Before a company undertakes the web version of marketing management and any channel partner strategy that would be involved, the person in charge should first know the basics of management training. A marketing channel is a group of exercises and other necessary tasks needed in order to transport or relocate the ownership of one product from one certain point of production to the final phase of consumption. Basically, it is the whole transfer of the merchandise from the manufacturer down right to the end user. This consists of all the people, groups and marketing activities, such as advertising and selling, that is within the process of transfer.
The process, however, can widely vary according to a number of factors like the type of industry, the channel partner strategy employed, how production is done and as well as the groups and people who are playing both against and with the manufacturer. The participants can be classified into two types: direct and indirect.
Direct Participants
Direct Participants are called as such because of their straight connection with the source or the manufacturer. They can do the whole advertising and selling of the merchandise from the producer without having to go through other means of doing the process.
The direct channel participants can be categorized into two, the merchants and the agents. Merchants are basically those who are not only direct from the company but is also within the terms of the company. Sample members are individuals from the manufacturing, producing and marketing teams. Retailers, dealers and branches of the company also fall under this category. Agents are those who have a direct connection with the manufacturer but could also be outside the terms of company. Members of this category are brokers, commission agents and other manufacturing representatives.
Indirect Participants
Indirect Participants are simply those groups and organizations that are part of the process but are out of the company’s full grip as well as the second hand source of the merchandise. They are either a whole entity of their own, when as such employed by the company but is not restricted from its own conditions, or a partner company alongside the manufacturer. The members of these groups are called facilitators because what they primarily do is “host” the selling of the product by their own means approved. They are usually chosen by the manufacturer.
The members of the group under the category are wholesalers, distributors, sales promotions agencies and advertising agencies. Some manufacturers take a different stance and employ merchandising specialists, public relations firms and transportation companies along side the first group of members to be mentioned. Other group members that are usually but not all the time used and agreed upon by the manufacturer and the selling organization involved is the use of public warehousing coupled by storage companies, Insurance firms, Service Groups and Market Research Agencies.
While most conventional means of marketing have been said, there are other functions which have not been taken and used. In fact, the creativity of the producers as well as the marketers will help these marketing channels evolve further.
