Sales channels to reach your customers
Selling through retailers, wholesalers and other distributors
Selling through an intermediary may be a more cost-effective way of reaching your end-customers than selling to them directly.
If you are targeting business customers who prefer to deal with large suppliers, selling directly to them may not be a realistic option. Instead, you might aim to supply wholesalers who have existing relationships with those businesses.
If individual consumers buy low value quantities of your products, the best option might be to target retailers that sell similar products. Or you might choose to focus your efforts on a relatively small number of wholesalers who can in turn supply your products to many retailers.
Other distribution channels may also reach your end-customers. For example, technology suppliers often sell to resellers who can configure and install the technology to suit end-users’ particular needs.
Managing your distributors
You need distributors who will value your product. If they sell competing products, what will make them push yours?
orange soda Fieldwork marketing Job
Think about how you set your prices. Distributors will be more enthusiastic if they can make a large profit – but setting too low a price will eat into your own margins.
Effective advertising and promotions can be vital. As well as marketing to the distributor, you can promote your products directly to end-customers. Distributors will be keener to stock and sell products that their customers are asking for.
The key terms of the supply relationship should be covered in a written contract. Key issues might include:
orange soda Fieldwork marketing Job
how much stock the distributor will hold
what the distributor will do to promote your products
how quickly you can resupply and minimum order levels
whether the distributor has exclusive rights to your product (for example, in a particular territory)
what happens if either you or the distributor want to end the relationship
Business ideas, Marketing and sales , promotions and advertising ideas , articles
Arvind Mediratta .. 12 years of FMCG experience
Arvind Mediratta, vice-president, marketing, Whirlpool India, has spent 12-and-a-half years in the FMCG industry, his first and longest stint being with FMCG giant, Procter and Gamble (P&G). When he wanted to break free from the “structured organizational setup at P&G”, Marico Industries welcomed him as marketing head. In the two years that he spent at Marico, the company improved its topline growth, with new products contributing nearly 17 per cent of the turnover in financial year 2003 (up from about 12 per cent the previous year). Whirlpool India attracted Mediratta for one very simple yet strong reason – ‘consumer focus’. Mediratta’s current agenda is to further the ‘homemaker’ partnership with the consumer by providing her relevant technology.Interview with Arvind Mediratta and check out why he shifted to Consumer durables !!
