and ‘role’ refers to the functions and degree of performance expected of the firm filling the position. As in all forms of organization, the interaction of people, companies and organizations will inevitably lead to some form of conflict. If handled properly, good management will result in more rational and functional collective decision-making within the channel. We need to understand that there will always be some element of conflict when organizations interact. Distribution can present opportunities for gaining distinctive competencies relative to competitors...
eBook - ePubStrategic Marketing
An Introduction
- Tony Proctor(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Chapter 11 Marketing mix strategy INTRODUCTION The organization has to communicate with the customer through the strategic window. This can be achieved in a variety of ways ranging from spoken and written communications (advertising, selling, etc.) to more symbolic forms of communication (the image conveyed in the quality of the product, its price and the type of distribution outlet chosen). This is the function of the marketing mix. The point is that the elements of the marketing mix should not be seen as individual entities, but as a set of interrelated entities which have to be set in conjunction with one another and in the context of the strategic window presented. Positioning products in people's minds and making them attractive to market segments requires careful formulation of the marketing mix. Getting the right blend of the product, promotion price and distribution is essential to put the carefully carried out analysis into operation. The aim is to portray an image for the product or service that will match with how one wants the product to be visualized in people's minds, i.e. its positioning. Image is not only reflected in the promotional messages which are directed towards the market target but also in the pricing strategy, the mode of distribution and, of course, in the appearance of the product or service itself. The chapter reviews the product as a complex entity, stressing the quality dimensions. Attention is also given to the strategic implications of product mix policy. Distribution is a critical element in the marketing of products and services and we examine the different types of decision that have to be made with regard to Channel Strategy. Pricing is not just a mechanistic process involving knowledge of costs and the addition of a profit margin. There are strategic pricing decisions to be made and pricing is inherently limited to product quality specification. Strategic considerations with respect to marketing communications are considered...
eBook - ePubThe Retail Champion
10 Steps to Retail Success
- Clare Rayner(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Kogan Page(Publisher)
...Step Six Channel and location Introduction First of all, congratulations – you’re now over halfway through the 10 steps to retail success and each step is building on those that have gone before to create a robust basis for your retail business. In this step we’ll be looking at your channel and location strategy. By channel I mean the different routes to market, the different environments and methods for reaching new customers. In modern retailing it is expected that you will offer customers access to you through multiple channels. An effective retail proposition with multiple channels is called multi-channel retailing; but there is a big difference between being a retailer with multiple channels and being a multi-channel retailer. Ahead of the discussion about what channels are relevant to your business, and why, I’ll explain the thinking behind this multi-channel concept. If you can build your business from the outset to offer a truly integrated multi-channel experience to your customer you’ll be future-proofed and leapfrogging some of your larger competitors! Next we’ll move on to look at what might make you consider offering multiple channels. Leveraging what we know about the customer we’ll be able to make some educated predictions as to which channels will work best for you based on where and how your customers would most like to shop. I believe that it’s your responsibility as a retailer to be where your customers are, as much as possible. I don’t want you to fall into the trap of just assuming they’ll come to you...
