Distribution In International Marketing
The existence of marketing channels is to create various utilities for the customers. These include place utility, time, form and information utility (Beck et al., 2015). Place utility addresses the availability of the product or service in a convenient location for customers. Time utility ensures availability of the product when it is desired by the customers. Form utility refers to the presentation of the product in a proper condition for its use. Information utility relates to the communication channels that address the features of the service. Distribution thus forms the most integral part of the global trade. For distribution to occur, a number of distribution channels also referred to as market
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Upstream partners comprise the suppliers of components, raw materials, finance, parts and expertise to the firm. Downstream partners are the retailers and the wholesalers who constantly connect the firm to the customers. Through the use of the internet, very small businesses with limited resources are able to be at the same competitive level with the biggest competitors (Jolivot, 2013). This is because through the internet, every firm has the platform of advertising its products to the world at a relatively low cost. The E-commerce created in this channel has resulted in the radical changes concerning the global distribution of the goods and services all over the world. Currently, there is mass production of goods and these commodities are obtained mostly through distributors other than their manufacturers. With the increased use and convenience of the internet, customers can order any kind of product they desire from any part of the world without physically looking for the product all …show more content…
According to Jolivot (2013), there are four types of marketing channels, the first one being direct selling or the consumer marketing channel where goods and services are marketed and sold directly to customers from the fixed retail location. It involves door-to-door sales, telemarketing and direct emailing. Secondly, intermediary refers to the third party who offers intermediation services between two different trading partners. Thirdly, dual distribution describes a wide range of marketing arrangements where the wholesalers use more than one channel at a time to reach the final user. Lastly, reverse channel entails going from consumer to intermediary to the final
Fourth, the target market based on market segmentation. Network is the main advantage of information transmission, but the network itself does not transfer the physical goods, the kind still to be completed through the logistics and
Li & Fung is a global trading group sourcing and managing the supply chain for high volume, time sensitive consumer goods. The group is associated with strong brands such as The Limited, Gymboree, American Eagle, Warner Brothers, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Levi-Strauss. With the rise of the internet, and the thrive of the B2B intermediaries, this memo will discuss the Li & Fung's E-Commerce strategy and how to use internet to facilitate supply chain management.
The organization has had to ensure that it has retail stores in many countries globally and website options in more than 100 countries. The company further enhances access of online stores in more than 37 countries which is accessible all the time and people are able to access the services regardless of their location. Globalization further affects the organization in the sense of international market management which requires it to engage in strictly global decision making. The organization’s production networks have been geared to enhancing global competition (Lüsted, 2012) .The Company is further good when it comes to seizing the opportunities available in global market. For the organization to find efficient as well as cheap means of production, it has to bargain hard so as to allow its contractors to have low profits. This mostly is consequential to the suppliers cutting corners with the use of cheap
In internationalization, the most challenging decision faced by the company to choose between standardization and adaptation in its operations, products or services. It has been one of the important and most popular research topics since 1960s to understand whether standardization is better or adaptation for marketing mix in international marketing. The increasing role of international expansion of business across the borders has also increased the focus of companies towards the international marketing strategies. It is also a biggest challenge for companies to better understand the different needs and choice of customers due to the huge differences among the cultures from various nationalities. This leads to the dilemma in the mind of marketers to understand which strategy is effective and good - standardization or adaptation. There is a significant impact of standardization or adaptation on all avenues of business such as research & development, structure, marketing mix, production, finance and marketing mix. The attitude of a company towards the culture of a particular country in which it is going to enter or start its operations decides to choose between standardization and adaptation. Consider the different views and arguments for each standardization and adaptation, this essay critically analyze which strategy is better to choose for international marketing.
While competitors use four kinds of channels in their distribution process (retail stores, distributors, integrated resellers and direct distribution), Dell uses electronic links to direct some suppliers’ shipments straight to its customers.
Value webs are concerned with what goes outside of the firm, and how well the firm coordinates direct, and direct suppliers, and delivery firms, and customers. By working with other firms, and using information systems, an advantage can be gained, by developing industry-wide standards for exchanging information, which eventually forces all market participants to subscribe to similar standards. Information exchange becomes more fluid, which positively influences efficiency, this in turn, makes product substitution unlikely. Such efforts also increase barriers to entry, which discourages new entrants. The internet has made possible to create highly synchronized value webs that integrate different business processes among the whole industry. These value webs are highly responsive and adaptable to environmental changes in supply and demand, as relationships can be bundled or unbundled, depending on the market conditions. Quick decisions can be made in order to optimize the value web relationship in order to deliver the required product or service in the right place and
Global distribution channels vary in general because everyone is trying to discover a way to make money without getting the flow of current distribution channels. Each channel is a very important chapter in the process of the global channel in order for the world to obtain some type of harmony within the distributing between the channels.
...urselfers. The distribution strategy identifies the major channels through which the product will delivered and pushed through to the consumers.
Based on these concerns, retailers in the international marketplace have their work cut out for them. But through proper education of consumers, and the ever-expanding growth of the infrastructure in many countries, the future seems to be leaning heavily towards using the Internet for many needs.
The industry sells its good through 3 channels and their sales with the market share:
Distribution channels or marketing channels can best be understood as a pathway through which product (goods and services) are made available for the consumers to use with ease
These incorporate merchants, makers, stockists, wholesalers, dissemination, and as of now, World Wide Web, and so on. Decision of a fitting channel relies on upon the items or administrations to be showcased, the volume included the land areas to be secured and the long haul business approach of the firm in doing advertising capacities and practicing controls. Decision of a channel is critical as it can specifically impact the level of client administration.
Business today is inextricably intertwined with technology, from the smallest home office, to a multinational corporation with multiple monolithic legacy application. It is impossible to be in business today without confronting the issues of technology. The way we do business today is different than 30 years ago. Technology has evolved around the areas of telecommunication, travel, stock market, shipping even around our daily lives. E-commerce a system by which people can buy, sell and deal without even seeing the person on the other side has taken a front seat in improving the economy of countries around the world. Technology today has made it possible for monetary institutions to help locate the customers resources and help solve their problems at any given time through online banking. The Internet, a boon to all business, is playing a part of a catalyst; it links millions of customers to its suppliers and vice versa due to this, manufactures are able to cut the role of middlemen and are able to deal with the customers, giving them the ability for direct input from the customers about their choices and views of their product. The busi...
One of the fundamental factors that has affected the process of economic globalization is the improvements in the technology of transportation and communications. This has reduced the costs of transporting goods, services, and factors of production and of communicating economically useful knowledge and technology. There is no doubt that advances in information and communications technology are the most important technological advances of the past quarter century (Mussa, 2000). By far, the most important and business altering advancement is the internet. There is evidence everywhere that the internet has greatly affected international trade. The internet has opened up the world, and brought it right into everyone's home and business. In addition, technology and the internet have greatly reduced the costs of doing business. Even the smallest operation can now go global via the internet at almost no cost. However, there are still some problems that face these e-commerce activities. These problems are shot-term challenges and can be met. The key issues center around two areas:
In the 1990s direct marketing became the most important tool in the mix because technology had enabled a form of communication by appealing directly to the target customer. This change led to new media formats, and the subsequent development of the Internet. Digital technologies have accelerated change in the marketing communications