Three level channel
When businesses use this type of distribution
Generally, different businesses use different types of distribution which suit them. For example, some small newsagents don’t need to buy in bulk, because it’s too expansive for the shop and it simply might not have enough customers to buy its products. For large businesses like ASDA, it’s better to buy goods in bulk, because they have high demands for the types of products they sell, and they can also charge lower prices for the products they sell. It is more profitable to sell direct to the customer though, because it allows businesses to save the costs of supplying their products to the retailers or wholesalers. However, if the business sells thousands or millions of products, it would be very difficult for this business to deliver all these goods directly to the consumers. Therefore, they sell their products to the wholesalers, who then sell them to the consumers. It’s very good for the business though, when it has too many intermediaries in its distribution chain, like wholesalers, agents and retailers. Generally speaking, the few intermediaries in the distribution chain, the more control a manufacturer has over how its products are sold. When there are few wholesalers or retailers, the business a manufacturer can make an agreement stating the maximum price, for which their products may be sold.
Usually businesses, which use short distribution channels sell industrial products, like building materials, there very few customers on the market. Usually customers are concentrated in one place, or customers come to this place to buy the products. They sell expensive or very complex goods. Sometimes, businesses who operate in this market don’t have frequent sales. It’s means there’s a period of time, when many people buy their products. For example, people are tend to buy new cars in summer, or some people are tend to buy building products for their houses in summer, because it’s easier to do all building works in summer. Therefore, at certain periods of time, the demand for their products rises.
(Promotion Letting some people to wear the products at the parties and etc show off, and convince others to buy it.)
Business Organisation. (Functional areas of the business, roles, responsibilities of the departments and marketing objectives.)
Businesses have different marketing objectives, which can be: increase in sales, market share, profits, improving customer satisfaction and many others, depending on the type of business and industry. In order to achieve these marketing objectives, businesses need to make sure that organisational structure of their business is done properly and works efficiently. Different businesses have different business structures, but most businesses have a certain number of departments with specialised staff in each department. For example, the business can have Marketing, Production, Financial, HRM, and Customer Service Departments. In this case, to make the process more efficient, the company needs to make sure that there’s a good communication between all departments and that they know what they’re supposed to be doing. Different departments have different responsibilities, but they also have one the same responsibility, to make sure all other departments are aware of what they’re currently doing. For instance, the main responsibilities of the Marketing Department are to carry out the research, marketing, develop new products, find out the length of time it takes to develop new products, costs of the development process, potential price and demand for new products. For example, if the company suddenly decides to launch a new type of product, first of all, the Marketing Department needs to carry out a research on order to find out whether customers will like the product or not or whether the product is profitable. They will also need to find out how much customers are willing to pay for the product, how big is the market, and how many potential competitors there are on the market. This will give a business an idea of how reliable the idea of introducing a new product is, how difficult it will be to enter a new market, and how much of promotion will be needed. Other, also very important responsibility of the Marketing Department is to make sure the business maintains existing customers and gets additional customers by using effective promotional methods and introducing interesting ideas into the development of the new products. If the Marketing Department succeeds to introduce a new product that customers want to buy, it then has high chances of achieving higher profits and revenues, helping the firm to become more competitive on the market, which might be one of the most important marketing objectives for the business. After the Marketing Department has made all research, the task passes on to the Production Department where the product is actually being designed and produced. Marketing Department always needs to co-operate with Production Department, in order to find the potential costs of the making the product, and whether it is possible to manufacture certain types of products. Other responsibilities of the Production Department are to make sure there’s a sufficient quantity of the products, so they meet the demands of the customers. It also needs to make sure the quality of the future product will satisfy customer expectations. In order to achieve high quality of the products, the Production Department also needs to search for good raw material suppliers, organise stock so there’s no waste left; and make sure that production is organised, in order to achieve cost efficiencies, which will allow having more price flexibility. In order to achieve higher profits, revenues and maintain product satisfaction, the Production Department needs to make sure they have an attractive design of the product and that it’s cost efficient to produce; that they use recyclable products and are not causing much waste, which also creates a good image for the business by making it look good environmentally friendly. This will help the business to achieve its marketing objectives. Usually while Production Department is thinking about the design of the future product, Marketing Department starts thinking about the ways of promoting the product when it gets on the market. While Marketing Department is doing the research, Finance Department is also helping Marketing Department to find the potential costs of the products. The main responsibility of the Finance Department is to provide marketing with the finance that it needs to carry out research, promotional activities, product development, e.g. finance to buy new machinery to make the product. In order to achieve marketing objectives of the business, Finance Department needs to make sure, that they don’t make the loss, increase their profits and revenues, or at least maintain the existing ones at the same level. It also provides all the other departments with finance for all their activities, such as: HRM training, creating a new customer service centre, and many other activities. Marketing and Production Departments always need to work with Finance Department, because it’s the one they are dependent on. If the Finance Department thinks that a new project will involve many investments and, that it’s potentially dangerous for the company, because it doesn’t have enough money and risks going bankrupt. If this happens, either Marketing and Production Department will have to search for a new product and a cheaper way of producing it, or Finance Department might have to search for investors or sponsors, who would like to invest their money into the development of a new product. In this case, of course, the firm will also have to decide whether they will want to share the potential profits, which they might gain from the product and discuss many other aspects of the business. There are also some other departments in the business, which need to work with Marketing, Production, and Finance Departments. One of them is the Human Resources Department, which is mainly responsible for employing the right quantity of qualified workers, so they’re able to produce or market the products demanded. It also needs to make sure that all workers have the right qualifications, or those who need further training in order to produce high quality products, receive this training. HRM Department needs to make sure that workers have the right personal skills, in order to work effectively, and that there’s a supervisor or a mentor in the company, who is supervises the employees and makes sure they know what they’re doing. HRM Department always needs to communicate with the Production Department, because it provides it with information about what skills might be required in order to produce a new product, how many workers they will need, or will the production process be autonomic and whether they will need any workers to look after the machinery. Human Resources Department also needs to communicate with the Finance Department, because training of staff might involve further costs and more finance will need to be provided from the Finance Department. It also needs to work with the Marketing Department, because they might need more workers to do marketing research or carry out certain tasks, so there will be more jobs available, and HRM Department will have to employ new staff. In addition to this, in order to the firm achieve higher profits and revenues, it needs to make sure, that they have highly qualified staff which is working efficiently, the costs of employing new staff are low, and make sure it creates a good image for the company, by providing more jobs, which is good for the economy of the country, which makes the business look good. Another department, which plays a big role in the business, is the Customer Service Department. It is mainly responsible for creating a good reputation for the business by making sure the high quality of the products and service is provided to the customers, that customers are satisfied with the quality and responding to any concerns which the customers might have. Customer Service Department is also responsible for collecting data on customer service and handling complaints. It also has to keep the data on quality up-to-date make sure that current marketing mix meets customer requirements. Customer Service Department also plays a very significant role in the business, because if these processes are not done properly and they are many customers unsatisfied with the quality of the products and service, then business might simply lose many customers and fail to achieve the targets and future revenues. In addition, to this those customers who were not satisfied with the products or service, might complain to their friends (by the ‘word of mouth’), which means additional customers will be lost. This can, as a result have a dramatic effect on the firm’s profits and revenues. In order the all the other departments and the firm as a whole achieve its marketing objectives, Customer Service Department needs to make sure the business has a good reputation, provides high quality products and service and that there are no complaints, so the customers are satisfied. As long as it makes sure the business has satisfied customers, the business will is more likely to do well and succeed in achieving marketing objectives being set. Therefore, in order to achieve its marketing objectives, the business first of all needs to make sure that all departments communicate well with each other, and it also needs to make sure that it meets other objectives, such as:
As long as all these objectives are met, the business is more likely to achieve higher profits, revenues, and other marketing objectives.
AS Applied Business Coursework on Apple
The aim of this assignment is to: · identify my chosen company · identify its corporate objectives · identify its marketing objectives · present the company’s marketing mix · identify the departments within my chose company, outline their function and discuss how the departments help this company to achieve its marketing objectives and its marketing mix
The company I chose is ‘Apple’. I decided to choose this company, because it is a well known business which is one of the biggest electronic and computing equipment producers in the world. At the moment ‘Apple’ is on its high peak, when almost everyone in certain countries has one of the Apple products. This was achieved by having a good experience on this type of market and a number of unique products, which I’m going to show.
There are many other companies in the world producing similar types of products, but not all of them create both the product and software. For example, Dell buys all computer components from IBM and Intel, buys all software from Microsoft and other firms, which specialize at producing software. Basically, Dell puts everything together and sells it to the customers, and even sometimes uses marketing strategies, which are adopted by the other firms they buy the components and software from.
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Aim
Apple is unique, because it designs and creates new products, produces its own components and develops software for the products they make. Even packaging is done by the same company and all boxes for their products are designed by Apple.
Usually, when the company is trying to change something in the chain of the production and distribution of their products, they need to make the agreements with all firms they buy the components and software from. For example, if one company wants to increase the number of the computers, which they produce and sell in one city than it did before, then it might fail to do this, if their supplier fails to produce enough components for their products. These companies are always dependent on each other, whereas Apple is almost fully independent from all its suppliers.
