Marketing intermediaries are an integral part of the chain of transfer of goods from the manufacturer to the buyer. They provide the most comfortable conditions for purchasing goods and are responsible for their distribution in a form acceptable to the customer. The three strategies needed to implement the marketing intermediary count are the principles of intensive distribution, exclusive distribution, and, finally, selective distribution.
Intensive distribution of the product is described first in the order since it determines the number of intermediaries as the widest- and large-scale. The company’s products are sent to as many outlets as possible through intensive distribution. The philosophy of this method of selling goods is to strive for maximum availability for the client so that the goods can be purchased at any convenient place and time (Gitman et al., 2018). Convenience for the buyer and the ultimate visibility of the product on the shelves are useful for brands creating mass-market products.
The opposite situation concerns exclusive distribution, which narrows the circle of consumers of a product to a niche, thus increasing its value. In this way, the product developer allows oneself more control over the pricing and distribution of advertising, which can positively affect the brand’s symbolic value (Moretti, 2019). The minimum number of resellers also allows one to create a narrow demand for the product by increasing its price.
Finally, using selective distribution, it is possible to transfer goods and their distribution through a similarly extremely limited number of intermediaries. In such cases, either selected but very large retail outlets are selected for the distribution of goods, or, on the contrary, a highly specialized approach is taken to sell goods that go through special thematically oriented dealer stores. Most important is the principle of selectivity, according to which the company always chooses a smaller number of intermediaries than those who really want to establish collaborative ties with the company.
References
Gitman, L. J., McDaniel, C., Shah, A., Reece, M., Koffel, L., Talsma, B., & Hyatt, J. C. (2018). Introduction to business.OpenStax.
Moretti, L. (2019). Distribution strategy. Springer Cham.