MARKETING CHANNEL AND LOGISTIC

Marketing Channel and Logistics

Introduction1

Channels2

Theories4

Total Quality Management4

5S6

Problems faced by UPS7

Solutions to Problems8

Competitive Advantage through Logistics9

Sustainable Logistics at UPS10

UPS and CRM11

Conclusion12

Marketing Channel and Logistics

Introduction

The ever increasing competition in the business environment is leading organizations to think differently when it comes to managing their supply chain. The efficient management of the supply chain is considered one of the best aspects of organizations efficiency because of the cost savings attached to it. The establishment of a sustainable supply chain management involves a number of managerial, structural and organizational changes along the chain, with the inclusion of more collaborative relationships with suppliers and customers, reducing the environmental impact of products and social respect for employees and communities (Jerneck, 2011, 69-82).

According to Christopher (2011), “Sustainability is the ability to last long.” Hence, sustainable logistics is all about forming a logistics system that would last long and deliver good performance. Sustainable management of the supply chain therefore seeks to obtain the positive performance in the three dimensions of sustainability: economic, environmental and social. (Sastry, & Sreenu, 2012, 1-15) “Logistics is more focused on the planning and synchronisation of material movements within an organisation and to the customer, while SCM is a more holistic term referring to the management of information, materials, funds and relationships outside and through the organisation, from the supplier's supplier to the customer's customer.” (Christoper, 2011)

From a financial standpoint, logistics is one of the areas that demand more resources and also one that allows more operational efficiency. Because of all the impacts, when you get some gain in the process, companies quickly realizes gains of the three pillars of sustainability (Christopher, 2011).

The concept of sustainable supply chain management is composed of other concepts that can also be treated in a more specific way, such as reverse logistics (Halog, & Manik, 2011, 469-499). According to Christopher (2011), “The management of upstream and downstream relationships and customers to deliver superior value at less cost to the supply chain as a whole.”

According to Marin Christopher, “It is time to design supply chains from the customer backwards. By building in more flexibility or 'agility' in their supply chains, companies will better respond to customer demand.”

The Distribution Channel expression denotes the set of resources used to transfer the product or service from the producer to the consumer. The distribution channel can be long and include several intermediates stockists, wholesalers and retailers or be short and to the extent there are no intermediaries between the producer and the consumer (Christopher, 2011).

Channels

Among the tasks that can be performed by the channel are: providing information about the product, customization, quality assurance, batch partition, offer complementary products, after-sales and logistics. Ensuring the availability of product to customers is often the single most decisive matter of a marketing strategy (Crittenden, 2011, 71-85).

The characteristics of the distribution channel have strong implications both for commercial and financial area or scope of strategy and marketing. If the company opts for a longer distribution channel, it can certainly be able to reach a wider market and require a lower ...