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?
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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:
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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
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Can Marketers leverage Sports other than Cricket?
Companies are trying pitch in with sport in any form. They are ready to look beyond cricket for the first time:ITC has a Sunfeast Womens Tennis tourney coming upNokia is sponsoring GolfAirtel is promoting Motor sportsArisia Diamonds is sponsoring Polo in JaipurStandard Chartered is sponsoring the Mumbai MarathonSport and sport stars often acquire larger than life image and brands want to leverage that, says Ravi Naware, CEO, ITC Foods. We found a clear fit between Sunfeast and the sport. No doubt sports has grown tremendously as a advertising medium, the jump in viewership and the resultant large share in the advertising pie clearly establish the fact that its here to stay. According to media tracking firm TAM, in the year 2004, the viewership increased from a low of 2% to 9% in a matter of three years, and simultaneously the sports advertising cornered nearly a tenth of the total ad spend, up from a measly 3% three years ago. The consumer durable company Samsung spends close to 15 per cent of his advertising spends on sports advertising. Sports can be used very effectively for brand building, but it all depends on how a brand wants to position itself, says Ravinder Zutshi, deputy MD, Samsung. And the rising interest for sports amongst corporates can be gauged from the fact that, even a niche sports channel like ESPN Star Sports has totted up 145 clients up from 84, the year before last. And in the past 15 odd years, both have taken turns to be the favourite medium for marketers. In the early 90s, it was Sachin who caught everyones imagination. When that novelty wore off, more cricket stars jumped in to cause a clutter, forcing some marketers to look for diiferentiators in Bollywood stars like Shahrukh and Amitabh Bachchan. Life has come a full circle. Sportstars are hot property again. And leading the newbie tribe is Sania Mirza. She is the hottest property ruling the imagination of the youngsters of the nation today, says Anirban Das, VP, Globosport. Can Marketers leverage Sports other than Cricket? Are marketers prefering Sania over Sachin?