Marketing

1.    Recently, marketing practitioners have eagerly attempted to understand the underlying principles and roles of distribution channel and supply chain from the perspective of Value Chain proposed by Michael Porter (1985). First of all, discuss what it means by the value creation and delivery network as a variation of the Value Chain. Then, discuss the roles of distribution channels and supply chains in the value creation and delivery network (or value chain system).

2.    Focusing on the design of effective distribution channels, discuss why intermediaries such as retailers or wholesalers between manufacturers and customers are required for improving the performance of any exchange process in the distribution channel system.

3.    It is well-known that customers are considering multiple distribution channels when attempting to purchase any market offering. In this regard, companies have considered how to design an optimal multichannel structure in order to increase company’s competitive advantages from the perspective of multichannel customer management. Discuss how to design an optimal multichannel structure for the multichannel customer management.

4.    Consider some important issues to be reviewed with respect to the management of the marketing distribution channels.