Assignment - Marketing Channels and Supply Chain Management:

Once you have completed the readings for the Lesson please complete the following activities.
It may seem easy to understand how distribution channels work just from reading, but you may not appreciate their broad scope. This exercise will help you see for yourself how complex a single distribution channel is. Then, when you think of the number of products and services available on the market at any one time, you will understand how tremendous the national (and international) distribution network actually is.

Activities:

1. Create a list of approximately 10 products that you often purchase for personal use and/or that are present in your home.

2. For each of the products that you listed, speculate whether the product was routed through the marketing channel using (a) exclusive, (b) selective, or (c) intensive distribution. Use the chart provided to help you organize your list.

3. Now, for each product-distribution strategy combination, speculate as to the product, market, or producer factors that lead to this distribution strategy.

4. Finally, identify any potential alternative distribution channel options through which you might have purchased this product. Would the alternative channel choice have changed the way (location, timing, price) you purchased this good? Why or why not?