What is exclusive and intensive distribution?

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What is exclusive and intensive distribution?

Comparison of Distribution Strategies

Comparison of Distribution Strategies

Having the right distribution strategies in place can give you a great advantage over your competitors. You could have the best products in the world, but if you cannot get them to your customers in a timely and cost-effective manner, you’re wasting money on marketing and you’re losing opportunities for growth.

When determining what distribution strategies best fit your company’s goals, you need to ask three key questions:

  • How will you get your product from the manufacturer to your customers?
  • How will you save time and control your costs with your implemented distribution strategy?
  • Which distribution strategy will allow you to build a competitive advantage?

Indirect vs Direct Distribution

Overall, there are two types of distribution: indirect and direct. With indirect distribution, your product will go through numerous channels before reaching your end customer. The product may leave the manufacturer, then go to a distributor, who sends it to a retailer, where the customer buys it. With direct distribution, you would send your product directly to your customer or otherwise reduce the number of channels it’s sent through. You might sell your product directly through an e-commerce portal, or directly distribute your product to retailers.

Intensive, Selective, and Exclusive Distribution

As with most strategic concerns, the devil is in the details. Indirect and direct distribution strategies are further impacted by the level of penetration, as determined by your marketing mix:

  • Intensive distribution is used when mass marketing a product to cover as much ground as possible.
  • Selective distribution is used when you want your brand to be available in only limited outlets.
  • Exclusive distribution limits distribution rights narrowly, for example to a single distributor within a specified region.This is generally the default for small businesses.

Your distribution strategies and needs can change over time, especially if you are growing a small business. With our world class supply chain management distribution services, American Western Distribution is ready to work with you to determine the logistics of your company’s individualized distribution strategy.

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What is Exclusive Distribution? 

Exclusive distribution  is a level of product availability that limits the choice of outlets that customers can use to find our product or buy our product. 

One of the reasons we do this is to preserve our product or brand image. So this has a trade-off built in. First, it requires consumers to make an effort to buy our product. They can't just go anywhere and find it. What this does though in the process is it limits the competition among our intermediaries or our wholesalers and retailers. 

This is a really good thing if we want to make sure our price stays high or at the level that we set it. If there's too much competition between the wholesaler and the retailer, there's a good chance eventually they're going to start dropping that price maybe below the point with which we're comfortable.

Typically the types of products that work for exclusive distribution are going to be luxury goods or large ticket items. In other words, things with big prices. Typically, any other type of product customers are not going to go to the effort to find it and they're also not that interested in the exclusive sort of image that this kind of distribution creates. Exclusive distribution is usually reserved for luxury items. 

If we want to limit our distribution in order to preserve our image, and we think customers will put the effort into getting our product, exclusive distribution may be a good choice.

Related Topics

  • What Does "Place" or "Placement" Mean?
  • What is a Distribution Channel?
  • What is Direct Distribution and Indirect Distribution
  • What is Multi-Channel Distribution?
  • What is a Channel System?
  • Vertical Market
  • Vertical Integration
  • Ideal Market Exposure
  • Intensive Distribution
  • Selective Distribution
  • Exclusive Distribution
  • Discrepancy of Assortment
  • Discrepancy of Quantity
  • Channel Conflict
  • Channel Stuffing

What is an exclusive distribution?

What is Exclusive Distribution? Exclusive distribution is a level of product availability that limits the choice of outlets that customers can use to find our product or buy our product. One of the reasons we do this is to preserve our product or brand image.

What is a intensive distribution?

Definition: Intensive distribution is a form of marketing strategy under which a company tries to sell its product from a small vendor to a big store. Virtually, a customer will be able to find the product everywhere he goes.

What is an example of intensive distribution?

Example of an intensive distribution model For instance, a soft drink company might produce and market a soda they hope to sell to customers. After producing the soda, the company can either distribute the product themselves, while others might find and hire a shipping company to distribute the product for them.

What are the 3 types of distribution?

The three types of distribution channels are wholesalers, retailers, and direct-to-consumer sales. Wholesalers are intermediary businesses that purchase bulk quantities of product from a manufacturer and then resell them to either retailers or—on some occasions—to the end consumers themselves.