Marketing Channels

Is the set of firms that supply the raw materials, components, parts, information, finances, and expertise needed to create a product or service.

• Donwstream Partners

• Upstream Partners

• Product Partners

• Upline Partners

A set of interdependent organizations that help make a product or service available for use or consumption by the consumer or business user.

• Channel Member

• Downstream Partners

• Upstream Partners

• Marketing/Distribution Channel

Channel containing one or more intermediary levels

• Indirect Marketing Channel

• Direct Marketing Channel

• Intermediary Channels

• Marketing Firms

Disagreement among

marketing channel members on goals,

roles, and rewards – who should do what

and for what rewards.

• Diagonal Conflict

• Horizontal Conflict

• Vertical Conflict

• Channel Conflict

Conflict between DIFFERENT levels of the same channel.

• Diagonal Conflict

• Vertical Conflict

• Horizontal Conflict

• Channel Conflict

A channel consisting of one or more independent producers, wholesalers, and

retailers, seeking to maximize its own profits, even at the expense of profits for the system.

• Vertical Conflict

• Vertical Marketing System (VMS)

• Conventional Distribution Channel

• Conventional Conflict

A distribution channel structure in which producers, wholesales, and retailers act

as a unified system. One channel member owns the others, has contracts with

them, or has so much power that they all cooperate.

• Vertical Conflict

• Channel Behavior and Organization

• Conventional Distribution Channel

• Vertical Marketing System (VMS)

A channel arrangement in which two or more companies

at one level join to follow a new marketing opportunity.

The goal is to combine financial, production, or marketing resources to

accomplish more than was possible alone.

• Horizontal

  Marketing Systems

• Vertical

  Marketing Systems

• Diagonal

  Marketing Systems

• Circular

  Marketing Systems

Often called Hybrid Marketing Channels, a distribution system in which a single firm sets up two or more marketing channels to reach one or more customer segments.

• Horizontal

  Distribution Systems

• Vertical

  Distribution Systems

• Multichannel

  Distribution Systems

• Diagonal

  Distribution Systems

The cutting out of

marketing channel intermediaries by

product or service producers, or the

displacement of traditional resellers by

radical new types of intermediaries

• Disinformation

• Disintermediation

• Dissatisfaction

• Dismemberment