A Marketing Strategy
1 It has been said that
“Channels of Distribution may be the best opportunity for a sustained
competitive advantage” Do you agree or disagree? Why?
Please compare the Channels of
Distribution (Place) to Product, Price, and Promotion in terms of its
importance within the Marketing Mix (Four P’s)
2 Suppose your company is the
Outofsight Speaker Company, a manufacturer of a high quality line of audio
speaker systems in Philadelphia, PA Your company has been in existence for
four years, and sales have gradually been increasing at approximately 8% annually
Your speakers range in price from $400 to $3,200 per pair Although this is
expense comparatively, Consumer Reports magazine rates them highly Your VP of
channel relations has asked you to qualify a potential new distributor for your
electronic products That distributor is Washburn Electronics in Paducah,
Kentucky Your company had received a letter of inquiry from Washburn, in which
they expressed interest in becoming your qualified Outofsight wholesale
distributor in Kentucky In effect, you are considering Washburn Electronics as
a new Outofsight wholesale distributor to represent your products to
appropriate retailers in the state of Kentucky At this time, you do not have
an authorized wholesaler that is physically located in Kentucky and your three
primary competitors do Washburn also represents two of those three lines of
competing speakers Because you have no wholesale distributors located directly
in Kentucky, the visibility of your product line is lower than you would like
Washburn Electronics is a wholesale electronics distributor and sells a variety
of electronic goods to retail stores, most of which are independent stores
Those stores compete with Tweeter and other stores that sell high quality
speakers and audio systems Thus, we have a business-to-business channel that
includes merchant intermediaries Since its creation four years ago, Outofsight
speakers have been represented in Kentucky by two authorized wholesalers from
the neighboring states of Indiana and Tennessee, both of which have done a more
than adequate job of representing the quality Outofsight line
Answer the following question:
– Assume you have a meeting
arranged with Washburn Electronics senior management At that meeting, you may
ask their senior managers any question that you wish
– What questions would you want to
ask? What are the things you would want to know about Washburn Electronics that
would help you make the “correct” decision about whether or not to
recommend bringing them aboard as a potential distributor of Outofsight?