New Channel Marketing For Suppliers & Resellers

There are two new types of channel marketing that suppliers are using these days to get the word out to the public about their products or services - vertical marketing and horizontal marketing. Horizontal channel marketing is a les frequent new approach to channel sales, where two or more non-competing organizations agree on a joint marketing venture. The two organizations might choose this type of channel marketing because their marketing goals are beyond the capacity of each individual organization alone, but it does not necessarily mean they have the same goals.

Vertical channel marketing, on the other hand, integrates the channel with the original supplier. This approach to channel sales includes the producer, wholesalers and retailers into one unified system. There are many reasons why this type of channel marketing might be appropriate, but usually it's because one member owns the other elements of the chain. The supplier might own its own retail outlets, or a retailer might own its own suppliers. This type of channel sales is also common among franchises and co-operations between retailer and supplier. Vertical channel marketing usually aims to give all those involved control over the distribution chain.

This type of co- channel management removes one set of variables from the marketing equation. These new types of channel marketing are not appropriate for all business models, though, because in many cases the supplier cannot be too involved in the sales and marketing tasks because they need to worry more about producing and supplying their product. This is why many companies still give control of their marketing and sales over to their trusted partners, and with proper channel management they still retain control over how those products are marketed. The new channel marketing methods are something to consider, at least, and for some business models they do actually work quite well.

Back To Articles