Marketing Distribution Channel

At the present time, with the development of economy, in order to make large profits, a growing number of enterprises pay much more attention on choosing distribution channels. Keegan and Schlegelmich (2001) explained that distribution channel can be considered as the method which is used for enterprises putting products into the market for consumers to use. The traditional distribution channel goes from supplier, manufacturer, distributor, wholesaler and retailer (Frazier, 1999). Indirect and direct are two different types of distribution channels (Wilkinson, 2001). According to Silva (2008), “Well-chosen channels constitute a significant competitive advantage, while poorly conceived or chosen channels can doom even a superior product or service to failure in the market.” This essay will first discuss the main features and roles of distribution channels, the channel numbers from manufacture to consumer. The advantages and disadvantages of the indirect and direct distributions, and factors which influence enterprises choose type of distribution channels will be mentioned. And then, relate to the target market, control over channel members and costs involved in distributing the product, the channels of distribution used by Apple Iphone will be analyzed and use PEST to explain why it chose these. This paper aims to find out the reasons why different types of distribution are chosen for enterprises. This essay will argue that the factors, like product, target market, cost, channel member and PEST impact the choice of distribution channels in international marketing decisions.

There are three main different types of distribution channels, indirect channel direct channel and multi-channel system. Normally, goods and services need to pass through several middlemen before they reach the consumer for using (Keegan and Schlegelmich, 2001). However, manufacturers sell goods and services to the consumer without intermediaries in some cases, which can be defined as direct

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