Creating a Distribution Channel for Your Product
A million things go into running a product oriented business. You had a great idea and now you have this product, but then what? How do you plan to compete with other products in the San Francisco Bay Area? Building brand awareness is a job in itself. It is very difficult to have successful product management and even more difficult to do it alone. Some companies that have created a brand for their products are 6 Pack Fitness, Prism, and Bicycle Company. Channel ditributing plays a part in that brand. Creating a distribution channel could benefit your business if you are open to having outside help.
Channel distribution is essentially a pathway from the products manufacturer to the consumer. This can have as many middlemen as you are comfortable with and will ultimately develop your brand awareness. Ideally in the SF Bay Area, a business is going to want a successful distribution channel that allows its product to be everywhere. Some people like to have full control over their business, which creates an extremely small distribution channel. A good example of this would be homemade goods as they come straight from the manufacturer to the consumer. Or you can have several pit stops between before the consumer receives the product. In an extreme sense you can have your product made by a manufacturer, then sent to a distributor, then given to a wholesaler, who will then market it to retail stores, where an average normal consumer will stumble upon it and eventually pay for it.
Deciding what distribution channel is good for you takes business analytics. It would be smart to create a marketing calendar to understand the demand of your product during different times of the year. From there you can develop customer relationship management programs that allow you to increase product sales during slower seasons. We are going to talk about three types of distribution that can create successful product management.
2. Selective Distribution
A selective distribution style would have a bigger channel. Your product would leave the manufacturing site to go to a distributor, who would then bring it to a retail facility. The product is in the hands of a couple groups before it reaches the consumer, but it’s still not many. What makes it selective is that the product has a target audience and still isn’t available everywhere. 6 Pack Fitness is a readily available product, but you can’t get it anywhere or Solar Panel takes a look at their website, but you aren’t having to travel anywhere to get the product. Think of Boudin Bakery only being in the Bay Area. They get their ingredients from a manufacturer, but the bread is made in house and all of their locations are in the SF Bay Area.
3. Extensive Distributing Style
If you want your product to be everywhere and available all of the time, this is the best avenue for you. Think of candy bars. You can get a candy bar at a grocery store, a movie theater, a supermarket, or even at the gas station. This type of distribution involves as many markets as possible, which requires a rigorous channel. You need a solid manufacturer and you might need several locations if you want your product in several areas. Then your distributor would bring it to an agent, who would sell to wholesalers, who then sell to retailers. A lot of people are incorporated, but in this case it is absolutely necessary because all of that work can not be done by a small group of people.
