Content Prep- Working with Channel Partners

Please use these questions to guide your preparation. You do not need to turn in your answers

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Required Content

[MM] Chapter 10 “Channels of Distribution” (10-1, 10-3a)

10-1 “What are Distribution Channels, Supply Chain Logistics and Why Do We Use Them?
- People often assume that the most efficient way to go-to-market is to try to directly reach your targeted customers. How might going through intermediaries actually reduce go-to-market costs?
- Define the three potential roles that an organization can play in a go-to-market network
- What is the difference between a supply chain partner and a channel partner?
10-3a “Revenue Sharing”
- (Please see the sidebar “Mark-ups vs Margins” on p. 158 of MM if the difference between these two terms is unfamiliar to you)
- Why is it useful to separate out the costs of production from the costs of retailing when analyzing your costs?
- What is the “double marginalization problem”
- What is the value of beginning from a targeted consumer/end-user price when determining how to split margins among channel partners?

Use this tool to explore margins and end user selling prices under different production costs and channel structures (click orange squares)

Chapter 3 “How Do Customers Want to Buy?”
- In the marketing mix, our “Product” strategies are guided by our understanding of _____ the customer wants to buy. Our “Place” (otherwise known as “channel”) strategies are guided by our understanding of ____ the customer wants to buy.
- Explain the six categories of benefits that customers receive from channel strategies.
- How might these benefits map to increased customer convenience (i.e. lower transactions costs) over the three-phase purchase process from earlier this semester?
Chapter 5 “What Functions and Costs Are the Responsibility of Each Channel Member?”
- Explain the five categories of channel functions and the typical cost components of each of these functions.
- Explain the three important rules of strategic channel design
- What is the “Equity Rule” in channel management?
- How might you integrate the quantitative margin analysis concepts from the other two readings and with the concepts in this chapter to evaluating “fair” margins within a network of channel partners?