استراتژی چند کاناله در بازار تجارت بنگاه به بنگاه: چشم اندازها و مشکلات

Multi-channel marketing strategy has become a major force in business-to-business distribution channels, especially since the option of Internet-based online channels emerged less than a decade ago. Making products and services available to business markets via a wide array of different channels can provide increased levels of customer choice and service. But the task of coordinating and integrating multiple channels that operate at high levels of efficiency has forced managers responsible for channel management to deal with a variety of challenging issues. These include the role of e-commerce in the multi-channel structure, finding an optimal channel mix, creating synergies across channels, building strategic alliances, creating sustainable competitive advantages, managing more complex supply chains, dealing with conflict, and providing the leadership necessary to attain well integrated multiple channels.

Moving past the first half decade of the twenty-first century, it has become obvious that such forces as Internet-based E-commerce, globalization, and intense international competition have made marketing channel management much more challenging and complicated than it was just a few short years ago (Narus & Anderson, 1996). Businesses all over the world now have many more choices in the channels they can use to reach their customers (Rangaswamy & Van Bruggen, 2005). In fact, numerous companies in the business-to-business sector already use multiple channels to go to market with their products and services (Cespedes & Corey, 1990). The company's own field sales force channel, the distributor channel, the sales rep channel, the catalog/mail order channel, the online channel, the call center channel, and several other may all be needed by the same company to serve its customers effectively and efficiently (Friedman & Furey, 1999). But such a wide range of channel choice and combination potential means that businesses also face the challenge of formulating strategies to achieve an optimal channel mix while avoiding conflict among the different channels being used (Rosenbloom, 2004). So, the overriding question becomes: How do firms utilize multiple channels, including new high-tech E-commerce channels, to foster channel confluence and synergy rather than conflict? Other important and related questions include: Will virtually all firms regardless of size and products sold face the challenge of developing well-integrated multiple channels? Or will a multi-channel strategy need to be pursued only by those firms that deal with diverse customer segments that seek maximum choice in how, when, and where they purchase products and services? The multi-channel challenge may also involve cost/benefit tradeoffs (Frazier, 1999). Does offering customers maximum convenience via a wide variety of channel choices necessarily raise the cost of distribution? Or, is it feasible to design multiple channel structures that actually reduce the overall cost of distribution by segmenting the firm's customer base in such a way that each customer segment is served by the most cost effective channel? Thus, large volume customers get called on regularly by the field sales force channel while small customers have access only to call center channels. Customers in the intermediate range are served mainly by the independent distributor channel. Numerous firms selling in business-to-business markets already operate essentially according to this channel strategy. But are more sophisticated multi-channel strategies feasible that allow customers more flexibility in channel choice and that move beyond the perhaps overly simplistic and static model based virtually entirely on size and on cost? Instead, can more dynamic multi-channel strategies be developed that enable even small customers to have access to premium, more people-intensive channels on the assumption that some of today's small customers could become giant ones in the future if the “expensive” channel offered them a superior level of service that exceeded their expectations? The purpose of this special section of Industrial Marketing Management on Multi-Channel Strategy in Business-to-business Distribution Channels is to begin addressing the opportunities and challenges presented by multi-channel marketing strategy. Five highly thought provoking articles that deal with some of the most important issues in business-to-business multi-channel marketing have been included in this special section. This article then goes on to discuss further some of the key challenges and opportunities associated with B2B multi-channel marketing strategy.

Multi-channel strategy is fast becoming the norm for going to market in the business-to-business sector. Customers all over the globe are demanding more channel options for gaining access to products and services while technology has made it possible and economically feasible for firms to offer a wider array of channels, especially Internet-based online channels. But the growth of multiple channel structures while providing firms with more opportunities to reach more customers has also put a premium on well-conceived multi-channel strategy. Managers responsible for designing and managing channels of distributions must now deal with a range of challenging issues affecting multi-channel strategy. Some of the most important of these involve the integration of high-tech online channels with conventional channels, finding optimal channel mixes, creating synergies across channels, building strategic alliances in a multi-channel environment, using multi-channel strategy to gain a sustainable competitive advantage, coordinating more complex supply chains to serve multiple channels efficiently, dealing with multi-channel conflict, and providing effective leadership to drive multi-channel strategy. It is hoped that the articles presented in this special section of Industrial Marketing Management will provide some direction for future research on these issues as well as some preliminary insights and management implications for practitioners.