Our talented team know how to excite, inspire and engage. With backgrounds in events, entertainment and travel, we’re full of ideas for amazing prizes and unforgettable incentives!
At Fulcrum, we all come to work every day because we have a shared love of travel and delivering once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
Our team meetings are buzzing with fresh ideas, brand new experiences and glowing feedback from our travellers. We know what makes a great incentive, we have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the best experiences around the world, and we have an ever-expanding ‘little black book’ of the most exclusive suppliers in the business.
In addition to our creative ideas and experience, we know that our clients value our expertise and dedication to solving problems rather than creating them. Prizes and incentives are our world, but we understand that our clients have other priorities, so we make sure we’re delivering our ideas on-time, on-budget and on-brand. We thrive on tight deadlines, logistical challenges and creating perfectly tailored solutions, without the headaches!
About us
Perfect solutions every time
As a leading marketing Agency, we’re immensely proud to work with brands and agencies across a huge range of sectors and industries, giving us an unrivalled breadth of experience.
we have created and fulfilled prizes for promotions and activations across the world.
Our aim: help our clients achieve their goals through our experience and expertise, taking the stress and hassle out of prize fulfilment.
We work for both direct brands and agencies, often in collaboration or with other specialist agencies and partners. Many of our clients have existing assets – from festival tickets to sports hospitality – which we help them to build into the best possible prize packages. Others want to create unique, eye-catching marketing and btl content around their prize winners. We can deal with winners from any country and in any language; we can provide a full btl management service; we can even source camera crews for content capture.
Whatever your brief, we’ve got it covered.
SALES INCENTIVES
Driving sales and performance through tailored, flexible incentive programmes
With pressure always on to drive sales and performance, sales incentives are an essential part of rewarding achievement within many companies. From internal staff reward programmes to dealer and channel incentives, there’s no better way to create a happy, engaged and motivated workforce.
Our main goal is to understand your people and what makes them tick. From hundreds in a call centre team to a small on ground sales team, a clear overview of your audience is the most important part of the process. By taking a best approach, offering maximum choice and flexibility, we create incentives which are targeted, effective and tailored to your team.
Whether it’s sales rewards, dealer incentives or channel incentives, drop us a line; we’d love to help you drive sales with our fresh and creative approach to prizes and incentives. From once-in-a-lifetime holidays to mini-breaks, high-street vouchers and designer goods, you can rest assured that with Fulcrum you’re in safe hands.
24 hour turnaround for urgent briefs
Topline ideas within 2 hours if needed
Competitive fixed quotes with no hidden costs
Expert Winner Management and Fulfilment
Retail Marketing Agent | engagement marketing Supplier Swargate
How Markets Are Segmented
5.2 How Markets Are Segmented
Learning Objectives
- Understand and outline the ways in which markets are segmented.
- Explain why marketers use some segmentation bases versus others.
Sellers can choose to pursue consumer markets, business-to-business (B2B) markets, or both. Consequently, one obvious way to begin the segmentation process is to segment markets into these two types of groups.
Different factors influence consumers to buy certain things. Many of the same factors can also be used to segment customers. A firm will often use multiple segmentation bases, or criteria to classify buyers, to get a fuller picture of its customers and create real value for them. Each variable adds a layer of information. Think of it as being similar to the way in which your professor builds up information on a PowerPoint slide to the point at which you are able to understand the material being presented.
There are all kinds of characteristics you can use to slice and dice a market. “Big-and-tall” stores cater to the segment of population that’s larger sized. What about people with wide or narrow feet, or people with medical conditions, or certain hobbies? Next, we look primarily at the ways in which consumer markets can be segmented. Later in the chapter, we’ll look at the ways in which B2B markets can be segmented.
Types of Segmentation Bases
Table 5.1 “Common Ways of Segmenting Buyers” shows some of the different types of buyer characteristics used to segment markets. Notice that the characteristics fall into one of four segmentation categories: behavioral, demographic, geographic, or psychographic. We’ll discuss each of these categories in a moment. For now, you can get a rough idea of what the categories consist of by looking at them in terms of how marketing professionals might answer the following questions:
- Behavioral segmentation. What benefits do customers want, and how do they use our product?
- Demographic segmentation. How do the ages, races, and ethnic backgrounds of our customers affect what they buy?
- Geographic segmentation. Where are our customers located, and how can we reach them? What products do they buy based on their locations?
- Psychographic segmentation. What do our customers think about and value? How do they live their lives?
Table 5.1 Common Ways of Segmenting Buyers
| By Behavior | By Demographics | By Geography | By Psychographics |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
Segmenting by Behavior
Behavioral segmentation divides people and organization into groups according to how they behave with or act toward products. Benefits segmentation—segmenting buyers by the benefits they want from products—is very common. Take toothpaste, for example. Which benefit is most important to you when you buy a toothpaste: The toothpaste’s price, ability to whiten your teeth, fight tooth decay, freshen your breath, or something else? Perhaps it’s a combination of two or more benefits. If marketing professionals know what those benefits are, they can then tailor different toothpaste offerings to you (and other people like you). For example, Colgate 2-in-1 Toothpaste & Mouthwash, Whitening Icy Blast is aimed at people who want the benefits of both fresher breath and whiter teeth.
Video Clip
A Vintage Colgate Commercial from the 1950s
Watch the YouTube video to see a vintage Colgate toothpaste ad that describes the product’s various benefits to consumers. (Onscreen kissing was evidently too racy for the times.)
Another way in which businesses segment buyers is by their usage rates—that is, how often, if ever, they use certain products. Harrah’s, an entertainment and gaming company, gathers information about the people who gamble at its casinos. High rollers, or people who spend a lot of money, are considered “VIPs.” VIPs get special treatment, including a personal “host” who looks after their needs during their casino visits. Companies are interested in frequent users because they want to reach other people like them. They are also keenly interested in nonusers and how they can be persuaded to use products.
The way in which people use products is also be a basis for segmentation. Avon Skin So Soft was originally a beauty product, but after Avon discovered that some people were using it as a mosquito repellant, the company began marketing it for that purpose. Eventually, Avon created a separate product called Skin So Soft Bug Guard, which competes with repellents like Off! Similarly, Glad, the company that makes plastic wrap and bags, found out customers were using its Press’n Seal wrap in ways the company could never have imagined. The personnel in Glad’s marketing department subsequently launched a Web site called 1000uses.com that contains both the company’s and consumers’ use tips. Some of the ways in which people use the product are pretty unusual, as evidenced by the following comment posted on the site: “I have a hedgehog who likes to run on his wheel a lot. After quite a while of cleaning a gross wheel every morning, I got the tip to use ‘Press’n Seal wrap’ on his wheel, making clean up much easier! My hedgie can run all he wants, and I don’t have to think about the cleanup. Now we’re both GLAD!”
Figure 5.4
Encouraging consumers to use your products for multiple purposes is a smart marketing strategy.
Last Human Getaway – Hedgehog – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Although we doubt Glad will ever go to great lengths to segment the Press ’n Seal market by hedgehog owners, the firm has certainly gathered a lot of good consumer insight about the product and publicity from its 1000uses.com Web site. (Incidentally, one rainy day, the author of this chapter made “rain boots” out of Press ’n Seal for her dog. But when she later tried to tear them off of the dog’s paws, he bit her. She is now thinking of trading him in for a hedgehog.)
Segmenting by Demographics
Segmenting buyers by personal characteristics such as age, income, ethnicity and nationality, education, occupation, religion, social class, and family size is called demographic segmentation. Demographics are commonly utilized to segment markets because demographic information is publicly available in databases around the world. You can obtain a great deal of demographic information on the U.S. Census Bureau’s Web site (http://www.census.gov). Other government Web sites you can tap include FedStats (http://www.fedstats.gov) and The World Factbook (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook), which contains statistics about countries around the world. In addition to current statistics, the sites contain forecasts of demographic trends, such as whether some segments of the population are expected to grow or decline.
Age
At this point in your life, you are probably more likely to buy a car than a funeral plot. Marketing professionals know this. That’s why they try to segment consumers by their ages. You’re probably familiar with some of the age groups most commonly segmented (see Table 5.2 “U.S. Generations and Characteristics”) in the United States. Into which category do you fall?
Table 5.2 U.S. Generations and Characteristics
| Generation | Also Known As | Birth Years | Characteristics |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seniors | “The Silent Generation,” “Matures,” “Veterans,” and “Traditionalists” | 1945 and prior |
|
| Baby Boomers | 1946–1964 |
| |
| Generation X | 1965–1979 |
| |
| Generation Y | “Millennials,” “Echo Boomers,” includes “Tweens” (preteens) | 1980–2000 |
|
| Note: Not all demographers agree on the cutoff dates between the generations. | |||
Today’s college-age students (Generation Y) compose the largest generation. The baby boomer generation is the second largest, and over the course of the last thirty years or so, has been a very attractive market for sellers. Retro brands—old brands or products that companies “bring back” for a period of time—were aimed at baby boomers during the recent economic downturn. Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback, which are made with cane sugar—like they were “back in the good old days”—instead of corn syrup, are examples (Schlacter, 2009). Marketing professionals believe they appealed to baby boomers because they reminded them of better times—times when they didn’t have to worry about being laid off, about losing their homes, or about their retirement funds and pensions drying up.
Baby boomers are aging and the size of the group will eventually decline. By contrast, the members of Generation Y have a lifetime of buying still ahead of them, which translates to a lot of potential customer lifetime value (CLV), the amount a customer will spend on a particular brand over his/her lifetime, for marketers if they can capture this group of buyers. However, a recent survey found that the latest recession had forced teens to change their spending habits and college plans and that roughly half of older Generation Yers reported they had no savings1.
So which group or groups should your firm target? Although it’s hard to be all things to all people, many companies try to broaden their customer bases by appealing to multiple generations so they don’t lose market share when demographics change. Several companies have introduced lower-cost brands targeting Generation Xers, who have less spending power than boomers. For example, kitchenware and home-furnishings company Williams-Sonoma opened the Elm Street chain, a less-pricey version of the Pottery Barn franchise. The Starwood hotel chain’s W hotels, which feature contemporary designs and hip bars, are aimed at Generation Xers (Miller, 2009).
The video game market is very proud of the fact that along with Generation X and Generation Y, many older Americans still play video games. (You probably know some baby boomers who own a Nintendo Wii.) Products and services in the spa market used to be aimed squarely at adults, but not anymore. Parents are now paying for their tweens to get facials, pedicures, and other pampering in numbers no one in years past could have imagined.
Video Clip
Evian Water: Roll, Baby, Roll!
Watch the YouTube video to see a fun generational type of advertisement. No, the ad isn’t designed to appeal to babies. It’s aimed at us adults!
As early as the 1970s, U.S. automakers found themselves in trouble because of changing demographic trends. Many of the companies’ buyers were older Americans inclined to “buy American.” These people hadn’t forgotten that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor during World War II and weren’t about to buy Japanese vehicles, but younger Americans were. Plus, Japanese cars had developed a better reputation. Despite the challenges U.S. automakers face today, they have taken great pains to cater to the “younger” generation—today’s baby boomers who don’t think of themselves as being old. If you are a car buff, you perhaps have noticed that the once-stodgy Cadillac now has a sportier look and stiffer suspension. Likewise, the Chrysler 300 looks more like a muscle car than the old Chrysler Fifth Avenue your great-grandpa might have driven.
Automakers have begun reaching out to Generations X and Y, too. General Motors (GM) has sought to revamp the century-old company by hiring a new younger group of managers—managers who understand how Generation X and Y consumers are wired and what they want. “If you’re going to appeal to my daughter, you’re going to have to be in the digital world,” explained one GM vice president (Cox, 2009).
Companies have to develop new products designed to appeal to Generations X and Y and also find new ways to reach them. People in these generations not only tend to ignore traditional advertising but also are downright annoyed by it. To market to Scion drivers, who are generally younger, Toyota created Scion Speak, a social networking site where they can communicate, socialize, and view cool new models of the car. Online events such as the fashion shows broadcast over the Web are also getting the attention of younger consumers, as are text, e-mail, and Twitter messages they can sign up to receive so as to get coupons, cash, and free merchandise. Advergames are likewise being used to appeal to the two demographic groups. Advergames are electronic games sellers create to promote a product or service. Would you like to play one now? Click on the following link to see a fun one created by Burger King to advertise its Tender Crisp Chicken.
Burger King Advergame
http://web.archive.org/web/20110426194400/http://www.bk.com/en/us/campaigns/subservient-chicken.html
You can boss the “subservient chicken” around in this advergame. He will do anything you want—well, almost anything.
Income
Tweens might appear to be a very attractive market when you consider they will be buying products for years to come. But would you change your mind if you knew that baby boomers account for 50 percent of all consumer spending in the United States? Americans over sixty-five now control nearly three-quarters of the net worth of U.S. households; this group spends $200 billion a year on major “discretionary” (optional) purchases such as luxury cars, alcohol, vacations, and financial products (Reisenwitz, 2007).
Income is used as a segmentation variable because it indicates a group’s buying power and may partially reflect their education levels, occupation, and social classes. Higher education levels usually result in higher paying jobs and greater social status. The makers of upscale products such as Rolexes and Lamborghinis aim their products at high-income groups. However, a growing number of firms today are aiming their products at lower-income consumers. The fastest-growing product in the financial services sector is prepaid debit cards, most of which are being bought and used by people who don’t have bank accounts. Firms are finding that this group is a large, untapped pool of customers who tend to be more brand loyal than most. If you capture enough of them, you can earn a profit (von Hoffman, 2006). Based on the targeted market, businesses can determine the location and type of stores where they want to sell their products.
Figure 5.5
Automobile companies may segment markets based on income, age, social class, and gender.
Tetyana Pryymak – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Sometimes income isn’t always indicative of who will buy your product. Companies are aware that many consumers want to be in higher income groups and behave like they are already part of them. Mercedes Benz’s cheaper line of “C” class vehicles is designed to appeal to these consumers.
Gender
Gender is another way to segment consumers. Men and women have different needs and also shop differently. Consequently, the two groups are often, but not always, segmented and targeted differently. Marketing professionals don’t stop there, though. For example, because women make many of the purchases for their households, market researchers sometimes try to further divide them into subsegments. (Men are also often subsegmented.) For women, those segments might include stay-at-home housewives, plan-to-work housewives, just-a-jobworking women, and career-oriented working women. Research has found that women who are solely homemakers tend to spend more money, perhaps because they have more time.
Figure 5.6
Considering the rising number of U.S. women who live without spouses, entrepreneurs have launched handyman services in many markets.
Let Ideas Compete – Handyman, up close, fixing a door – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
In addition to segmenting by gender, market researchers might couple gender with marital status and other demographic characteristics. For, example, did you know that more women in America than ever before (51 percent) now live without spouses? Can you think of any marketing opportunities this might present? (Barry, 1985)
Family Life Cycle
Family life cycle refers to the stages families go through over time and how it affects people’s buying behavior. For example, if you have no children, your demand for pediatric services (medical care for children) is likely to be slim to none, but if you have children, your demand might be very high because children frequently get sick. You may be part of the target market not only for pediatric services but also for a host of other products, such as diapers, daycare, children’s clothing, entertainment services, and educational products. A secondary segment of interested consumers might be grandparents who are likely to spend less on day-to-day childcare items but more on special-occasion gifts for children. Many markets are segmented based on the special events in people’s lives. Think about brides (and want-to-be brides) and all the products targeted at them, including Web sites and television shows such as Say Yes to the Dress, My Fair Wedding, Platinum Weddings, and Bridezillas.
Figure 5.7
Many markets are segmented based on people’s family life cycle needs.
Wikimedia Commons – public domain.
,_examines_a_patient%5Ersquo,s_teeth_at_the_Project_Dawn_at_Liliendaal_care_site.jpg){kind=link}
Resorts also segment vacationers depending on where they are in their family life cycles. When you think of family vacations, you probably think of Disney resorts. Some vacation properties, such as Sandals, exclude children from some of their resorts. Perhaps they do so because some studies show that the market segment with greatest financial potential is married couples without children (Hill, et. al., 1990).
Keep in mind that although you might be able to isolate a segment in the marketplace, including one based on family life cycle, you can’t make assumptions about what the people in it will want. Just like people’s demographics change, so do their tastes. For example, over the past few decades U.S. families have been getting smaller. Households with a single occupant are more commonplace than ever, but until recently, that hasn’t stopped people from demanding bigger cars (and more of them) as well as larger houses, or what some people jokingly refer to as “McMansions.”
The trends toward larger cars and larger houses appear to be reversing. High energy costs, the credit crunch, and concern for the environment are leading people to demand smaller houses. To attract people such as these, D. R. Horton, the nation’s leading homebuilder, and other construction firms are now building smaller homes.
Ethnicity
People’s ethnic backgrounds have a big impact on what they buy. If you’ve visited a grocery store that caters to a different ethnic group than your own, you were probably surprised to see the types of products sold there. It’s no secret that the United States is becoming—and will continue to become—more diverse. Hispanic Americans are the largest and the fastest-growing minority in the United States. Companies are going to great lengths to court this once overlooked group. In California, the health care provider Kaiser Permanente runs television ads letting members of this segment know that they can request Spanish-speaking physicians and that Spanish-speaking nurses, telephone operators, and translators are available at all of its clinics (Berkowitz, 2006).
African Americans
Loyalty marketing
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Retail Marketing | engagement marketing Career Agripada
Our talented team know how to excite, inspire and engage. With backgrounds in events, entertainment and travel, we’re full of ideas for amazing prizes and unforgettable incentives!
At Fulcrum, we all come to work every day because we have a shared love of travel and delivering once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
Our team meetings are buzzing with fresh ideas, brand new experiences and glowing feedback from our travellers. We know what makes a great incentive, we have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the best experiences around the world, and we have an ever-expanding ‘little black book’ of the most exclusive suppliers in the business.
In addition to our creative ideas and experience, we know that our clients value our expertise and dedication to solving problems rather than creating them. Prizes and incentives are our world, but we understand that our clients have other priorities, so we make sure we’re delivering our ideas on-time, on-budget and on-brand. We thrive on tight deadlines, logistical challenges and creating perfectly tailored solutions, without the headaches!
About us
Perfect solutions every time
As a leading marketing Agency, we’re immensely proud to work with brands and agencies across a huge range of sectors and industries, giving us an unrivalled breadth of experience.
we have created and fulfilled prizes for promotions and activations across the world.
Our aim: help our clients achieve their goals through our experience and expertise, taking the stress and hassle out of prize fulfilment.
We work for both direct brands and agencies, often in collaboration or with other specialist agencies and partners. Many of our clients have existing assets – from festival tickets to sports hospitality – which we help them to build into the best possible prize packages. Others want to create unique, eye-catching marketing and btl content around their prize winners. We can deal with winners from any country and in any language; we can provide a full btl management service; we can even source camera crews for content capture.
Whatever your brief, we’ve got it covered.
SALES INCENTIVES
Driving sales and performance through tailored, flexible incentive programmes
With pressure always on to drive sales and performance, sales incentives are an essential part of rewarding achievement within many companies. From internal staff reward programmes to dealer and channel incentives, there’s no better way to create a happy, engaged and motivated workforce.
Our main goal is to understand your people and what makes them tick. From hundreds in a call centre team to a small on ground sales team, a clear overview of your audience is the most important part of the process. By taking a best approach, offering maximum choice and flexibility, we create incentives which are targeted, effective and tailored to your team.
Whether it’s sales rewards, dealer incentives or channel incentives, drop us a line; we’d love to help you drive sales with our fresh and creative approach to prizes and incentives. From once-in-a-lifetime holidays to mini-breaks, high-street vouchers and designer goods, you can rest assured that with Fulcrum you’re in safe hands.
24 hour turnaround for urgent briefs
Topline ideas within 2 hours if needed
Competitive fixed quotes with no hidden costs
Expert Winner Management and Fulfilment
Retail Marketing | engagement marketing Career Agripada
Functions Performed by Channel Partners
8.3 Functions Performed by Channel Partners
Learning Objectives
- Describe the activities performed in channels.
- Explain which organizations perform which functions.
Different organizations in a marketing channel are responsible for different value-adding activities. The following are some of the most common functions channel members perform. However, keep in mind that “who does what” can vary, depending on what the channel members actually agree to in their contracts with one another.
Disseminate Marketing Communications and Promote Brands
Somehow wholesalers, distributors, retailers, and consumers need to be informed—via marketing communications—that an offering exists and that there’s a good reason to buy it. Sometimes, a push strategy is used to help marketing channels accomplish this. A push strategy is one in which a manufacturer convinces wholesalers, distributors, or retailers to sell its products. Consumers are informed via advertising and other promotions that the product is available for sale, but the main focus is to sell to intermediaries.
Figure 8.12 A Push versus a Pull Strategy
The problem with a push strategy is that it doesn’t focus on the needs of the actual users of the products. Coca-Cola used a push strategy for years before realizing that instead of focusing on moving beverages through a retailer’s back door and into their warehouse, it needed to help them sell to shoppers through the retailer’s front door1. College textbook publishers are in a similar position today. Traditionally, they have concentrated their selling efforts on professors and bookstore managers. (Has a textbook company ever asked you what you want out of a textbook?) It’s no secret that the price of textbooks is climbing and students are purchasing fewer of them. Like Coca-Cola, textbook publishers are probably going to have to rethink their sales and marketing channel strategies (Blumenstyk, 2009).
Figure 8.13
Entrepreneurs Jeff Shelstad (pictured) and Eric Frank (not pictured) launched the publisher of this textbook. Shelstad and Frank believe they have found a way to add more value to the textbooks you buy. One of their strategies is to deliver their products via a marketing channel that’s different from those used to sell traditional textbooks.
By contrast, a pull strategy focuses on creating demand for a product among consumers so that businesses agree to sell the product. A good example of an industry that utilizes both pull and push strategies is the pharmaceutical industry. Pharmaceutical companies promote their drugs to pharmacies and doctors, but they now also run ads designed to persuade individual consumers to ask their physicians about drugs that might benefit them.
In many cases, two or more organizations in a channel jointly promote a product to retailers, purchasing agents, and consumers and work out which organization is responsible for what type of communication to whom. For example, the ads from Target, Walmart, and other retailers you see in the paper on Sunday are often a joint effort between manufacturers and the retailer. Coupons are another joint form of promotion even when offered directly by the manufacturer, joint in the sense that the retailer still has to accept the coupon and process it. The actual forms and styles of communication will be discussed more in the promotions and sales section of the book.
Sorting and Regrouping Products
As we explained, many businesses don’t want to receive huge quantities of a product. One of the functions of wholesalers and distributors is to break down large quantities of products into smaller units and provide an assortment of different products to businesses.
For example, cranberry farmers have large crops to sell. You don’t want to buy large amounts of cranberries, make your own juice or cranberry sauce, or dry them into craisins for salads. So the farmers sell their produce to a coop, which sorts the berries by size; large ones become craisins while others are destined to become either juice or sauce, depending on their liquid content. Those are then sold to the juice and sauce producers.
Storing and Managing Inventory
If a channel member has run out of a product when a customer wants to buy it, the result is often a lost sale. That’s why most channel members stock, or “carry,” reserve inventory. However, storing products is not free. Warehouses cost money to build or rent and heat and cool; employees have to be paid to stock shelves, pick products, ship them, and so forth. Some companies, including Walmart, put their suppliers in charge of their inventory. The suppliers have access to Walmart’s inventory levels and ship products when and where the retailer’s stores need them.
Storing and managing inventory is not just a function provided for retailers, though. Storage also involves storing commodities like grain prior to processing. Gigantic grain elevators store corn, wheat, and other grains until processors, like Oroweat, need them. You can buy fresh bread in your grocer every day because the wheat was stored first at a grain elevator until it was needed.
Video Clip
Warehouse Robots at Work
Not all warehouses utilize humans to pluck products from shelves. Some of them use robots, as this video shows. Robots cost money, too, though.
Distributing Products
Physical goods that travel within a channel need to be moved from one member to another and sometimes back again. Some large wholesalers, distributors, and retailers own their own fleets of trucks for this purpose. In other cases, they hire third-party transportation providers—trucking companies, railroads, and so forth—to move their products.
Figure 8.14
Walmart doesn’t just own its own warehouses. It also owns its own fleet of semi-trucks.
Walmart – Walmart’s Hybrid Assist Trucks – CC BY 2.0.
Being able to track merchandise like you can track a FedEx package is extremely important to channel partners. They want to know where their products are at all times and what shape they are in. Losing inventory or having it damaged or spoiled can wreak havoc on a company’s profits. So can not getting products on time or being able to get them at all when your competitors can.
Assume Ownership Risk and Extend Credit
If products are damaged during transit, one of the first questions asked is who owned the product at the time. In other words, who suffers the loss? Generally, no one channel member assumes all of the ownership risk in a channel. Instead, it is distributed among channel members depending on the contracts they have with one another and their free on board provisions. A free on board (FOB) provision designates who is responsible for what shipping costs and who owns the title to the goods and when. However, the type of product, the demand for it, marketing conditions, and the clout of the various organizations in its marketing channel can affect the contract terms channel members are willing to agree to. Some companies try to wait as long as possible to take ownership of products so they don’t have to store them. During the economic downturn, many channel members tried to hold as little inventory as possible for fear it would go unsold or become obsolete (Jorgensen, 2009).
Share Marketing and Other Information
Each of the channel members has information about the demand for products, trends, inventory levels, and what the competition is doing. The information is valuable and can be doubly valuable if channel partners trust one another and share it. More information can help each firm in the marketing channel perform its functions better and overcome competitive obstacles (Grazier, et. al., 2009).
That said, confidentiality is a huge issue among supply chain partners because they share so much information with one another, such as sales and inventory data. For example, a salesperson who sells Tide laundry detergent for Procter & Gamble will have a good idea of how many units of Tide Walmart and Target are selling. However, it would be unethical for the salesperson to share Walmart’s numbers with Target or Target’s numbers with Walmart. Many business buyers require their channel partners to sign nondisclosure agreements or make the agreements part of purchasing contracts. A nondisclosure agreement (NDA) is a contract that specifies what information is proprietary, or owned by the partner, and how, if at all, the partner can use that information.
Key Takeaway
Different organizations in a marketing channel are responsible for different value-adding activities. These activities include disseminating marketing communications and promoting brands, sorting and regrouping products, storing and managing inventory, distributing products, assuming the risk of products, and sharing information.
Review Questions
- Explain the difference between a pull and a push strategy when it comes to marketing communications.
- Why is taking ownership of products an important marketing channel function?
- Which firms manage inventory in marketing channels?
1“Bottling Success,” Packaging-Gateway.com, September 1, 2006, http://www.packaging-gateway.com/features/feature738/ (accessed December 12, 2009).
References
Blumenstyk, G., “Kaplan U.’s Catchy Ad Provokes a Question: Do Colleges Serve Today’s Students?” Chronicle of Higher Education, June 29, 2009, http://chronicle.com/article/Kaplan-Us-Question-Do/46956 (accessed December 12, 2009).
Frazier, G. L., Elliot Maltz, Kersi D. Antia, and Aric Rindfleisch, “Distributor Sharing of Strategic Information with Suppliers,” Journal of Marketing, July 1, 2009, http://www.atypon-link.com/AMA/doi/abs/10.1509/jmkg.73.4.31?cookieSet=1&journalCode=jmkg (accessed December 12, 2009).
Jorgensen, B., “Distributors’ Services Help Keep Customers Afloat,” EDN 54, no. 8 (April 23, 2009): 60.
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We inspire the people who power your business.
No matter who you are and what you sell, the success of your business relies on your ability to engage with two critically important groups – the people who buy from you and the people who work for you. At Fulcrum, we create truly personalised incentive programmes that have the power to energize your business. Each Fulcrum initiative is designed around the specific interests and aspirations of your customers and your people. We engage and inspire the people that matter – the people who power your business.
Our Values
Client- centricity and the provision of quality service are key values. Providing a developmental and supportive marketing environment for our staff and recognising the importance of our suppliers are integral to our business ethic. Openness, honesty, transparency and a commitment to our community underpin everything we do.
Our Team
The heart and soul of what has made us so successful is our staff. It is their passion, commitment to quality and positive, can-do attitude that delivers outstanding performance to our clients and reinforces our reputation for service excellence.
From selection & recruitment through to training & development, we continually invest in our staff to ensure we have the right people, with the right skills to make sure that the job gets done right, first time.
Quality
Fulcrum has always aimed to be quality leaders in our industry. An impressive array of accreditations, for Quality, Environment, Security and Staff development are simply the kite-marks that demonstrate our core values in this respect.
Fulcrum Agencies
Over the years we have worked with agencies of all sizes and styles. We understand the hectic world of marketing and advertising and we have developed services specifically designed to adapt to short lead-times, changing needs, last minute requests and the occasional ‘sprint finish’.
Retail
With a long-history of providing services to retailers, whether major chains or small specialist outlets, it was a very easy step for us to adapt that to the on-line world. These days we can handle high-volume fulfilment for direct-to consumer on-line web-orders as we can easily provide retail replenishment and store refurbishment.
Develop a Marketing Plan for Your Small Business
Loyalty marketing , Retail Marketing Agent , engagement marketing Supplier , Corporate Marketing Staff,
RWA Marketing Outsourcing firm , Store marketing Agent , home to home marketing Career , engagement marketing Career , onground marketing Career , IT Parks Marketing Career , college Marketing Career , B to C marketing Career , f to f marketing Career
RWA Marketing Activity | Store marketing Agripada
We inspire the people who power your business.
No matter who you are and what you sell, the success of your business relies on your ability to engage with two critically important groups – the people who buy from you and the people who work for you. At Fulcrum, we create truly personalised incentive programmes that have the power to energize your business. Each Fulcrum initiative is designed around the specific interests and aspirations of your customers and your people. We engage and inspire the people that matter – the people who power your business.
Our Values
Client- centricity and the provision of quality service are key values. Providing a developmental and supportive marketing environment for our staff and recognising the importance of our suppliers are integral to our business ethic. Openness, honesty, transparency and a commitment to our community underpin everything we do.
Our Team
The heart and soul of what has made us so successful is our staff. It is their passion, commitment to quality and positive, can-do attitude that delivers outstanding performance to our clients and reinforces our reputation for service excellence.
From selection & recruitment through to training & development, we continually invest in our staff to ensure we have the right people, with the right skills to make sure that the job gets done right, first time.
Quality
Fulcrum has always aimed to be quality leaders in our industry. An impressive array of accreditations, for Quality, Environment, Security and Staff development are simply the kite-marks that demonstrate our core values in this respect.
Fulcrum Agencies
Over the years we have worked with agencies of all sizes and styles. We understand the hectic world of marketing and advertising and we have developed services specifically designed to adapt to short lead-times, changing needs, last minute requests and the occasional ‘sprint finish’.
Retail
With a long-history of providing services to retailers, whether major chains or small specialist outlets, it was a very easy step for us to adapt that to the on-line world. These days we can handle high-volume fulfilment for direct-to consumer on-line web-orders as we can easily provide retail replenishment and store refurbishment.
5 Reasons Why Experiential Marketing is a Must
Field marketing , Retail Marketing , engagement marketing Career , B To B marketing agent,
RWA Marketing Activity , Store marketing , house2house marketing organizations , direct marketing organizations , Street marketing organizations , Business Parks Marketing organizations , corporate park Marketing organizations , B 2 C marketing organizations , f2f marketing organizations
home to home marketing Career | Retail Marketing Agent in pune
Fulcrum Marketing Services in Pune are the catalyst to bringing your advertising vision to life. While many ideas start in a boardroom, you need experienced marketers on the ground who are able to conceptualize, plan and execute a well thought-out marketing campaign in the field.
we supply the experience, connections, relationships, and knowledge needed to maximize the potential return on investment for each of our clients as well as help identify and pursue select market opportunities as they come available, home to home marketing Career | Retail Marketing Agent in pune. Our local insight allows us to create exceptional investment potential for our partners and clients and enhanced living experience for our residents.
CREATING COMMUNITIES WHERE PEOPLE ARE EAGER TO LIVE AND RELUCTANT TO LEAVE
We define and position apartment homes for success. We are passionate about the residential experience and the qualitative and quantitative points that drive us to make strategic decisions that inform what a home should be — specific to its marketplace.
Results are realized through both the speed of lease-ups and financial performance of the on-going stabilized investment.
MARKET RESEARCH
We crunch the numbers, ask the questions, assess current trends and forecast future trends with detailed, up-to-date research to understand our markets; Ensuring our clients have the right data points to make the best decisions going forward.
MARKET POSITIONING
What’s the experience living here? What’s the story and name of this place? Our experience and insight allows us to identify and position each project’s distinctive offerings as its market niche. We provide an understanding that goes deeper than looking at trends. We create sought-after, thoughtfully executed apartment communities that are compatible with their surrounding neighborhoods.
| MARKETING STRATEGY Overall success relies on a thoughtful marketing strategy. In a constantly changing environment, we develop and implement each marketing initiative specific to your audience and budget. Reaching consumers in a way that educates and informs; ultimately creating product desirability and excellent rates of return. |  |
Perspectives: Women in Advertising 2018
home to home marketing Career | Retail Marketing Agent in pune
Retail Marketing Agent, Loyalty marketing, engagement marketing Supplier, Corporate Marketing Staff, RWA Marketing Outsourcing firm, Store marketing Agent, home to home marketing Career, engagement marketing Career, onground marketing Career, IT Parks Marketing Career, Restaurant Marketing Career, college Marketing Career , B to C marketing Career , f to f marketing Career, pune , mumbai
house2house marketing organizations | Retail Marketing in pune
Fulcrum Marketing Services in Pune are the catalyst to bringing your advertising vision to life. While many ideas start in a boardroom, you need experienced marketers on the ground who are able to conceptualize, plan and execute a well thought-out marketing campaign in the field.
we supply the experience, connections, relationships, and knowledge needed to maximize the potential return on investment for each of our clients as well as help identify and pursue select market opportunities as they come available, house2house marketing organizations | Retail Marketing in pune. Our local insight allows us to create exceptional investment potential for our partners and clients and enhanced living experience for our residents.
CREATING COMMUNITIES WHERE PEOPLE ARE EAGER TO LIVE AND RELUCTANT TO LEAVE
We define and position apartment homes for success. We are passionate about the residential experience and the qualitative and quantitative points that drive us to make strategic decisions that inform what a home should be — specific to its marketplace.
Results are realized through both the speed of lease-ups and financial performance of the on-going stabilized investment.
MARKET RESEARCH
We crunch the numbers, ask the questions, assess current trends and forecast future trends with detailed, up-to-date research to understand our markets; Ensuring our clients have the right data points to make the best decisions going forward.
MARKET POSITIONING
What’s the experience living here? What’s the story and name of this place? Our experience and insight allows us to identify and position each project’s distinctive offerings as its market niche. We provide an understanding that goes deeper than looking at trends. We create sought-after, thoughtfully executed apartment communities that are compatible with their surrounding neighborhoods.
| MARKETING STRATEGY Overall success relies on a thoughtful marketing strategy. In a constantly changing environment, we develop and implement each marketing initiative specific to your audience and budget. Reaching consumers in a way that educates and informs; ultimately creating product desirability and excellent rates of return. | |
How to Prepare Brand Ambassadors For An Experiential Marketing Event
house2house marketing organizations | Retail Marketing in pune