Directorate of distance education

Power in Marketing Channels
Using power ultimately means getting other channel members to 
do something they might otherwise not have done. Since members are 
inter-dependent, the potential for using power lies with all channel par-
ticipants. Usually, however, a channel leader emerges. This organisation 
can derive its power from a number of sources, both economic and non-
economic.
If power is used in a manner believed to be unfair by one or more 
channel members, then 
conflict 
may arise. Conflict need not necessarily 
be destructive, since it can encourage managers to question the status 
quo and find ways of improving their distribution systems. Sometimes, 
however, strategies employed by firms can create unstable, adversarial 
relationships between producers and intermediaries.

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Notes
80
A strong focus should be placed by marketing departments on 
relationship management with channel participants. A possible way 
forward for manufacturers is 
Category
Management
. This is described 
by Harlow (1995) as “joint strategic planning with retailers to build total 
category sales and profit for mutual benefit” and is based on the fact that 
the retailer wishes to maximise the profits from an overall category rather 
than from a specific brand. 
A category is seen as a group of products all satisfying the same 
consumer need, e.g. toothpaste as opposed to, say, Crest. Category 
management is an advance on the “push” policies of trade marketing (i.e. 
to the retailer) and provides “pull” by sharing the ownership of brand 
strategy with the intermediary.
Partnerships between producers and intermediaries are also 
evident in the 
Efficient Consumer Response 
(ECR) initiative. ECR 
involves members of the total supply chain working together