MK

10/27/2025

Distribution, Retailing, & Marketing Channels

Distribution Strategies

• EX: Buying shirt → Shipped from other country

Marketing Channels; Channels intermediaries:

• Set of interdependent organizations that eases the transfer of products from producer/manufacturer to eventually the end consumer

Difference between producer/manufacturer

• Producer:

• Manufacturer:

As source of competitive advantage

• EX: Walmart’s Distribution Center; Amazon’s Shipping times; Apple

People involved in Channels

• Producer/Manufacturer

• Consumer

• Retailer

• Wholesaler/Distributor

• Agent/Broker

Directional Set-Up:

Direct Channel Set-Up

• No intermediaries

• EX: Buying Honey from Farm

Indirect Set-UP

• Retailer: Amazon

Wholesale/Distributor

Main Difference between Wholesaler and Retailer

• Volume:

  • Wholesaler: Bulk; Retailer: Individual Units

• Wholesaler sells to Retailer

  • Retailer sells to Customer

  • Wholesaler can’t sell to customer

  • Only through hurricanes to purchase water

Agents/Brokers

Title of Ownership

• Agents/Brokers cannot have title of ownership

  • EX: Brokers in stocks such as Robin Hood, Charles Schwab, who facilitate the amount of stocks

Why Share Profits with Intermediaries?

• Division of Labor; specialization

• Adam Smith: Wealth of Nations

  • Predicted US wealth success with free market

  • Ricardo: Division of Labor

• Efficiency in the system

  • Without Intermediaries

    • # of Transactions = # of Producers x # of Consumers

      • 8×10 = 80

  • With Intermediaries

    • # of Transactions = # of Producers + # of Consumers

      • 8 + 10 =18

Other benefits from Intermediaries

• Overcome discrepancies (gaps)

  • Discrepancy of Quantity

    • Producer/Manufacturer and customer don’t hav either same alignment in terms of quantity

      • Ex: Producer/Manufacturer makes 100 cars; Consumer buys 1 car

  • Discrepancy of Assortment

    • Variety of needs

    • Specialize in One

  • Temporal Discrepancy (Time)

    • Made

      • EX: Fireworks Storage

      • EX: Holiday Toys made by July

  • Spatial Discrepancy

    • Where something is made, and where something is consumed usually isn’t the same

Channel Functions Performed by Intermediaries

• Transactional Functions

  • Promotion; Negotiation; Risk Taking

  • EX: Walmart’s Prices are due to negotiation levels

• Logistical Functions

  • Physically distributing; Storing; Sorting

  • EX: Shipment of sorting clothes before putting on the floor

• Facilitating Functions

  • Research; Finance

  • EX: Buying a house

Level of Distribution Intensity

• Intensive Distribution

  • Can get it anywhere; saturate market with Product

  • EX: Chips, Soda

• Selective Distribution

  • Not every retailer carries the product

  • EX: Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein

• Exclusive Distribution

  • One major retailer; Luxury brands

  • EX: Dior, Gucci,

Factors Influencing Channel Intensity Decision:

• Market Factors

  • Target customers (Mass Market or Selective Market)

  • EX: Intensive Distribution → Water Bottles (Maximum); Selective Distribution → Louis Vuitton (Selective)

• Product Factors

  • What type of product

    • How expensive it is, How often do you buy

    • EX: Intensive → T-shirts, Exclusive → Suits/Dresses

• Producer Factors

  • What type of reputation do you want?

  • Important if it looks the same all around the world

    • EX: Coke wants to be sold at Intensive Locations

    • EX: Ralph Lauren wants to be sold at selective locations

10/29/2025

Channel Relationships

• Arm’s Length:

  • Not so close, once or once in a while

    • EX: Someone you run into one in a while

    • EX: Intermediary you deal with once in a while

• Cooperative Relationship:

  • Friends, ongoing

    • EX: Small businesses with suppliers (Spices from supplier)

• Integrated Relationship:

  • Marriage, established

    • EX: Access to each others database’s; can see in real-time

    • EX: Expedia and Hotel Airlines

B2B

• Dealing with other businesses; utilizes channel relationships

  • EX: Cisco, Nvidia,

B2C:

• 
  

  • EX: Kelloggs,

Social Dimensions of Channel Relationships

• Power: One’s entities ability to influence another’s behaviors

  • EX: Speed limits, Parents, University, Sad Fact: If you love someone and they don’t, they have power over you

• Control: Entity Exerting influence

  • EX: Pulled over for not following the speed limit,

• Leadership: Entity with the most power to influence

  • EX: Governor of a State, Federal level with the President

• Conflict: How you react, arises when different parties have different objectives, goals, views

  • EX: Roommate disagreements

  • Can be resolved in different ways

  • Asymmetric relationships, the one in more power usually favored

    • EX: War

  • Symmetric Relationships: Equal Powers which lead to compromises

    • EX: US and USSR

Asymmetric Relationships:

Vlasic and Walmart (1990s)

• Pickles :)

• Dependent on Walmart; 85% of sales through Walmart

  • Walmart possessed the power in the relationship

  • Walmart wanted Vlasic to lower price → Vlasic did not; resulted into bankruptcy

Nike and Footlocker (2000s)

• Footlocker pressured Nike to lower prices → either lower prices or lower units

  • Nike offered to lower the price, and lower the units → Footlocker backed down

  • Nike has the upper hand → Footlocker did not

Symmetric Relationships:

Proctor and Gamble (P&G) and Walmart

• Walmart pressured P&G to lower prices → P&G doesn’t

  • Removed each others access to databases

  • Eventually led to compromise

    
    

American Airlines and Expedia

• American Airlines stopped selling with Expedia

  • Eventually led to compromise

Retailing History:

• US Before: Mom and pop stores

• U.S. Now: chain stores

• Any other country: Mom and pop stores still popular

Retailing:

• Assortment:

• Service Level:

• Price Level:

Types of Retail Stores:

• Department Stores: Focuses on a variety of Product, less depth

  • EX: Macy’s

• Speciality Stores: Focus on a particular product, more depth, better service, higher priced

  • EX: AutoParts

• Supermarket: Focus on foods

  • EX: Publix, Aldi

• Convenience Stores: Focus on a less service, less assortment, higher priced

  • EX: 7/11

• Drugstores: Focus on pharmaceutical products, requires license,

  • EX: Walgreens

• Discount Stores: Assortment is medium, price is low, service is low

  • EX: Dollar store

• Warehouse Clubs: High assortment, Low price, Low Service

  • EX: Costco

• Off-Price retailers: High assortment, Low price, Low Service

  • EX: TJ Maxx, Ross

• Restaurant: Varies for each assortment, price, and service

  • EX: McDonald’s

  • EX:

Non-store retailing

• Automated vending

  • EX: LEGO vending machine at an airport

Technology oriented retailing

• Using Al/ technology to enhance customer experience

Business licensing

• Business agreement where a brand owner (licensor) grants another company (licensee) permission (logo, character, or brand name in exchange for royalties or fees.

• This allows the brand owner to expand its reach and generate revenue, while the licensee can use a recognized brand to sell products

  • EX: CK suitcase, Gucci sunglasses

Advertising through mediums

• social media

• Billboards

• Newspaper

• Digital apps

• TV

• Radio

• product placement

Franchising

• Opening up a business with someone else's brand and sharing profits

  • Ex. Opening a McDonald's

• Franchiser = McDonald's

• Franchisee = business owner

• Need to pay to be able to open a franchise

  • Ex. Chick fil a = $7,000 to open

  • this is the cheapest franchise to open and also receives the most applicants

Advertising Advantages

• Reach

•     ex. Commercial can reach millions

• low cost per contact

IMC: integrated marketing communication (promotion/advertising)

Elements of the mix:

• Advertising: A Paid form of indirect communication on a mass scale

Advertising disadvantages

• Total cost can be high

• Might not be well targeted

PR (public relations)

• Unpaid form of indirect communication learned media) on a mass scale

Sales promotion

• Incentives to Spur sales

  • Ex: Coupons

Promotions

• Free sample

Personal selling

• Planned presentations usually at one-to-one level

  • Ex: Car salesman showing a customer multiple cars

  • Super Bowl ad example

• cost=4 million

• Abt 100 mil viewers

• Cost per contact = 4 cents

• 4 million /100 million)

• Cost per contact is low

• Mass form of communication

PR Benefits

• More credibility than advertising

• Ex. Tampa Bay Times talking about USF in their news article

• Wasn't paid for by USF, so looks better

Communication Process

• Sender→ Encoding → Channel→ Decoding→

Message Receiver

• All communication process start with the sender

• Subliminal messages in the ad are called
  Encoding

• Sent to the channel

• Decoding

• Associating the brand with things in your life (ex, color association with the brand to something you see daily

• Receiver =

Backround noise

ex. seeing a car accident on the side of the road so you pay attention to that instead of a billboard with an ad. basically messes up the communication process

• AIDA concept

  • Attention → Interest→ Desire → Action

  • Must gain to get consumer

    • EX: Ariana Grande "7 rings"

      "I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it,”

• Uses AIDA Concept

  • Advertising → Attention Interest.
    & PR

  • Sales Promotion & Personal Selling (Ps) → Desire/Action

• Type of purchase:

  • Routine: Adversing, SP

  • More complex: Advertising, PR

  • Very complex: personal selling (Pr

• Push Vs. Pull Strategy:

  • Push: Influence the intermediaries

    • Ex: convincing doctors (direct) to prescribe.

  • Pull: Target end customer

    • Ex: prescription medicine

• Slotting fees: Pay retailer more to be displayed In a certain area

  • Ex: coca-cola at eye bevel.

• Advertising costs

  • Top 15 companies spend over $10 million dollars in a day, or $3.5 million in a year

  • Ex: Auto, cosmetics,

• Zimmerman

  • Office in the shape of a z

• Comparative Advertising

  • Comparing your brand to another brand; must conduct trials

    • EX: Pepsi 1980 -AD campaigns

    • Independent study showed that people prefer taste over coca-cola.

  • Many legal restrictions in other countries

    • EX: can't show dunning alcohol in ads (USA)

    • EX: Launch non-alcoholic beverage in name → brigs customers towards on alcoholic beverage

• Surrogate Advertising

  • “Sell the size, not the steak”

  • Highlight the takeaways / benefits instead of attributes.

  • EX: AUDI Key AD "comfort, safety,"

Common Advertising Appeals:

• Emotion

  • Fear

    • EX: home-protection ads

  • Vanity

    • ex: luxurious brands

  • Quality

  • Humor

  • Sex appeal

  • Convenience

  • Admiration

  • Monetary & Fun, pleasure

    • EX: Cruise Ships

• Influencer Marketing:

  • Human influencer with personality

• Virtual Influencer:

  • Digital entity with personality

  • More likely to be hired due to control

  • More popular amongst younger generations

11/10/2025

• Digital Marketing:

  • Overwhelming majority of advertising spending is through digital channels

    • EX: Google Ads

• Social Media:

  • Any tool or service using a digital/internet platform to facilitate interactions/communications on a real-time basis

  • EX:

• Implications of Social media

  • Shift in Control for narrative → react quickly

    • EX: Tylenol packages were laced, had time to react since delay in news (newspapers primary form of communication), created a seal to protect the medicine

      • Differ today due to fast pace in communication

Digital Marketing

• Web 1.0 (1990s): Start of the World Wide Web

  • EX: Yahoo and Google Story

  • EX 2: McDonald’s

• Web 2.0 (Early to mid-2000s): Emergence of collaborative systems; social media

  • Content no longer generated by companies only

• Web 3.0 (Late 2000s to mid 2010’s): Smartphones; mobile apps; streaming; IoT (Internet of Things); big data

• Web 4.0 (Since mid 2010’s): AI; AR (Augmented reality)

  • As a result of previous discoveries

• Big Data:

  • Benefits:

    • Enhanced Personalization

    • Value co-creation

  • Drawbacks

    • Micro targeting can give feelings of creepiness

    • Not exposed to new ideas

• Digital Media Types:

  • Owned media: You talk about your own brand

    • EX: Dr. Dip’s Website

      • Pros: Highly Controlled

      • Cons: Little coverage usually; less credible

  • Earned Media: Brands talk about you

    • EX: Dr. Dip being interviewed by a brand

      • Pros: Earn attention (PR)

      • Cons: Less Controlled

  • Paid Media: You pay a brand to talk about you

    • EX: Dr. Dip wants to open a consulting firm; Sponsored posts on Amazon

      • Pros: Effective in gathering clients

      • Cons:

• Search-Engine Optimization:

  • Process of gaining the most favorable ranking as possible for a search online

  • Paid search: pay to appear higher in a search

  • Organic search: team uses index which have a higher ranking

• Golden Triangle

  • Top left-hand corner that gains most attention; Valuable state in a search engine

    • EX:

Digital AD Campaign

• Meta business suite

  • (Ads Manager)

• Native Advertising

  • When an ad blends into the content on a website; common practice

  • EX: BuzzFeed Pepsi Ad; Summer Emoji Starbucks Ad

11/12/25

• Contextual Advertising:

  • When an ad matches the target audience

  • EX: Nike x Sports AD

• Retargeting Advertising:

  • When an ad follows you around; Google uses cookies, data, etc. to understand how to target it; unique to digital

  • EX: Looking for a ticket for a sporting event → ads appear for sports games

• Morphing Advertising:

  • When an ad targets a certain segment towards a preferred characteristic

  • EX: Amazon

Defining Digital Marketing Campaign Objectives:

• Increase brand awareness

  • Reach/Impression = Number of people who viewed

• Drive website traffic

  • Ads targeted to promote this

• Boost conversion/sales

• Building social media engagement

  • Posting relevance

  • EX: Wendy’s

• Grow email subscribers

• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Measures success

  • Click-through Rate (CTR):

    • Number of clicks/Total views

      • EX: 100 views; 10 clicks = 10% CTR

  • Call-To-Action Button (CTA):

    • Anything that suggest an action

      • EX: Purchase Button, “Join Prime,” button

  • Conversion Rate:

    • Number of people who purchased an item

  • Followers gained

  • Cost per lead:

    • How much does it cost to get a customer

      • EX: $10,000 AD Campaign; 100 customers gained = 1000 Cost Per Lead (per customer)

        
        

• Channel Strategies for Digital Promotion

  • Search (paid/organic)

    • EX: Google ADA

  • Social Media

    • EX: TikTok, Instagram

  • Influencer Partnership

    • EX: Companies promote a product through an influencer

  • Email Marketing

  • Video Advertising

  • Content/blog Marketing

• Content Creation:

  • Unique content

    • EX: Mr Beast

• Conversion Path

  • Awareness → Engagement → Action

Ethics:

• Socially-Responsible Marketing

  • 
    

• Morals and Ethics (Overlap)

• Ethics:

  • Guiding principles of values that govern the conduct of individuals

    • EX: Companies guidelines

• Morals:

  • Rules that we develop as a result of cultural values and norms.

    • EX: Should marijuana be legal

• Legal:

  • Laws which reflect upon the free society

    • EX: Prostitution

• Factors that Influence Perceptions of Ethics/Moral Behavior

  • Social Consensus:

    • Relates to a country’s perception of norm/accepted behavior

  • Potential consequences

  • Probability of harm

• Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)

  • For any company with a business presence in the U.S. then if you do something illegal in the U.S. but allowed in another country, you will be in trouble.

    • EX: Child Labor and Bribery

      
      

• Turnkey Projects:

  • Give the project → they complete it → then it’s yours

    • EX: Infrastructure mainly with highways, houses, etc.

    • EX: Coke uses this for international warehouses → Government turns a blind eye

    • EX: Everyone going 70 on 55 highway → Police turn a blind eye until you go over 100

• Corporate Social Responsibility

  • Companies do something as a goodwill gesture

    • EX: Donations

    • EX: Bank of America

11/17/25

Emerging Technologies in Marketing:

AI (Artificial Intelligence):

• Background:

  • 1950s

  • 1990s: IBM and others had AI enabled systems

  
  

• Artificial Intelligence (AI):

  • Machines that accomplish tasks in “smart” autonomous manners.

    • Combining human psychology with computer science

    • In computing, it is based on rules-based algorithms; AI deviates with its flexibility to evolve

• Machine Learning (ML):

  • Subset of AI whereby machines are given datasets and they learn from these in order to perform specific tasks.

• Types of Machine Learning:

  • Supervised Learning:

    • Initial Stage

    • Controlled, structured setting where the answer is told; assists ML in learning

  • Unsupervised Learning:

    • 
      

• Key Areas in which AI is influencing marketing:

  • Improvement of customer service

    • EX: Apple’s Chatbot

  • Workload Automation

    • EX: Customer Service Call

  • Effective data management and analytics

  • Improving marketing/advertising

    • Product Designs

• In-house AI systems:

  • D

• Generative AI:

  • Creates visual, auditory, textual products

    • EX: AI pictures

      
      

• AI Agents

  • Take actions on your behalf

    • EX: Amazon’s Rufus

    • EX 2: AI Virtual Influencers (Imma)

• Agentic AI:

  • Adapt; goals; memory; more autonomous; evolves; thinking systems

    • EX: Self-driving car

• Computer Vision:

  • Enables machines to interpret and analyze visual information/data

  • Digital pictures poise a biased view

    • EX: Humans always look their best, may be due to referencing data from social media where we post our best

• Factors identified through Computer Vision

  • Image Acquisition

  • Image processing

  • Feature Extraction: Identify key patterns

  • Scene Understanding: Overall Context

• Neural Networks:

  • Computational Model inspired by biological neural networks in the human brain

  • Costs of interconnected nodes, organized into layers

• Deep Learning:

  • Subset of ML focusing on neural networks.

• Large Language Models (LLMS):

  • Open AI’s ChatGpt, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Grok

11/19/25

• Overview of AI Tools in Marketing:

  • Segmentation/Targeting (Clustering algorithms):

    • Cluster into groups based on sheer similarities

  • Personalization (recommendation systems)

    • Amazon Prime

  • Creative Content (Generate AI for visuals, videos, etc.)

  • Customer Service (chatbots, voice assistants)

    • Apple using Gemini for time being due to lag behind AI trend

  • Pricing and Promotion (Dynamic Pricing)

• Augmented Reality (AR):

  • Physical is imposed on the digital world

    • EX: Sephora bot finding shade march

    • EX: Meta glasses

• Virtual Reality (VR):

  • 100% digital

    • EX:

    
    

• Sensory Markerting:

  • Visual (Sight)

    • Colors signify certain (red - excitement, blue - relaxation)

  • Auditory (Hear)

    • 
      

  • Olfaction (Smell)

    • Chanel No. 5 used in Chanel stores to engage women audience (higher senses)

  • Haptics (Touch)

    • 
      

  • Gustatory (Taste)

    • All are easy to manipulate

Global Marketing

• Uncontrollable factors get multiplied

• Culture

  • EX: Europe vs. United States

  • EX: Spicy Campbell Soups in South; Non-spicy Campbell Soups in North

• Protectionism

  • Tariffs:

    • Tax on goods imported into a country; becomes more expensive

  • Quotas:

    • Specific amount of goods

  • Currency Restrictions:

    • Mainly in Asia regions

  • Countertrade:

    • Non-monetary exchange

      • EX: General Electric paid in rubber and palm oil

    
    

• Global Marketing Strategies

  • Uniform Strategy:

    • Same same product all around the worlld

  • Adaptive Marketing

    • Tastes/Preferences

      • EX: Coke in different countries taste

    • Legal

      • EX: Ingredients

    • Norm

      • EX: Alcohol beverages in McDonald’s around U.S.

• Culture:

  • Beliefs:

    • What you hold to be true

  • Values:

    • Individualism:

      • EX: How people order in U.S.

    • Collectivism:

      • EX: How people order in Asia

    • Power Distance Index:

      • Hierarchy in society

      • EX: U.S. lowest; Countries with English as the predominant language have a low PDI

      • EX: Luxury goods are more sought out for with countries with higher PDI

    • Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI):

      • EX: U.S. had low UAI due to built upon a variety of people

      • EX: China have high UAI

    •