Success Strategies in Channel Management

8/3/2019 Success Strategies in Channel Management

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Success Strategies in Channel

Management

Implementation - Making the Plan

Work Effectively


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Implementing,

Measuring and

Assessing the Value

Exchange Plan

Key Components of

the PlanImplementing

the Plan

Structures for

Implementation

Effective

communication

Dealing with Failure

Strategic Tunnel Vision

Perfectionism

Success and Commitment

Controlling the Marketing

Channels Program

Measuring and Assessing

Performance

Financial Measures

Non-Financial Measures

Customer ServiceMeasurement


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Implementing, Measuring and Assessing the

Value Exchange Plan

The Plan

The key components of the formal plan are as

follows:

Introduction and Overview

General Organisation Description

Product/Market Description

Main Value Offer -Core products

What markets are served

What sector is the organisation in

What is the current state of this

market/industry? (overall assessment)

Corporate Goals

Corporate Objectives

General Information

The Marketing Audit

Description of Your OrganisationsActivities

Value offer/Market Description

Detail of all Value offering (Products) in

portfolio

Detail of the market(s) served by the

organisation

Marketing Information - Research


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The Key Components of the Plan

Market Research

Marketing Information System:

Marketing Planning system:

Internal (Micro) Landscape Situational

Analyses

Overview of Corporate Philosophies

Analysis of Organisational Chart

SWOT Analysis of Internal Environment

(Strengths and Weaknesses, Opportunities and

Threats)

SWOT Analysis of External Environment

(Strengths and Weaknesses, Opportunities and

Threats)

External Landscape Situational Analyses

Economic/fiscal LandscapePolitical/regulatory/legal Landscape

Social/cultural Landscape

Technological Landscape

Physical Environmental Issues

Market Trends

Competitive Analysis

Industry structure

Market characteristicsCompetition

Industry profitability


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Customer/Client Analysis

Sales - Market Share Analysis

Total market

Market Potential AnalysisProfitability analysis

Cost-effectiveness analysis

Sales analysis

The Marketing Strategy (What is our

Competitive Edge)

Growth strategies

Defensive strategies

Offensive strategies

Target Segment(s) Profiles Who the market(s)

is/are

The Marketing Mix

Product Plan (The Value Offer)

New Products


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Pricing Plan

Distribution (Distribution Plan

Delivering Value) Plan

Logistics

Channels of Distribution (Intermediaries)

Pricing Plan

Promotional (Communicating Value)Plan

Personal Selling (Sales Activity) Plan

Advertising

Sales Promotion

Consumer-Oriented Sales Promotion

Trade Oriented Sales PromotionDirect Response Marketing (Direct Mail

and Telemarketing),

Sponsorship Activities and Packaging as

it relates to its promotional aspect.

Marketing Public Relations (Publicity)


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Sales Forecasts

Market potential,

Sales Potential,

Marketing Programs

Proposed Marketing Research/MarketIntelligence

Time-Tabling Activities

Budgets

Product development

Costs

Revenues (forecasted)

Forecasted Profits

Dollars, dollars per unitReturn On Investment

Versus organisation average

Monitoring and Controls:

Contingency Plans and Other MiscellaneousDocuments

Any Additional Organisation DevelopmentPlanning Elements:


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Implementing the Plan

The actual implementation of the marketing activities, relies upon the ability of

managers to plan, coordinate and motivate people throughout the

organisation to undertake actions which will create value for the

organisation and its stakeholders.

Implementation can be divided into the implementation management system

and the monitoring system.


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Implementation System

No matter how well a plan is conceived

and written, it is the implementation of

the intended plan that is the critical

element of success.

An effective method of communicating

the plan's objectives, strategies and tactics

is necessary to convince or persuade

employees to adopt the plan. This is part

of Internal Marketing Communication.

The early involvement of implementersand continuous communication of the

plan contents to other people in the

organisation are often regarded as sound

techniques to achieve effective

implementation.

The process for establishing implementation

can be listed as having three major stages.

The Plan Approval Stage; this requires that

the plan be given official approval by senior

management.The second stage, is the actual

implementation, and it management and

control by the marketing managers in order for

immediate and primary feedback as to what is

happening in the marketplace during the plan

implementation.

The third stage of the process is the analysis of

performance with the use of marketing

information systems and procedures and the

adoption of marketing audits.


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Results

What counts is results.

Results do not occur until something

happens, until it is implemented.

Plans don't bring results by

themselves and wont work without

commitment to success.

Structures for Implementation.

Fast response and swift implementation

calls for effective organisational

structure.

The traditional multi layer

hierarchical structure is in all

probability an outmoded concept.


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Effective Implementation

A flatter management structure

allows everyone to get into the act.

People are the engine which will

power your strategy. The effectiveinclusion of everyone in ensuring that

the strategy is successful is like

running on all cylinders.

Effective communication

Senior management needs effective

communication to enable faster

response to changing circumstances.As John Le Carre once wrote, 'a desk

is a dangerous place from which to

view the world.' It therefore behoves

management to get down to the coal

face or to ensure that the perceptionsfrom the market place get to them

quickly and effectively.


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The Key Messages Here Are:

- Listen to the people who do the work.

- Listen to the people who listen to the market.

- Listen directly to the market.

- Learn to see things as they are, get around and stay in touch.

- Make curiosity an organisational asset. Actively encourage people to talk to

you. Remember listening is not a positive activity. To be effective it will

be hard work.

Where it is not possible to spend enough time close to the action ensure that

you stay in touch through building effective relationships and networks.


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Dealing with Failure

No strategy is perfect. There is

always the high probability that

circumstances will change. It is also

likely that failures will occur.

No one problem has only one

solution. There are not only a

variety of bad solutions, but also a

number of good solutions. It is

always problematical whether there isever only one best solution.

Decisions are based on available

information and changing

circumstances as well as ability.

What is essential is that action is

taken.


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Strategic Tunnel Vision

The higher the level of pressure the

higher the likelihood that our

concentration will narrow down to

the problem confronting us.

The pressure of time makes itdifficult to recognise that there are a

variety of options available for any

problem.

Perfectionism

In the real, competitive world, there

is seldom any opportunity to devise a

perfect strategy.

There is never going to be enough

time to become perfect. The

objective is to have a marginally

better strategy than the competition.


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Success is any activity comes from

the commitment of people to

succeed. People succeed if they think

they will. They will make something

happen, often despite bad instructionsor plans - if they believe they can.

The essence of managerial control

has four parts:

1. Statement of what an activity

should accomplish - results, output,

goals. (What should be.)

2. Information gathered on progress

against this plan. (What is.)

3. Prediction of the operation's

ability to meet its objectives, givenwhere we are now (What will be.)

4. Action to correct the deviation if

deemed serious - and if action can

be taken. (What to do.)


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(1) define the activities and show the interrelationship between

tasks,

(2) evaluate alternative tactics to get to market faster,

(3) establish responsibilities of various functional units,(4) check progress at intervening durations against original

schedules,

(5) forecast bottlenecks,

(6) re-plan and redesign to avoid bottlenecks, and(7) assure quality while getting to market fast.


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Controlling the Marketing Channels Program

Types of control that can be

considered are:

the sales force,

manufacturing/operations and

purchasing requirements (internal

environment), and distributors, or

channels of distribution (external

environment) factors.

The profitability control areas,such as the types of profit required

for the marketing plan

Control needs to be considered from

the perspective of the personnel

involved, in other words, the

activities of the sales force and sales

managers could be considered here,as well as the control over external

people involved with the plan; for

example, advertising and market

research, the transportation division

and so on.


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Measuring and Assessing Performance

Measuring benefits and cost

Is there a clear plan/objectives?

Good Leadership?

Marketing Culture?

Divisional soundness of management

Organisational structure?

Channels

Monitoring Approach

Manager needs good monitoringskills. Monitoring is an

understanding' of relationships andevents central to executing marketingplans, especially strategies andprograms. Usually the informationneeds of managers are dynamic whilethe procedures and systems installedby organisations tend to be static.


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Measuring and Assessing Performance

By monitoring performance against the growth target monthly, managers can

see just how far they are ahead of or behind the target. If a couple of

months into the plan, managers find sales are behind target, there is time

for some serious thinking about what steps they can take to get back ontrack.


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How do organisations measure the

performance contributed by marketing

channels?Managers need to:

understand the link between what

they do and the bottom line; and

understand how the bottom line is

constructed.

There are basically three sets of tools

or approaches to measuring

marketing's contribution to increasing

value for the organisation.

Financial measures: These are

traditional accounting figures.

Non-financial measures: Normally

used in addition to the financial

measures; metrics such as marketshare, measures of volume and

customer satisfaction are examples.

Combined approaches: These are

more sophisticated and complex

because they assess performancefrom a holistic perspective; for

example, measuring brand value and

conducting a marketing audit.


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Financial Measures

Financial measures relating tomarketing decisions are usuallycentred on the:

costs incurred by the marketingdecisions;

sales revenue generated by thosecosts;

inventory and logistics costs based on

particular marketing campaigns sometimes causing larger inventoryholdings due to the failure of thecampaigns.

Trends

Trends in the financial measures overa period of time can be most helpfulin assessing current performance.Financial ratios, such as liquidityratios (the ability to pay debts in theshort-term) and profitability ratios(the capacity for financial stability),are also common marketingmeasures.


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Non-Financial Measures

There are many non-financial

indicators of performance,. The most

common are:

those relating to sales in volume, unitor quantity terms;

share of the markets for the different

brands compared to competitors;

customer satisfaction levels,

including the number of complaints;buyer behaviour trends including

communicating and brand awareness

rates - -

demand or rates of responses to the

marketing effort, such as number of

customer;

customers request to form a strategic

alliance.

As with the financial measures, the

trends, ratios and comparisons with

past results or with competitors areused for non-financial measures.


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Combined Approaches

The combination of financial and

non-financial measurements appeals

to management because it is seen as

an equitable assessment process.There are other approaches to

assessing performance but for our

purposes we will discuss a brand

value approach, a marketing audit

approach and customer service

measurement.

Services - Measuring complaints

An organisation's ability to process

and understand customer service

issues reflects its marketing

orientation. The recording andgathering of complaints is one way

organisations can understand their

market places and plan better

performance by providing enhanced

value exchange mechanisms.

Measurement (and subsequent

effective action) of complaints is a

source for improved customer service

and value.


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Customer Service Measurement

Without measurement, customer

service remains a subjective concept

and any possibility of improvement

remains a vague hope. To monitor

customer service we must select anappropriate metric or measure, and

set standards against which to

evaluate the actual performance.

.The measure chosen must:

provide an operational and

objective view of the customer

service element being monitored;and

reflect the customer's

perspective, that is, measure

those service elements that the

customer, not the supplier,believes delivers value.


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There are a number of approaches to setting standards:

empirical or historical: it may be

possible to experiment or use past

experience to determine the

acceptable level of performance;

internally driven: system ororganisational constraints may

determine the level of

performance that can be achieved.

This is not the best way to determine

standards;

cost driven: the cost of achieving

given service levels may determine

the standard;

competitor determined: an

organisation may be willing at least

to match the service being

delivered by competitive

organisations;customer determined: one of the

best ways to decide the level of

performance is to match that required

by the customers.

benchmarking: this approach isbased on finding the best

practitioners in the area being

measured and to study and adapt the

processes being used by the best.