MK CH. 15

Paul Lindsay is a logistics manager for a farm equipment manufacturer; he needs to move several tractor-trailers of farm equipment from the Midwest manufacturing plant to the East Coast distribution centers. This heavy equipment must travel a long distance—across country—and then over land to the various wholesalers that distribute them. What intermodal operation will allow Paul to combine long-hauling capacity with overland flexibility?

Piggyback

________ involves combining as many packages as possible into each load moved within a facility.

Unitizing

Logistics managers must control the movement of goods _____ plants, warehouses, and transportation terminals.

inside

Most marketing channels involve at least one _______ or middleman, but the simplest marketing channel is a direct channel.

intermediary

The director of marketing at your company has asked you to evaluate the cost-cutting potential of using marketing intermediaries. You point out to his or her that intermediaries will save money in some, but not all, of your marketing activities. In which of the following activities would marketing intermediaries be ineffective in saving money?

manufacturing product

Activities for moving products within plants, warehouses, and transportation terminals comprise the _________ system.

materials handling

Marketing channels provide the means by which goods and services flow from the _______ to the consumer or business user.

producer

Using ________ is a component of handling materials appropriately in the factory, in the warehouse, and in the transport terminals.

protective packaging

Reverse channels involve the return of goods to their producers, for example, by _________ or recall.

recycling

Warehousing is the location of stock and the number of warehouses the firm maintains, while inventory control is the quantity of stock the firm maintains at each ______.

site.

You work for a food-processing plant that manufactures corn tortillas. You have been asked to review the activities of upstream management to determine if costs can be cut in that area. Which activities listed below will be your concern?

Contacting the farming cooperative to negotiate the price of corn for your upcoming contract. (The cost of corn, your raw material, is something you will be concerned with as part of the upstream management of the supply chain. Upstream management is concerned with procuring and managing raw materials, inbound logistics, and warehousing and storing raw materials to be used for production.)

_______ is the process of combining several unitized loads into a single well-protected load for shipment.

Containerization

You are one member of the marketing team for a wine distributor who sells exclusively through your own chain of high-volume shops. Your team wants to explore other available marketing channels, including sales over the Internet and product placement in specialty retailers. In order to come to a consensus, you want to outline some basic questions regarding distribution channels and present them to the team for discussion. The discussion should include all of the following questions EXCEPT which one?

How will exploring new distribution channels affect relationships with current intermediaries?

Marketers are concerned with distribution intensity, which is how many intermediaries will distribute the goods in a particular market. Select the description of the general categories of market coverage that is incorrect.

In controlled distribution, the manufacturer is forced by law to sell its own products.

You are contemplating adding direct selling activities to your existing bricks-and-mortar retail business to increase sales. You are concerned, however, that the negative aspects of direct selling outweigh the positive. Which of the following is a negative aspect of direct selling that you must mitigate in some way to be successful?

It may be more expensive and time-consuming than using an intermediary.

According to the Ad Age article "PennWell acquires Oil & Gas Pipeline Conference" (March 21, 2013), "The pipeline and transportation sectors of the industry are experiencing phenomenal growth due to the resurgence of exploration and drilling in North America." Pipelines rank third after railroads and motor carriers in ton-miles transported, but most people do not recognize pipelines as a major mode of transportation. Nevertheless, pipelines are the preferred method used for transporting crude oil, diesel fuel, kerosene, and gasoline in the United States. What are some drawbacks to transporting via pipeline?

Pipelines are a relatively slow method of transportation.

Pipelines rank third after railroads and motor carriers in ton-miles transported, but most people do not recognize pipelines as a major mode of transportation. Nevertheless, pipelines are the preferred method used for transporting crude oil, diesel fuel, kerosene, and gasoline in the United States. Why are pipelines an advantageous method of transport?

Pipelines offer low maintenance and dependable transportation for a narrow but important range of products.

As a member of the marketing team for a manufacturing company, you need to be familiar with methods that are available to your company to facilitate communication about and movement of your products and goods. Your company is facing some logistics and supply chain challenges and you have been asked to help find solutions for them. Choose the statement that does NOT accurately identify the best management approach to deal with each management challenge.

The manufacturing company for which you work wants to consolidate the data from among all the firm's business units. RFID is the best approach.

Read the following excerpt from the article, "Lines separating sales channels blur: Manufacturers, direct sellers, retailers, invade each other's turf" by Tom Collinger in Ad Age (March 30, 1998) and then choose the best answer to the question posed below. Conflict in the channels has produced a total blurring of the lines that once separated them. First, there's the blur between manufacturers and retailers. Then, there's the explosion of discount outlet malls, which proudly expose the highest image-oriented brand names to the consumer—direct from the manufacturers.... In addition, because of the proliferation of these malls as legitimate channels, sales for the brands in this channel are in the multimillion-dollar range. Finally, there is the manufacturer and direct-seller blur caused by those manufacturers that recognize the need to gain back some of the control they have lost to retailers.... Some manufacturers have mined niches in the market where they believe direct selling is somehow less objectionable to their retail partners.... What type of marketing channel conflict is being discussed in the above excerpt?

Vertical conflict (Vertical conflict results from disputes between channel members at different levels, such as producers that establish their own retail stores or create mail-order operations that compete with retailers, or retailers whose private brands compete with producers' brands, as is discussed in the article here.)

Many online retailers, such as Amazon, use ____ distribution centers that accept large, consolidated shipments to be divided into smaller ones.

break-bulk

Your family owns a commercial bakery that has always partnered with large food distributors that sell and deliver to supermarkets around the United States. You and your sister have recently taken over from the older generation and may consider other distribution options. Your sister is especially interested in shortening the distribution channel. Having more channel strategy experience than her, you explain that moving in this direction could involve all of the following actions EXCEPT:

choosing a logistics company experienced in cross-country shipping

A marketing channel, also called a ______ is one critical component of a distribution strategy.

distribution