Distribution channel decisions involve long-term commitments with other firms that are very difficult to change or replace. In particular, marketing channel decisions in emerging markets are much more complicated due to unfamiliar conditions and problems such as lack of market data and distribution systems. Therefore, when a company considers changing or introducing a marketing channel in an area, it is much more difficult to judge its effectiveness in an emerging market than in a developed market. In this study, we investigate the development process of a new direct marketing channel of Hongfu Fertilizer Company (hereafter Hongfu), a medium-sized Chinese fertilizer manufacturer, and propose an approach to test the feasibility of this new marketing channel in the Chinese rural market. We measure the effectiveness of Hongfu's new marketing channel from two perspectives: i) from customers' perspective through direct responses of farmers, which showed that a new channel can increase the convenience and lower the purchasing costs for the farmers, and ii) from the company's perspective, by calculating the incremental profit of the company using the expansion factor (T/Q) method, which suggested that the execution of Hongfu's strategy to expand a new marketing channel will result in an increase in profits. The results of this study contribute to the development of a methodology to test the feasibility of a new direct marketing channel in the emerging markets such as the Chinese rural market. Traditional and indirect distribution channels in emerging markets are generally not very efficient and difficult to change. Especially, in emerging markets, like the Chinese rural market, the methods of testing channel feasibility must be different from that of developed markets. Considering market situations, market experiments can be more effective then systematic market surveys in testing channel feasibility in emerging markets. This study implies that managers must learn to cope with a transition from the traditional marketing channels in emerging markets. With the development in farmers' understanding of marketing concept, the transition from traditional marketing channel is unavoidable for all firms. Farmers in China are generally very conservative, however, their buying behaviors are changing. Therefore, fertilizer companies should try to adjust in accordance with farmers' demand characteristics that the efforts to meet the economic needs of farmers with new marketing channels as well as trust building are critical in the near future.
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the growth and change process of Korean cosmetic market that has grown more than three times since 2000. It also examined how the growth and decline of the cosmetics brands are related to the change of the cosmetic distribution structure. Research methodology: This study tried to classify the change of the Korean cosmetics market into four stages based on the market sales information. It analyzed the sales information of Korean cosmetic companies and the relationship with the sales of the brands by distribution channel. Results: One-brand store channel had played a leading role in the market growth, and multi-brand stores have grown and a number of brands also grew through that channel since 2013. Since 2016, multi-brand stores have continued to grow and have dominated the market beyond one-brand store channel. Conclusions: The changes in sales of domestic cosmetics companies have been classified based on the distribution channel type in four stages: the emergence of one-brand store, the growth of one-brand store channel, the growth of multi-brand store channel, and the decline of one-brand store channel. In conclusion, multi-brand store channels have recently grown in the Korean cosmetics market, and this trend is expected to continue.
This essay examines the marketing of Fishermen's Cooperative in Korea, and in particular considers the marketing channel of fisheries products, No company can perform by itself all the activities involved in the production and distribution of its products and services to its final markets. It must work with other firm to get the job done. Thus marketing channel firms of the fisheries products include primarily the Fishermen's Cooperative the licensed dealers and tile merchant middlemen, The goal of marketing is in matching of segments of supply and demand. Every producer seeks to the link the marketing channel firms that will help it accomplish its objective best. Therefore this study surveys the three types of marketing channels through tile central market That. is, they are a marketing channel through the terminal market, a marketing channel through the fishermen's cooperative terminal market, and a marketing channel through the private fish market. Consequently the Fishermen's Cooperative can choose to improve in any of tile marketing channel as follows: \circled1 The Fishermen's Cooperative is nominated wholesaler in the terminal market. \circled2 It is abolished to sell by double auction in the production district terminal market and the consuming city terminal market of Fishermen's Coopertive. \circled3 The steady wholesalers in private fish market are entitled to the licensed dealers. \circled4 The Fishermen's Cooperative sponsored voluntary chains join with retailer, supermarkets, consumers' society. Therefore the study of marketing channel of fisheries products can appropriately referred to satisfying needs and wants through exchange process.
Purpose - The objectives of this study are as follows. First, it aims to suggest an analysis model that has integrated the relationship between the two factors and export performance and conduct an empirical analysis of the factors. Second, the study seeks to analyze the mediating effect by setting direct channel governance as a specific activity to connect market orientation, a cultural asset, to export performance. Third, through these analyses, the study intends to apply the relationship between market orientation and direct channel governance that the existing studies have failed to observe comprehensively on SMEs in Korea. Based on these analyses, the study expects to expand the discussion of previous researches by analyzing the mediating effect of direct channel governance. Research design, data, and methodology - This study developed a model that has integrated market orientation, direct channel governance, and export performance. It established 7 hypotheses including the mediating effect of direct channel governance. Market orientation was consisted of customer orientation and competitor orientation, and 4 latent variables were measured by 18 questions. LISREL, an analysis tool of structural equation model, was used for hypothesis test and there were 183 sample for analysis. Results - The analysis results showed that customer orientation has a positive influence on direct channel governance, but competitor orientation did not have a statistically significant effect. On the contrary, export performance showed an opposite result. That is, customer orientation did not have any influence but competitor orientation had a significant influence on export performance. It was also confirmed that there was a significant influence in the relationship between channel governance and export performance. According to the analysis of mediating effect, direct channel governance had a full mediating effect between customer orientation and export performance. Conclusions - The study results demonstrated that it is important to build a direct channel governance on the export SMEs in Korea, especially since the direct channel governance complements the influence of customer orientation that does not directly influence export performance among market orientation activities. This implies that Korean export SMEs must strive to build an effective direct channel governance.
Internet commerce has been growing at a rapid pace for the last decade. Many firms try to reach wider consumer markets by adding the Internet channel to the existing traditional channels. Despite the various benefits of the Internet channel, a significant number of firms failed in managing the new type of channel. Previous studies could not cleary explain these conflicting results associated with the Internet channel. One of the major reasons is most of the previous studies conducted analyses under a specific market condition and claimed that as the impact of Internet channel introduction. Therefore, their results are strongly influenced by the specific market settings. However, firms face various market conditions in the real worlddensity and disutility of using the Internet. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of various market environments on a firm's optimal channel strategy by employing a flexible game theory model. We capture various market conditions with consumer density and disutility of using the Internet.
shows the channel structures analyzed in this study. Before the Internet channel is introduced, a monopoly manufacturer sells its products through an independent physical store. From this structure, the manufacturer could introduce its own Internet channel (MI). The independent physical store could also introduce its own Internet channel and coordinate it with the existing physical store (RI). An independent Internet retailer such as Amazon could enter this market (II). In this case, two types of independent retailers compete with each other. In this model, consumers are uniformly distributed on the two dimensional space. Consumer heterogeneity is captured by a consumer's geographical location (ci) and his disutility of using the Internet channel (${\delta}_{N_i}$).
shows various market conditions captured by the two consumer heterogeneities.
(a) illustrates a market with symmetric consumer distributions. The model captures explicitly the asymmetric distributions of consumer disutility in a market as well. In a market like that is represented in
(c), the average consumer disutility of using an Internet store is relatively smaller than that of using a physical store. For example, this case represents the market in which 1) the product is suitable for Internet transactions (e.g., books) or 2) the level of E-Commerce readiness is high such as in Denmark or Finland. On the other hand, the average consumer disutility when using an Internet store is relatively greater than that of using a physical store in a market like (b). Countries like Ukraine and Bulgaria, or the market for "experience goods" such as shoes, could be examples of this market condition.
summarizes the various scenarios of consumer distributions analyzed in this study. The range for disutility of using the Internet (${\delta}_{N_i}$) is held constant, while the range of consumer distribution (${\chi}_i$) varies from -25 to 25, from -50 to 50, from -100 to 100, from -150 to 150, and from -200 to 200.
summarizes the analysis results. As the average travel cost in a market decreases while the average disutility of Internet use remains the same, average retail price, total quantity sold, physical store profit, monopoly manufacturer profit, and thus, total channel profit increase. On the other hand, the quantity sold through the Internet and the profit of the Internet store decrease with a decreasing average travel cost relative to the average disutility of Internet use. We find that a channel that has an advantage over the other kind of channel serves a larger portion of the market. In a market with a high average travel cost, in which the Internet store has a relative advantage over the physical store, for example, the Internet store becomes a mass-retailer serving a larger portion of the market. This result implies that the Internet becomes a more significant distribution channel in those markets characterized by greater geographical dispersion of buyers, or as consumers become more proficient in Internet usage. The results indicate that the degree of price discrimination also varies depending on the distribution of consumer disutility in a market. The manufacturer in a market in which the average travel cost is higher than the average disutility of using the Internet has a stronger incentive for price discrimination than the manufacturer in a market where the average travel cost is relatively lower. We also find that the manufacturer has a stronger incentive to maintain a high price level when the average travel cost in a market is relatively low. Additionally, the retail competition effect due to Internet channel introduction strengthens as average travel cost in a market decreases. This result indicates that a manufacturer's channel power relative to that of the independent physical retailer becomes stronger with a decreasing average travel cost. This implication is counter-intuitive, because it is widely believed that the negative impact of Internet channel introduction on a competing physical retailer is more significant in a market like Russia, where consumers are more geographically dispersed, than in a market like Hong Kong, that has a condensed geographic distribution of consumers.