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Plan (Distribution Strategy) and Promotion

Trevor Henry

Professor Walker

Principles of Marketing

12/14/2016

Plan (Distribution Strategy) and Promotion

Introduction

Business organizations need to consider how to plan their distribution and promotion of their products in the market to make more sales and profits. HR manager in the Waters Bottling Company (WBC) should therefore organize how the products or the company will reach to customers at the right time when needed. Moreover, distribution and promotions are parts of the marketing mix (4Ps) that guide how the company will decide how the products will enter the market and reach to the final consumer (Hawkins, 2016). The company should consider proper marketing channels of advertisement and distribution to meet its goals and objectives in the market.

Distribution Channels

Distribution channels that the company will choose will enable it have an enormous competitive advantage in the market against its competitors. WBC target to reach more customers far and wide because of competition from other companies and the rising cost of its products and hence, the company is trying to expend the market to have higher profit margin.

Furthermore, for WBC to reach customers from far, right distribution channels are selected by the marketing manager to deliver the products where the customers are or in the market. Failure to reach to where the customers are means that the company will make the loss of money and the brand at the same time (Kurtz, 2012).

Length and Width

Length and width distribution channel describe the number of entities that are found between the distribution channels of WBC. This company specializes on long distribution channels where there are many intermediaries that helping the company to move the product to the market. Therefore, the company’s products tend to move through the distributors, retailers, as well as wholesalers. Because of using B2B business system, the company will be able to reach customers from far and wide through interacting with distributors, wholesalers, and retailers.

Direct & Indirect

WBC prefers to reach their customers indirectly in the market. This is achieved by the fact the company is using B2B system where the products are delivers to customers through the intermediaries. The company deals with the distributors, wholesalers, and retailers who take the High Mist bottled water to customers on the ground (Hawkins, 2016). The benefits are that the burden of having personal distribution fleet is eliminated for third party logistics can be used. Therefore, it allows the company to reach wider markets with easy for distributors; wholesalers and retailers are picked based on different locations in the market. Therefore, it promotes the sale of the company because intermediaries and agents who represents the company and indirect exporters who returns commission on sales (Hittmár, Varmus, & Lendel, 2014). Agents will also help to gather market information, arrange shipping, provide promotional advices, and distribute goods and facilities on behalf of the company.

Vertical & Horizontal Channel Conflict

A horizontal marketing system is the business strategy that brings two or businesses together who are dealing with same product. This helps to combine their production, financial, and marketing resources to accomplish functions that cannot be reached when they are operating separately. These companies join the forces of competitors and non-competitors. WBC can decide to join hand with its competitors such as Dasani, Nestle pure life, Aquafina, and many other who have already established marketing niche in the marketing. However, the problem of management arises in this partnership because of increase in size and hence more complex to manage (Ferrell and Hartline, 2012).

On the other hand, a vertical marketing system is the structure where the retailers, producers, and wholesalers act as unified system. This situation makes one channel to own the other through contracts and the power in which all operate. VMS involves more than one independent retailers, wholesalers or producers. Therefore, VMS provides a channel in which conflicts that may arise during the distribution channel because the channel members are usually considered as separate. However, VMS can be dominated by retailers, producers, or even wholesalers alone who can decide to maximize the profits on their own.

Promotion

Promotion is the process of advertising the product with the aim of giving customers the existence or more information about a particular product that the company is producing.

Communication Process & Tools

Communication process is part of advertising the product of WBC in the market. Because the company is making an international product, it will therefore use digitals channels of communicating its products to the consumers. The digital tools of communication will involve much on online and social media such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. Social media attracts many people especially young generation and it is therefore a better platform to make sales and advertise its product (Thackeray, Neiger, & Keller, 2012). For example, Facebook and twitter will be able people to share videos and photos of the WBC products through the digital devices all the time and this will increase the sales. The WBC will also post photos/videos of its products on the official website of the company where customers will be able to access the information concerning the product, price, and mode delivery.

Product Life Cycle

Product life cycle of the WBC product will follow the four stages such as introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. At this point, WBC water is at the introduction phase because the product is new in the market and customers have little information about it. It is then the responsibility of the company to convince the customers to buy the product through various methods of advertisement (Ferrell and Hartline, 2012). Moreover, as the product becomes more familiar to customers, they will continue buy it which increase the sales and profits to the company.

The WBC water will move to maturity and customers are now confident in buying the product. Because of this increase income, other players come in to compete with the WBC in the market. The company must come up with new strategies to make sure the original and sweetened water remain in the market. WBC will be required to carry out product differentiation or product branding so that the product can remain unique in the market for customers to continue buying it. Lastly, the WBC water will then move to last stage which is declining phase and the company will be require to do more of product promotion to make sure customers are kept aware of the product in the market.

Push vs. Pull

Push promotion Strategy for WBC water will be effective as it will increase the customers demand through trade promotions and discounts. This idea will try to push the products to customers through various company showrooms and point of sale- displays where negotiation between the customer, agent, or retailer can take place. The company can decode to incentives to retailers or customers who have shown the interest to work with it.

On the other hand, pull marketing strategies that will be employed by the WBC will also contribute much in attracting more customers. The process will aim at attracting customers through creating brand loyalty, promoting their services, and advertising in mass media or social media through various communication channels (Thackeray, Neiger, & Keller, 2012). Pull promotion will therefore help WBC to increase the sale and profits, and hence meeting its goals and objectives.

References

Ferrell, O. C., & Hartline, M. (2012). Marketing strategy, text and cases. Nelson Education

Hawkins, G. (2016). Plastic Water. The MIT Press.

Hittmár, Š., Varmus, M., & Lendel, V. (2014). Proposal of Model for Effective Implementation of Innovation Strategy to Business. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 109, 1194–1198. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.12.611

Kurtz, D. L. (2012). Boone & Kurtz contemporary marketing. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Thackeray, R., Neiger, B. L., & Keller, H. (2012). Integrating social media and social marketing: a four-step process. Health Promotion Practice, 13, 165–8. http://doi.org/10.1177/1524839911432009