Consider each of the following products
Coca-Cola classic
Shasta brand cola
Budweiser beer
Schwan’s ice cream
Used CD of Lady Gaga
Dell notebook computer
To the best of your ability (using your textbook and Internet sources as your guide), consider the distribution channel of each of these products from their original source of manufacture to the place where the final consumer would purchase and/or consume them. Assume we visited each product at every stage throughout the distribution channel. Think about the following: What would we see? Who, in the channel, would be involved? How would they be involved?
After considering the issues noted in the bullet points above, answer any three of the following questions:
1) Have you ever noticed Budweiser and Coca-Cola trucks in the parking lots of grocery stores? Their drivers are dressed in Bud or Coke uniforms, and are responsible for stocking the products on grocery shelves. Although there are similarities, the channels of distribution for Bud and Coke are quite different. How are they different? Think about where the product is “made.”
2) Why don’t you see Shasta brand trucks and delivery people, as you do for Coke and Bud? Why has Shasta elected to use a different channel of distribution?
3) Why does Schwan’s elect to sell door-to-door? Wouldn’t it be less expensive and more efficient for them to sell through conventional grocery outlets?
4) Is it advantageous or disadvantageous for Dell to sell its computers on-line as well as in discount stores?
5) What are the means by which “used” products (e.g., Lady Gaga CDs) are distributed? How is the channel different than for new products? Or, is it different?
