Distribution Channels and Technology - Assignment Example

Channel stewardship as a new approach in marketing is about the continued alignment and influence in the supply chain. It is the ability of a given member in a distribution channel (a steward) to form a go-to-market strategy that simultaneously attends to customers’ best interests and drives profits for all channel members. It also involves the myriad players in a channel value chain i.e. producers, wholesalers, retailers, and consumers (Steenkamp, 2007). Creating superior responses to customers' demand chain needs in a way that will guarantee the best economic returns to all participants, is a major goal for the channel steward.

Understanding customer needs and their demand is also important in mapping channel stewards. It also involves coming up with diagrams showing the flow of products and services through the channel value chain, Gauging outside forces shaping the market, Catalog channel member division and cost of labor, and calculating a case for channel stewardship investing.

Building involves assembling a new and improved overall system and putting it into aligned practice. This means creating a stewardship plan. It also deals with targeting value chain value properties of key customer segments, Identifying levels of operation up and down the chain based on perspectives shared with stewardship groups by respected people from each channel partner, and prioritizing and demarcating roles and investments is the final step in the building task.

Aligning is all about harmonizing the channel value chain. It includes; Engendering the 3 T’s truth, transparency, and trust, resolving channel discrepancies and reconciling differences between competing channels, and sustaining senior executive engagement from all players.

Internet shopping has brought a lot of changes in the marketing sector since almost all goods and services nowadays are being marketed and transacted online wise. Incorporating the internet into a channel strategy and overcoming common obstacles that prevent transformation has been highly addressed and emphasized in improving marketing through channel stewardship even though it may not be done very easily (Friedman,2012). Senior managers of many companies and institutions that move goods and services from suppliers to end users are coming to terms with the reality that their distribution channels are outdated and unwieldy hence benefiting neither customers nor other channel partners as well as they should. Technology especially the internet may have made it easier to do business by accessing customers faster and making quicker transactions but in the long run, changing the distribution channel may prove to be a bit more difficult and require more intervention (Rangan, 2006).

Conclusion
To sum it up we can say that channel stewardship is a new approach in marketing that could very easily benefit all the members of the distribution channel and satisfy the consumer. Incorporating technology like the internet into the distribution channel may bring some slight improvement to this system but it may not be very easy to fully integrate and automate the whole distribution channel, since it is the hardest element of a company’s marketing strategy to change. Read More