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CM SU1L - Marketing Systems

Faculty
Mukul Gupta, Management Development Institute

Course Coordinator
ISUP Secretariat

Prerequisite/progression of the course

This course is targeted at Graduate students, typically those enrolled for an MBA programme or equivalent. Students must have completed a basic course in Marketing at the graduate level.

Course content, structure and teaching

This course is not a course in retailing and wholeselling operations or in logistics. Rather the orientation of the course is on the design and management of relationships among organisations which are linked together in a distribution system. While retail, wholesale and logistical firms are significant components of marketing channels, it is held here that the relationships among the various firms comprising channels are crucial and critical aspects of long-term competitive viability.

Strong emphasis is placed on understanding the behavioural aspects of channel relations – the role of channel members, their use of power, the conflict that arise among them, their communication networks and the like.

The course content will be structured as under:

  • Systems Approach to Distribution
  • System of Value-Creation for the Customer: The Design Part
  • Value for the Customer: Getting Ready for Delivery
  • System of Delivery of Value to the Customer
  • Positioning and Power in Delivery Systems
  • Establishing Channel Strategy & Tactics
  • Variants of Delivery Systems
  • Customer Service
  • Physical Distribution
  • Conflict in Delivery Systems
  • System Management and Control for Performance
  • Audit of System Efficiency and System Change
  • Integrating the Sub-Systems for Planned Performance
The course's development of personal competences
  • Reading and comprehension skills (e.g. critical reading of journal articles)
  • Analytical and problem-solving skills (e.g., analyse cases and make decisions)
  • Communication skills (e.g., presentations)
  • Interpersonal and team-working skills
  • Critically applying marketing and international marketing concepts to real-world
Learning Objectives

At the end of the course students should be able to:

  • Understand Marketing systems as interorganisational systems involved with the task of making goods, ideas, and services available for consumption
  • Understand how such systems are designed
  • Relate positioning and marketing strategy with distribution sysyem design
  • Understand how distribution systems are deployed
  • Identify processes im managing marketing systems
  • Appreciate Effective Management of distribution systems
Teaching methods

Lecture and conceptual discussions. In class discussion of HBS case-studies. Syndicated group work.

Examination

Final exam: 4-hour written exam (open book).

Exam aids: “Written exam aids” (i.e. books, compendiums, formula and table reference materials, articles, notes, posters, etc) are allowed.

Re-take exam: 24-hour written exam.

Recommended literature

Anne Coughlan, Erin Anderson, Louis W. Stern, Adel El-Ansary, Marketing Channels, 7/E Prentice Hall 2006 ISBN-10: 0131913468 ISBN-13: 9780131913462.

Additional readings:

  • Adam J Fein; Sandy D Jap, ”Manage Consolidation in the Distribution Channel” Sloan Management Review; Fall 1999; 41, 1; pg. 61-72
  • Erin Anderson, George S. Day and V. Kasturi Rangan, “Strategic Channel Design” Sloan Management Review, Vol. 38, No. 4, Summer 1997: 59-69
  • Gary L. Frazier and John O. Summers, “Interfirm Influence Strategies and Their Application within Distribution Channels” Journal of Marketing Vol. 48 (Summer 1984): 43-55
  • Gerald E. Smith and Thomas T. Nagle, “Frames of Reference and Buyers’ Perception of Price and Value” California Management Review, Vol. 38, No.1 Fall 1995:95-116
  • Inge Geyskens, Jan-Benedict E. M. Steenkamp, and Nirmalya Kumar, “A Meta-Analysis of Satisfaction in Marketing Channel Relationships” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. XXXVI (May 1999), 223-238
  • Jakki Mohr and John R. Nevin, “Communication Strategies in Marketing Channels: A Theoretical Perspective” Journal of Marketing, October 1990: 36-51
  • James M Olver and Paul W. Farris, “Push And Pull: A One-Two Punch For Packaged Products” Sloan Management Review; Fall 1989; 31, 1; 53-61
  • John F. Gaski, “The Theory of Power and Conflict in Channels of Distribution” Journal of Marketing Vol. 48 (Summer 1984): 9-29
  • John P. Murry, Jr. and Jan B. Heide, “Managing Promotion Program Participation within Manufacturer-Retailer Relationships” Journal of Marketing Vol. 62 (January 1998): 58-68
  • Louis W. Stern and Frederick D. Sturdivant, “Customer Driven Distribution Systems” Harvard Business Review, July-August 1987: 34-41
  • Rajiv P. Dant and Patrick L. Schul, “Conflict Resolution Process in Contractual Channels of Distribution” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 56 (January 1992), 38-54
  • Robert E. Weigand, “Fit Products and Channels to Your Markets” Harvard Business Review; January-February 1976: 95-102
  • Robert F. Lusch and James R. Brown, “Interdependency, Contracting, and Relational Behaviour in Marketing Channels” Journal of Marketing Vol. 60 (October 1996): 19-38
  • V. Kasturi Rangan, Melvyn A. J. Menezes, and E. P. Maier, „Channel Selection for New Industrial Products: A Framework, Method, and Application“ Journal of Marketing Vol.56 (July 1992): 69-82
  • Valarie A. Zeithmal, “Consumer Perceptions of Price, Quality, and Value: A Means-End Model and Synthesis of Evidence” Journal of Marketing Vol. 52 (July 1988): 2-22

Last updated by ISUP Secretariat 28/01/2010