What is Channel Marketing?
Throughout my time at school studying marketing over the years, I would have to say that there are parts of marketing left out of the lessons and topics consistently. We are all aware of pieces of marketing like promotion and advertising, but there are so many other aspects of the field that are not equally known. Channel marketing is a vital and intricate part of the marketing process, and without it, would not be the same, and possibly could seize to exist. Whether you are a student of marketing- like myself- who wants to know more about this seldom noted topic or you are are a business owner who is wanting to simply know more about the world of marketing and what it has to your operations, there is a lot to be learned about how channel marketing works.
First, I think it would only be appropriate to start with a definition of what precisely this step in the marketing process is. According to Wikipedia, Channel marketing is the people, organizations, and activities necessary to transfer the ownership of goods from the point of production to the end of consumption. Now, this is a vague and generalized approach to explaining the practice so I will attempt to translate into more understanding language.
In the Business realm, Channel often refers to a path and is a great way to think about channel marketing. What channel marketer do is, focus on how to make the path that the good or service takes to get to the end consumer more efficient. Now, this may not sound like marketing, but I am getting to that part. Marketers are at their core “people people” and one of the ways they exercise this instinct to build connections. Channel marketing is most aligned with Business to Business or (B2B), and the relationships that they are connecting with other businesses that can help with the process of moving the good through its path to the consumer.
Like any Business to Business based marketing strategy, there is more of a focus on bottom line revenue and anything else. Yes, people like to do Business with other ethical companies but compared to the marketing tactics used for Business to consumer, there is more of a need to focus on utilitarian needs rather than hedonic wants. This environment proposals made and strategies developed by channel marketers have to be done with due diligence and no room for error or fluff.
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