Innovation in Marketing Channels

The management of distribution channels is going through profound changes. The definition of new business models (Lean Canvas and Value Proposition Canvas) and digital marketing innovations has greatly altered the nature and structure of marketing channels, thus creating more and more hybrid forms of companies' presence in the market: physical/offline vs virtual/online, or direct vs indirect. Omni-channel ecosystems, user-based innovations and co-creations, the diffusion of online communities, and the evolution of digital/technological tools have redefined how consumers purchase goods and services (both in B2C, B2B, and C2C), opening up a whole new array of strategic opportunities for channels of distribution (i.e., disintermediation or re-intermediation). The course aims to introduce the main issues involved in marketing channel strategy - including channel structure, channel design and management, channel performance, and channels' end-user analysis. Students will be provided with an overview of how conventional multi-channel distribution strategies moved toward omni-channel systems, exploring the impact of internet-based technologies and the key implications for distribution decisions. The first part of the course focuses on the nature of marketing channels, within the marketing mix, understanding how they are evolving, progressing, and changing. Channel players, behavioral processes, potential conflicts, power, roles, and communication will be discussed, specifically focusing on the benefits of upstream, intermediate, and downstream channel actors. The second part of the course focuses on how to effectively design, manage, and evaluate a marketing channels strategy, focusing on the main drivers of customers' expected service outputs: bulk-breaking, spatial convenience, delivery time, variety and assortment, customer service, information sharing. Finally, students will learn how franchising vs licensing channel strategies work, investigating their pro and cons through real case study analysis. Central issues around innovation in the digital economy will be covered, gaining knowledge on how to make products or services available to customers in more effective ways. Students will learn how to connect marketing channels strategies to the main trends in new marketplaces.

At the end of the course, students will learn how to: critically assess the current situation of a company's marketing channel design and management; investigate through teamworking real cases of emerging successful startups by focusing on their distribution channel strategies; propose efficient and effective marketing plans to significantly improve the distribution channel management of such companies by presenting concrete strategic actions.