Mastering key concepts

Answer each of the following questions.

1. What are the five common channels of distribution for consumer products?

2. Identify the four common channels of distribution for industrial products.

3. What are the four major types of retail businesses classified according to ownership?

4. List the six types of retail businesses classified according to product lines carried.

5. Identify the four methods that retail businesses can use to reach consumers.

6. List four marketing activities that are performed by full-function wholesalers.

7. How do merchant wholesalers differ from agent wholesalers?

8. What is the main difference between the marketing of products and the marketing of services?

Solving people problems: New Sound Record and Tape Distributors

Unlike most of their friends, Judy and Tim were able to find summer jobs. Both were hired by New Sound Record and Tape Distributors, a rack jobber that installs and stocks record and tape display racks in supermarkets, convenience stores, and drugstores. Judy and Tim were hired to fill in for regular employees who were on vacation.

Mr.Joji Eto, the manager, welcomed Judy and Tim to the company and introduced them to Bill Wells, an employee who had been instructed to teach them how to perform their new jobs. Bill, whose route included stores on the north side of the city had worked for New Sound for more than three years and appeared to be the most qualified person to train Tim and Judy.

Judy and Tim learned that their jobs consisted of going to stores that have New Sound record and tape racks and making sure that each rack was neat, orderly, and fully stocked. Special care was to be taken to ensure that an adequate number of the fast selling titles were available and prominently displayed. Records and tapes that had been damaged by customer handling were replaced with new items. Occasionally empty album covers and cassette boxes were found, indicating that records or tapes had been stolen. Mr. Eto required that all thefts be reported to him as well as to the manager of the store in which the theft occurred.

After spending a week with Bill on his route, Judy and Tim were confident that they could handle routes of their own. Bill told them that he thought they would enjoy their jobs since they would have their own air-conditioned vans with tape decks to use on their routes and would not have to work evenings or weekends. Bill also told them how he obtains records and tapes for his personal use: He takes them and reports to Mr. Eto that the items were stolen from one of the racks. Bill said, "It isn’t going to hurt the company if I take a record or tape now and then. Shoplifters take more in a week than I do in a year." Bill asked Judy and Tim not to tell anyone what he had said.

The day they received their own routes, Tim and Judy met for lunch and talked about their experiences. After lunch, as they were walking toward their vans, Tim told Judy that he was going to take a record and report it as stolen. "After all," he said, "if Bill Wells can do it, why can’t I?"

1. Should Judy and Tim have said anything to Bill when he told them that he was taking records and tapes from the company? Why?

2. What should Judy have said to Tim when he told her that he was going to take a record and report it as stolen?

3. Do most employees report information about employee thefts to company managers? Why?

4. If Tim is caught stealing from the company, how might it affect his future career?