Integrated Marketing Channels Exam Review

Exam 3 Review

• Exam 3 is comprehensive, covering all semester material, with a focus on the material after Exam 2.
• Required materials include lecture slides, readings (Dolan), 4 Harvard Business School (HBS) cases, in-class assignments, and videos.
• The exam format will be similar to previous exams, including multiple choice, short answer, essay, and calculations questions.
• The exam will be closed-book, notes, and internet.
• The exam is approximately one hour long.
• The exam will be available on Canvas.
• Calculators and scratch paper are permitted.

Designing and Managing Integrated Marketing Channels

• Marketing channels are sets of interdependent organizations involved in making products or services available for use or consumption.
• Three types of channel members:
  • Merchants (wholesalers, retailers): Buy, take title to, and resell products.
  • Agents: Brokers, sales agents, manufacturer representatives: Search for customers and negotiate prices.
  • Facilitators: Transportation, banks, warehouses (support the flow of goods).

Learning Objectives

• Understanding marketing channels: their role, importance, and value, and types of channel members.
• Channel structure: direct vs. indirect channels.
• Channel design decisions: distribution intensity, retailer fit, pull vs. push strategies, and channel alternatives.
• Channel conflict and integration: Horizontal vs. vertical.

Sample Questions

• What's the difference between merchants and agents in a marketing distribution channel?
• Identify and explain two advantages of the direct distribution channel over indirect channels.
• Explain the difference between horizontal and vertical conflict, including an example.
• What are the steps involved in developing an effective marketing communication campaign?

Value, Role, and Importance of Distribution Channels

• Connect producers to customers efficiently.
• Handle transactions, logistics, financing, and post-sale support.
• Collect and disseminate information to stimulate demand.
• Place orders with manufacturers.
• Negotiate prices and reach agreements.
• Assume business risks.

Channel Length

• Direct channels: Producer deals directly with consumers (e.g., manufacturer-owned stores, internet). Advantages: more control, closer customer contact, elimination of double margins.
• Indirect channels: Intermediaries (e.g., wholesalers, retailers) exist between producer and consumer. Advantages: rapid penetration, broader coverage, benefits of specialization.

Channel Design Decisions

• Examine target customers' location, needs, and behaviors.
• Evaluate product objectives and constraints (e.g., perishability, size, complexity, value).
• Consider economic goals (cost/benefit), competitive factors, desired levels of control, service, and coverage. Distribution strategies such as exclusive, selective, or intensive distribution.

Identifying and Evaluating Channel Alternatives

• Channel alternatives are shown in a graph illustrating the relationship between value-add of sale and cost per transaction.

Sales Agency or Sales Force?

• Examines the decision when a product manufacturer needs a salesforce versus a sales agency.

Channel Conflict

• Channel conflict occurs when one channel member's actions impede another channel member's ability to achieve their goals.
• Horizontal conflict: Between channel members at the same level (e.g., two retailers competing).
• Vertical conflict: Between channel members at different levels (e.g., retailer and manufacturer).

Channel Integration and Systems

• Conventional marketing channels.
• Double marginalization.
• Vertical marketing systems (VMS): Producer, wholesaler(s), and retailers acting as a unified system (Corporate, contractual).

Pepsi Case

• PepsiCo's channel structure: On-premise, vending, retail stores.
• Relationship with bottlers/distributors.
• Pull vs. Push strategy.
• Distribution intensity.

Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)

• Learning Objectives:
  • Role of marketing communications—to inform, persuade, and remind.
• IMC Mix:
  • Advertising, sales promotions, public relations (PR), sales force, events and experiences, and digital marketing (online, social, mobile).
• Communication process: IMC and buyer-readiness stage, developing effective communication, and budgeting IMC.
• IMC and Product Life Cycle:
  • Introduction stage (inform, primary demand, attract channel members).
  • Growth stage (inform, persuade, selective demand, build and strengthen channel relationships).
  • Maturity stage (persuade, remind, build and maintain brand loyalty).
  • Decline stage (decrease costs, increase to slow decline).

Creative Strategy

• Informational Appeals: Logically focused; uses attributes, benefits, and endorsements to convince consumers.
• Transformational Appeals: Focuses on non-product related benefits and an image-building approach; emphasizes experiences.

Message Source

• Credibility: Expertise, trustworthiness, and likeability affect the persuasiveness of a message. Examples of specific source choices in commercials.

Establishing a Marketing Communications Budget

• Methods:
  • Affordable method.
  • Percentage-of-sales method.
  • Competitive-parity method.
  • Objective-and-task method.

Managing Digital Communications

• Learning Objectives: Pros and cons of digital marketing communications, different digital tools/technologies for communicating to customers, SEO and SEM differences, online advertising, key concepts: impressions, clicks, CTR, CPC, CPM, CPA.

Digital Marketing

• Describes the process of marketing products or services using digital technologies including internet desktop, mobile phones and tablets. Specific examples of such techniques are listed.

Sample Questions Exam 3

• True or false questions.
• Multiple-choice questions covering various topics.