Discuss the distinguishing features of the Japanese distribution system.
Discuss the ways Japanese manufacturers control the distribution process from manufacturer to retailer.
Describe Japan’s Large-Scale Retail Store Law and discuss how the Structural Impediments Initiative (SII) is bringing about change in Japanese retailing.
“Japanese retailing may be going through a change similar to that which occurred in the United States after World War II.” Discuss and give examples.
Discuss how the globalization of markets, especially Europe after 1992, affects retail distribution.
To what extent, and in what ways, do the functions of domestic middlemen differ from those of their foreign counterparts?
Why is the EMC sometimes called an independent export department?
Discuss how physical distribution relates to channel policy and how they affect one another.
Explain how and why distribution channels are affected, as they are when the stage of development of an economy improves.
In what circumstances is the use of an EMC logical?
In which circumstances are trading companies likely to be used?
How is distribution-channel structure affected by increasing emphasis on the government as a customer and by the existence of state trading agencies?
Review the key variables that affect the marketer’s choice of distribution channels.
Account, as best you can, for the differences in channel patterns that might be encountered in a highly developed country and an underdeveloped country.
One of the first things companies discover about international patterns of channels of distribution is that in most countries it is nearly impossible to gain adequate market coverage through a simple channel-of-distribution plan. Discuss.
Discuss the various methods of overcoming blocked channels.
What strategy might be employed to distribute goods effectively in the dichotomous small/large middleman pattern, which characterizes merchant middlemen in most countries?
Discuss the economic implications of assessing termination penalties or restricting the termination of middlemen. Do you foresee such restrictions in the United States?
Discuss why Japanese distribution channels can be the epitome of blocked channels.
What are the two most important provisions of the Export Trading Company Act?
