Brock University
Faculty of Business
MKTG 4P36-01 – Channel Management - Fall 2007
Instructor: H.F. (Herb) MacKenzie, Ph.D.
Office: TA436
Telephone: 688-5550 x3448 (O) 682-9708 (H) 325-Herb (4372) (C)
Fax: 378-5716
E-mail:
Office hours
I generally spend 40 hours per week or more in my office, so you can generally depend on my being there, unless I have a meeting away from campus, or I am unexpectedly absent due to something beyond my control. I prefer to not have specific office hours, but I do enjoy seeing you and am willing to meet with you at any time either by appointment, if you wish to ensure that I am in, or on a drop-in basis if you see that I am in my office. When I am in, my door is open. Feel free to drop in at any time. I often enjoy taking a break and find it beneficial to my work (as long as I get sufficient time to work as well), and am willing to discuss anything related to this course, marketing in general, or anything that is important to you. When I am away from my office, there is usually a schedule on my door advising where I am so you can tell when I will most likely return.
Course objectives
In this course, you will study marketing channel theory and how you can apply it to marketing channel management. For our purposes, any marketing channel is viewed as an inter-organizational system involved with making goods or services available for consumption by enhancing their time, place, and possession utilities. The focus is on how institutions can effectively and efficiently transmit things of value from points of conception, extraction, and/or production to points of consumption.
We will analyze marketing channels using a framework for analysis that can be used for consumer product sales, business-to-business product sales, and sales of services. We will first discuss how to interpret the demands consumers have for the productive outputs of the channel. We will then show how to describe the productive activities of channel members that produce these valued service outputs. We will identify the types of gaps that can exist in channel design and how to close them. We will discuss how to manage the channel to control channel conflict and enhance channel coordination through the constructive use of channel power. Finally, we will discuss some important channel issues, such as pricing through the channel, franchising, and grey marketing, within the analytic framework developed for this course.
The orientation of this course is toward the management of relationships within and among organizations that are linked together in a distribution system. The successful management of these relationships, whether through the creation of consistent incentive systems for all channel members or through the exertion of other types of influence, is crucial for the long-term competitive viability of the firm.
At the end of this course, I want you to have several professional documents that will demonstrate your critical thinking and communication skills, and provide you with a competitive advantage over many students who graduate with a marketing concentration. Channel management is one area of marketing where most graduates have a poor understanding of both theory and practice, and one that is currently under-served given its importance in today’s marketing environment, and the relatively small number of business programs that offer this course.
I will work closely with you during this course. However, the degree to which you benefit from this course still will be determined by your effort and interest. Past experience tells me that students who put the most effort into their hand-in essay assignments also do far better on their examinations as they have a deeper understanding of the important concepts and issues covered in the course. To accomplish our objectives, this course will make use of in-class lectures, class discussions, ten (10) hand-in essay assignments, and case presentations.
One important outcome of this course is to better prepare you for a role in marketing channel management. Therefore, you are required to take the channel manager’s perspective in your essays and presentations. Managers must be able to analyze situations, identify issues and challenges, make decisions, and communicate and defend those decisions (both orally and in writing). Consider this when you choose and when you write your hand-in essay assignments. Your oral and written communication skills are very much part of this course. I will provide you with an electronic document which will help you with your writing skills. Failure to follow the guidelines provided will result in a low grade for your hand-in assignments. I expect you to edit your writing for grammar, spelling, and punctuation as your ability to communicate in formal written English will have considerable impact on your assignment grades.
Professionalism and class conduct
Professionalism is essential to success in management. A professional manager is knowledgeable, prepared, and respectful. A professional atmosphere in the classroom helps promote a positive learning environment for everyone. You are expected to attend and be prepared for all classes, always arrive on time, and display respect for those with whom you interact. You may bring a drink to class, but not food. Cell phones are not welcome. If you have one, please ensure it is turned off. Unnecessary disruptions in class will be considered negative course contribution. Hats and caps must be removed prior to class. When you come to this class, you “borrow” the seats where you sit. I may periodically rearrange class seating, so do not become too comfortable in any one place.
Academic misconduct
Students should note that copying, plagiarizing, unauthorized notes, or other forms of academic misconduct will not be tolerated. Any student caught engaging in such activities will be subject to academic discipline ranging from a mark of zero on the assignment or examination to dismissal from the University, as outlined in the University calendar. Any student abetting or otherwise assisting in such misconduct also will be subject to academic penalties.
Two common forms of academic misconduct include using direct quotations or large sections of paraphrased material without acknowledgement, and the submission of the same piece of work in more than one course without the permission of the instructors. Refer to Brock University 2007/08 Undergraduate Calendar, Academic Regulations and University Policies, Section VII. Academic Misconduct, pp. 28-29 for additional information.
Please note that if you are caught plagiarizing any part of one of your hand-in assignments, I will request that you get a grade reduction of 20 percent; that is, that you lose 20 marks from your overall grade. If you are caught plagiarizing any part of more than one of your hand-in assignments, I will request that you get a grade reduction of 40 percent; that is, that you lose 40 marks from your overall grade. Several students have been caught plagiarizing assignments in the past and, so far, all have failed this course.
Course prerequisite
Required:
MKTG 3P24 Marketing Management
Helpful:
OBHR 3P42 Organization Theory and Design
MKTG 4P29 Business-to-Business Marketing
Course text
Anne T. Coughlan, Erin Anderson, Louis W. Stern, and Adel I. El-Ansary, Marketing Channels, 7th edition. (Don Mills, ON: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 2006).
A case package will also be required for this course. You will be required to purchase one case package per group and provide me with proof of purchase.
Student evaluation
Class participation (related to text material): 10 percent
Hand-in assignments: 40 percent
In-class examinations: 30 percent
Case presentation: 10 percent
Case participation: 10 percent
TOTAL: 100 percent
Class participation
I believe that oral participation is very important; it helps you develop an important skill that will serve you well in your business career. I have allocated 20 percent of your overall evaluation to this component of the course. There will be many opportunities for you to contribute to class discussions during lecture classes and during case presentations. Do not confuse attendance with participation. Attendance in class is not participation. Grades for participation in this course can range from 0 to 20.
Grading class participation is necessarily subjective; however, I do have a system I have used for many years, occasionally with minor adjustments, that makes the process as fair and objective as I possibly can make it. The first step is to inform you of the process I will use in this course so you will be able to consider how you may contribute the most to class discussions, and get rewarded accordingly.
Immediately following each class, I will evaluate each student on the following basis:
0 = Absent, or present without contribution. There is no distinction.
1 = You said something relevant – almost anything related to the discussion – some contribution. This could demonstrate general marketing knowledge, not necessarily from this course.
2 = You have demonstrated knowledge and understanding of the material, and have made a positive contribution to the class. Clear that you have read the relevant material before coming to class.
3 = You have demonstrated superior knowledge of the class topic and made a superior contribution to class discussion – clearly demonstrating knowledge of and reflection on one or more class topics.
4 = You have hit a “WOW.” I am impressed.
At the end of the course, I will look at the pattern of your contribution evaluations before deciding an overall grade. Grades of ‘1’ indicate minimal participation, usually not sufficient to get a passing grade on this component of the course. Many grades of ‘2’ will be recognized as quantity, but not particularly high quality. This may earn you a ‘D,’ or possibly a ‘C.’ One or two grades of ‘3’ will earn you a ‘C,’ and possibly a ‘B,’ assuming you have regularly participated in class discussions. You will need several grades of ‘3’ to get an ‘A’ for this component of the course.
Note 1: Fifty (50) percent of your participation grade will come from your participation during the case presentation classes at the end of this course, not including your own group presentation.
Hand-in assignments
The major evaluation component of this course is for ten (10) hand-in essay assignments. See the section below on submission requirements.
Content. No more than one essay can relate to any one chapter, and each essay must be submitted in-class and electronically before the class in which the chapter will be discussed. Each essay must indicate the chapter it relates to and have a short title, decided by you. As examples, Chapter 1 might suggest any of the following topics for your essay (although I am sure you could decide many others as well):
· Chapter 1: The Effect of Geographic and Psychic Distance on Channel Length
· Chapter 1: Why Manufacturers Should Be Considered Part of a Channel Structure
· Chapter 1: The Importance of Marketing Flows to Channel Design and Management
Style. Make your content exciting: make it yours. I do not want simple answers to questions that regurgitate what I, or you, have read in the text. That is why I want you to think of topics, and not questions. I want your analysis, your evaluation, and your opinion. Don’t be afraid to write in the first person. This is yours.
Do not use the passive voice or anonymity inappropriately: "in the textbook it was stated that" or, even worse, "an article I found said." Things are more interesting when you use the active voice: “I think that…” or “Wright and Wrong (2006, p. 24) stated that…”
Don't let yourself down by factual error, flawed logic, weak writing, or careless spelling, grammar, or punctuation. Points will be deducted for all such flaws. Please make all common nouns lower case and use apostrophes correctly. Do not get carried away with fonts, bolding, italics, underlining, capitalization, etc. They all have their place, but they should be used sparingly as I expect a document that is professional in appearance. There are rules to writing good English. They are your responsibility.
Submission and Evaluation. Each hand-in essay assignment should prepared with Microsoft Word, and submitted using your Brock University email account, and in hard copy. The hard copy should have a single cover sheet, and should not be bound. Cover sheets should show the chapter number, the title of your essay, the date, and your student number – nothing else. Do not number your cover sheet. Number the balance of your pages beginning with page 2. Use 12-point font, 1.25” margins on both sides, and 1” margins at the top and bottom of each page. References must be complete; i.e., I must be able to find your referenced material.
There is no absolute length requirement but, on average, I would expect your essays to be approximately five pages, double-spaced.
NOTE: Late submissions will not be accepted.
Purpose. Each essay should stimulate you to think: something whichhas contributed to your intellectual and academic development, something which willbe interesting for someone else to read, something which you might use to demonstrate your ability to prepare a well-written report that reflects your personal perspective on important issues in channel management.
Evaluation. I will provide you with the template guideline that I use for grading and evaluation. However, the grade that is assigned for each essay will be an overall grade based on the criteria that I will provide to you.