An Optimal Study Of Reverse Marketing Channels For The Large-Scale Retailers

Thanks to the rapid development of the information technology, the structure of the conventional marketing channel is being or will be totally changed. Any path that information may be sent could function as a marketing channel, and therefore the resource of marketing channel has already been the crucial factor that may decide who will be winner with the competitive advantage. As for retailers, the optimization of the reverse marketing channel emphasizes the design and management of the marketing channel based on the demand of target consumers, which would make it less possible for the retailers to provide goods that consumers do not need most, and hence make it possible for the emergence of an efficient and effective marketing channel which could, on one hand, decrease the cost of transaction and operation and guarantee the high profit, and on the other hand, promote the realization of the differentiated, specific and reverse marketing channel-based competitive advantage on the basis of improving the relationship between retailers and suppliers. Furthermore, the mode of the counter-marketing channel is truly the consumer-centered pull marketing channel mode, which would stimulate the rapid and efficient circulation of the social consumer goods.The thesis, with the use of Comparative analysis method, Factor analysis method, Weighed factor analysis and Game theory for applied economists, tries to conduct a systematic study on the reverse marketing channel for retailers. It centers on the two issues:design and management the reverse marketing channel for retailers, elaborates on the five key factors in the process of the optimization of the reverse marketing channel and explores what should be done related to these five factors:1. The design of the reverse marketing-channels for retailers, based on the overview of the related studies both in China and abroad and an analysis of the factors concerned, should be the overall plan of the reverse marketing-channel starting from the strategic decision. The design can be divided into five stages:1) Marketing segmentation among the target markets:the prudent study of the target consumers’ value cognition、demand and expectation of the service output of the different channels; 2)Positioning:rebuild a new image among consumers with consideration into target consumers and counter-marketing channels; 3) providing the consumers with the differentiated goods and service through the optimization of the reverse marketing-channels; 4) choosing the optimized marketing channels through the evaluation of the structure of the marketing channels; 5) choosing the most appropriate suppliers.2. The choice of the commodity is the most important factor in optimizing the reverse marketing channels, which is the realization of the retailers’merchandizing philosophy and involves the choice of the category range、width、depth and hierarchy of the reverse marketing channels. It is actually the strategic decision of the retailers that helps the retailers acquire competitive advantage by means of an unique composition of the commodity. Gap analysis of the output service of the reverse marketing channels and the Two-sided Market Theory are used to guide the optimization of the composition of the commodity.3. The integration of the reverse marketing channels is the longititudinal integration of the vertical marketing system, which can be classified to fully integration、progressive integration, selective outsourcing and outsourcing according to the degree of the integration. These four decision-making models show that the retailers’intention to decrease the transaction cost、 establish the stable channel relationship and balance the channel power by building marketing channels on their own. Private Brands and Farming-supermarket Docking, two representative longititudinal integration modes, will be discussed in detail.4. The establishment of the channel relationship is a dynamic process which includes three stages:formation, expansion and the deep collaboration. As the dominators in marketing channels, retailers are expected to adopt the corresponding incentive mechanisms to satisfy the different needs of the channel members in three stages. In the stage of formation, the reasonable distribution of the benefits among channel members should be guaranteed; In the stage of expansion, retailers would better make an incentive contract with other channel members to tempt them to take actions best for the retailers for those members may not be very honest in transactions due to the fact that channel members cannot totally trust one another in this stage; In the stage of the deep collaboration, thanks to the mutual trust among channel members, a "super organization" will be gradually formed thanks to the alliance of the channel members and their delicacy collaboration, which will render it possible to realize the competitive advantage of the marketing channels as a whole.5. Demand-oriented Logistic, which centers on satisfying the demands of the consumers, is consumer-targeted pull logistic mode. The most important thing in demand-oriented logistic is the coordination among the channel members in the core business processes, which includes: collecting information of consumers、information sharing、the ordering process and total quality control of the service in logistic.