- What type of channel conflict is likely to be caused by dual distribution, and what type of conflict can be reduced by direct distribution? Why?
(10 points)
Often, multiple locations compete to meet market demand, although the basic product, service or price is quite similar. It may also affect the channel choice of a customer.
On the other hand, it allows firms to gain access to different customer segments, creating an opportunity for an increase in market demand and size of the market share. Market segmentation conflicts can be reduced by direct distribution, where a larger market share is gained and product reaches customers, which normally cannot acquire it. It helps in building a strong competitive advantage through brand recognition and customer loyalty.
- How does the channel captain idea differ among corporate, administered, and contractual vertical marketing systems with particular reference to the use of the different forms of influence available to firms?(10 points)
In a corporate vertical marketing system, one member of the distribution channel owns all the other elements of the distribution channel, starting from manufacturing till the stores. Any member of the chain can own the rest of the channel, such as a producer setting up its own wholesaler and distribution facilities.
Administrative vertical marketing is one where one member of the distribution channel has enough power, usually gauged through market share, to efficiently control activities of the rest of the members of the distribution channel e.g. large chains of retail stores often use this system.
Lastly, a contractual marketing system is one in which all the members of the distribution chain acts as separate individual entities. They are held together with the help of mutually beneficial contracts. Buying a franchise comes under this form of vertical marketing.
- The auto industry is a heavy user of the just-in-time concept. Why? What other industries would be good candidates for its application? What do they have in common?(10 points)
The automobile industry is a heavy user of the just in time concept, in order to keep a minimum amount of inventory, which means less cost and less wastage. This also implies that the industry can quickly adapt to any change in design or order without having to dispose of a large amount of inventory in stock.
Another good candidate for the Just in time concept is the fast food industry. A restaurant or a hotel stocks raw material such as vegetables and meat on daily basis, but they do not start cooking meals unless and until a customer places an order or pays for the meal.
- What are the similarities and differences between the product and retail life cycles?(10 points)
The both have a growth phase in their life cycles, but differ in nature, a products growth is concerned with selling more units, while a retailer’s growth would mean opening more outlets.
During maintenance phase, a retail store’s maintenance means to renovate the store for capturing more customers, while maintenance of a product may include price revision and reduction.
At the end of life cycle, a retail store is more useful, as property always have a high value, while a discontinued product would have to be sold out at huge discount to eliminate excessive inventory.
- Breadth and depth are two important components in distinguishing among types of retailers. Discuss the breadth and depth implications of the following retailers – also discussed in this chapter: (a) Target, (b)(d) Best Buy. (10 points)
Target Corporation:
Target is a vast chain of retailing stores based in America. They sell general items, beauty products, groceries, clothing and a lot more, thus they are broad but not deep.
Best Buy:
Best Buy Co. is also an American based leading chain of electronic items supplier. They have a great depth when it comes to their niche of product which is electronic items, as they sell almost all times of electronic items and from multiple brands. They are also broad in the sense that they have range of products for almost every aspect of a consumer’s life.
Apple’s IWatch Case – see next page
Apple is rumored to introduce an “IWatch” later this year. Assume this will happen. Outline a promotional plan to get this product introduced in the marketplace. Consider the anticipated features of the product (see below) and competition in the marketplace.
- Write 1 page
Why the Apple iWatchWill Have These 6 Killer Features
iwatchconcept
We learned this week that Google, Samsung and LG are all planning smartwatches.
Sony, Pebble, Cookoo, I’m Smart, MetaWatch and Martian already have pretty sophisticated smartwatches available, all of which interoperate with the iPhone.
You can be sure that 100 Chinese companies will make inexpensive smartwatches that support either the iPhone or Android or both.
And, of course, Apple is rumored to be working on a curved-glass “iWatch.”
Here’s why I believe Apple’s smartwatch will have a market advantage.
(Dear critic: I know you’re tempted to slam this column because I’m predicting that a product that doesn’t exist will beat other products that don’t exist. Please note, however, that all six features are based very solidly on what Apple has and does right now in real life and is not based on pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking.)
Custom Haptics
I believe the usage model for smartwatches will be very different from smartphones.
Traditionally, wristwatches were used for telling the time — a one-second interaction. I think smartwatches will also favor one-second interactions, and lots of them.
Someone sends you a text or posts a picture on Facebook, you’ll get calendar meeting alerts and other standard types of incoming information, and they will flash on the watch.
A future, more pre-emptive and proactive Siri will nudge you about all kinds of random things: “You’re near the cleaners — pick up your laundry,” or “Do you want me to remind Steve about your meeting?” I expect us active users to be glancing at our iWatches 10 times an hour during the day to keep up on one-second messages of all kinds.
It makes sense that the iWatch will gently interrupt you constantly. But how?
Beeps are annoying and public. I believe haptics will be the main way that the iWatch will say, in effect: “Hey, look!”
Haptics are the buzzes and rumbles of physical motion you feel when your phone is on vibrate or what you feel in the controller when you play Call of Duty on Xbox and someone tosses a grenade into your bunker.
Apple has been quietly integrating custom haptics into the iPhone user interface for years. The feature lets you tap out your own pattern of vibrations, then assign a unique, custom pattern for each contact, if you choose.
In iOS 5, custom haptics was an “Accessibility” feature. In iOS 6, Apple baked it directly into the Contacts app. (Open any contact, tap Edit, tap “vibration,” scroll down and tape “Create New Vibration” under Custom.)
Hardly anyone uses this feature, and why would they? With a phone, you never really know if you’ll “feel” the buzzing. And even if you can feel some buzzing, an iPhone in your pocket isn’t solidly connected enough to your skin for you to recognize subtle custom vibrations.
But with a wristwatch, which is tightly bound to your wrist and in direct contact with your skin, you will always feel haptics.
I believe Apple will enable custom haptics for the iWatch. You’ll be able to set up custom vibration patterns for specific people and/or specific types of information, so you won’t even need to look at the watch to get some kinds of messages.
You can also be given enough information by buzzing to make a decision even to look at the watch or not look. For example, you’ll have a specific pattern of buzzes for incoming text messages and another pattern when someone in your “Close Friends” group on Facebook posts a status update. If you’re in a meeting with your boss, you might choose to check the iWatch to see the incoming text, but ignore the status update.
Send To
The boundaries between devices are breaking down. If you have other Apple hardware, such as an iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro, iMac or Apple TV, you’ll be able to see incoming stuff, then quickly toss it over to another nearby device with a simple command. For example, someone may post a picture on Facebook. You’ll see it thumbnail size on the iWatch, and with a voice command instantly put it up on your iMac or TV.
This will be a market advantage only to users who also have other Apple products, but which is a potential market of hundreds of millions of people.
http://www.cultofmac.com/220962/why-the-apple-iwatch-will-have-these-6-killer-features/
