Chapter 10- Suitable intermediaries are not available A firm may have to go direct if suitable intermediaries are not available or will not cooperate.
Sometimes intermediaries that have the best contacts with the target market may be hesitant to add unproven vendors or new products. For example, when Glacéau began selling its now popular Vitaminwater, wholesale distributors had no interest in carrying it. So the owner of the company delivered the bottled water directly to small retailers in New York City.
Once he proved his product would sell, distributor interest grew. On the other hand, to enter the California market, Glacéau gave distribution rights to just one distributor.
As a result, it was in this distributor's interest to work closely with Glacéau to build the market. Eventually Coca-Cola purchased Glacéau; at that point Coke added many of its own distributors. Glacéau became a success by slowly building support from retailers and wholesalers, but many new products fail because the producer can't find willing channel partners and doesn't have the resources to handle direct distribution.
In the United States, the Census Bureau publishes detailed data concerning wholesalers and retailers, including breakdowns by kind of business, product line, and geographic territory.
Similar information is available for many other countries. It can be very valuable in strategy planning-especially to learn whether potential channel members are serving a target market.
You can also learn what sales volume current intermediaries are achieving. Agree? Why?