Thursday, 22 December 2016

2.4


  1. Draw an overview of the distribution channels for your product. Describe the channels in terms of complexity and distance.

From what I could find out about Frito-Lay, and thus, by extension, Doritos’ distribution channels; it seems they have three: Direct store delivery, customer warehouse and third-party distributor networks. The first one is short indirect, the second and third one are long indirect.            (marketrealist, 2016)           (PepsiCo, 2016)

Under the first system, they deliver products directly to retail stores, which means they do all of the distributing work themselves. The second system delivers the product from the manufacturing plants and warehouses to customer warehouses and retail stores. The last of the three systems distributes the products to restaurants, businesses, schools and stadiums, which they do through third-party food service, vending distributors and operators.


  1. Describe which distribution functions are fulfilled through the different channel members.

In the first system, they do everything themselves, so all of the functions are filled by Doritos themselves except for the last part of the journey, which is left up to the retail stores. Doritos produces the product, transports it to the stores and after that it is up to the stores to sell the product.
In the second system, Doritos delivers the products to customer warehouses which means after that it is up to said warehouses to get the product to the retail stores. So, with this system all of the logistical functions are for the warehouses. They must sort it, allocate it and of course transport the product to its final destination before it reaches the consumer; the retail stores.
And with the last system it is the third-party distributors which have to do the things that the customer warehouses took in the second system. There are many third-party’s which they use though, so small things may change depending on which kind of party it is.

Though I do feel like you cannot simply say which functions are fulfilled because, some commercial functions such as promotion will always be done by Doritos themselves, but other functions such as assorting can be done by the entrusted third-parties. And sadly, from what I could gather on the distribution that Frito-Lay uses, I couldn’t specifically figure out which third-party companies they actually use. So, I am unable to tell you exactly which of the third-party companies does what.
Nevertheless, I wish to give a general picture. The first system I won’t discuss, since Doritos do everything themselves. But for the second and third system I will endeavour to give a general picture. With both systems, most of the financial functions lie with Doritos, most of the logistic functions lie with the customer warehouses and third-parties and lastly most of the commercial functions lie with the retailers.

  1. How can your product’s image be influenced by the retail concept in which it is sold? Clarify your answer!

Well, since retailing strategies are made to offer its products and services in ways to optimize the customer satisfaction, I shall assume it can both improve the customers image of your product, but if executed badly it may also hurt the image they have.

Allow me to clarify. If, for instance, a retailer makes a mistake when working on the customer orientation segment of the retailing concept, like he misjudges the needs of the customer, the entire plan would fall apart. the customer would, in this case, get something completed unwanted, which they might consider strange. This, then, would hurt the image of a certain product. If they do it properly, however, and give the customers what they want, said customers will be positively ecstatic, which is good for the product/company.

  1. Which distribution strategy has been chosen for your product?

I feel like I’ve answered this already in the previous questions, so I suppose I’ve made a mistake somewhere. I suppose, then, that I will give an overview of what I have said previously.

Doritos uses three distribution strategies which are the following:
1.    Direct store delivery
2.    Customer warehouse
3.    Third-party distributors
(PepsiCo, 2016) (marketrealist, 2016)

The first one is short indirect, the second and third one are both long indirect. Doritos never uses the direct strategy because they don’t own any stores, and so cannot reach their consumer directly.


Bibliography

marketrealist. (2016, December 6). PepsiCo: A company overview. Retrieved from http://marketrealist.com: http://marketrealist.com/2014/12/pepsicos-three-channel-distribution-network/
PepsiCo. (2016, December 7). PepsiCo 2015 annual report. Retrieved from http://www.pepsico.com: http://www.pepsico.com/docs/album/annual-reports/pepsico-2015-annual-report_final_s57dqszgmy22ggn.pdf?sfvrsn=0





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