Marketing Management Part 5: Distribution — Channels and the Retail Chain

Channel design: levels, flows and the push-pull strategy choice.

Channel levels

• Zero-level direct; one-level retailer; two-level wholesaler-retailer; three-level adds agents.
• Channel functions: information, promotion, negotiation, ordering, financing, risk-taking — flows analysis.

Design decisions

• Consumer vs industrial channels; intensive, selective, exclusive distribution intensity.
• Vertical marketing systems: corporate, contractual franchise, administered; horizontal systems for alliances.

Retail landscape

• Formats: departmental, specialty, supermarket, convenience, discount, hypermarket, e-tail omnichannel.
• Retailer power shifts: private labels; wheel-of-retailing thesis for format evolution.

Revise in 30 seconds

• Levels counted by intermediary tiers.
• VMS: corporate, contractual, administered.
• Intensity: intensive-selective-exclusive.
• Wheel-of-retailing explains format cycles.