Marketing questions and customer engagement strategies

¶ … push marketing strategy and a pull marketing strategy? Explain how each of these strategies work

Push marketing strategy is a marketing tool that is commonly used by the manufacturers to create brand awareness of their new products. It involves the promotional activities that are carried out by the manufacturers in order to encourage the consumers to buy their products. Most new companies apply this technique to persuade the retailers to stock their products to reach more consumers.

Pull marketing strategy on the other hand is a technique being used by the manufactures to create a superior product and uses the most powerful mode to advertise the products to create demand. Once the demand has been created, both the customers and the retailers look for the products from the stores.

Describe channel conflict and provide an example.

Channel conflict is the situation where the manufacturer or the supplier of a commodity opts not to follow the normal distribution channels and deals directly with the end user of the product. Selling of products via internet is an example of the channel conflict where the services of the middle men in the distribution channels are eliminated.

What is a direct marketing channel? Please provide an example.

Direct marketing is a strategy that the manufacturers use when dealing with the customers directly as opposed to going through the distributing channels. It is the situation where all the marketing communications are aimed at the consumers not targeting the middle men. The telecommunication companies for instance through the mobile phones can do direct marketing within their network on the best offers and deals directly to the customers within their network coverage without targeting the retailers (Marketing Teacher, 2000).

What are the differences between exclusive distribution, selective distribution, and intensive distribution? Why would you choose one of these strategies over another?

Inclusive distribution is a method used by the producers where the supply of their products enjoys a wider coverage through many outlets within an area.

Selective distribution is a situation where the producer uses a limited number of outlets within an area. The producer may decide to use only specific outlets to supply its products.

Exclusive distribution is a leaner version of selective distribution where the producer opts to use only one distributor or outlet in a particular area.

The choice of any of the above channels is subject to perishability or complexity of the product. Customer preference also play an important role as some customers may prefer to buy directly from the producers while others may prefer to buy from the wholesalers or retailers (tutor2u, 2012).

How would you describe retailing? What are the four levels of service?

Retailing is the act of selling a product or a service to the final end user for their own personal consumption and not for business use. The four levels of service include; Self- Service, Self-Selection, Limited Service and Full Service.

Why do intermediaries bother to sponsor their own brand? What is the role of private label brands in the market place?

The intermediaries sponsor their own brands in order to increase their sales volume and to increase their profits. The role of private label brands in the market is to build a customer base that identifies with a particular label as their chosen store over others in the provision of their supplies. Customers identify with the private label brands hence the decision to choose one store over another (Meera Mullick-Kanwar, 2001).

Describe wholesaling. Why do manufacturers not sell directly to retailers or final customers?

Wholesaling is the act of selling goods or services in large quantities to people who are buying for purposes of retailing or for business use other than for consumption. Manufacturers may not have access to the entire market hence the need to sell through the intermediaries to reach all the consumers in different parts of the market. Manufacturers rely on the whole sellers to bridge the gap and to use their networks to increase the supply in different areas due to the large number of retailers and consumers that the manufacturers cannot reach on its own and to avoid product shortage in any part of the market.