teachthe4ps.com - For instructors of marketing.

The drive to enhance customer value with more efficient and effective distribution systems leads many warehouse and distribution center managers to various forms of automation.  In our books we refer to this as the physical distribution concept.  Kiva Systems has created a warehouse automation system that relies on robots and software, and yes some human beings, to achieve these objectives.

The video below provides a short (3:20) overview and demonstration of Kiva’s robots in action.  Sorry about the :30 commercial up-front.  An accompanying article “Robot workers take over warehouses,” (CNN Money, November 9, 2011) addresses Kiva’s roots and start-up challenges.  The article might be more useful background material or it could be assigned if you emphasize entrepreneurship in your marketing instruction.  The video is a good fit when you cover physical distribution.

This article, “Bringing the Farmers’ Market to Your Doorstep,” (Wall Street Journal, February 3, 2011 – non-subscribers may have to click here) offers a good example of creative channels of distribution — home delivery of fresh produce.  There appears to be a market for this service especially in cities.  When covering channels of distribution, it might be fun to talk about different channels of distribution for fruits and vegetables.  You could ask about different target markets — and fill in various services, prices, and products which might appeal to each.  The perishable nature of the product adds extra questions.

This video features two of our favorite companies — Zappos and UPS.  It features an interview with UPS Senior V.P. Bob Stoffel who discusses how the company works with Zappos to better serve Zappos customers.  It describes a couple of good examples about how UPS adds new sources of value as a full-service logistics supplier. For other clips from the interview click here — other clips consider global trade and sustainability.  You can also read an interview in this article – “Bob Stoffel’s UPS green dream,” (Fortune, December 16, 2010).

At 3:36, the video is relatively short, and while it only features talking heads, I think it might work well early in a class on logistics customer service (we have a logistics chapter in our books) or supply chain management.  Warning, you have to put up with a 30 second commercial before the video starts.

More companies are looking at Africa as their next growth opportunity.  The new edition of Basic Marketing describes the continent’s income and population growth — as well as the increased access to the internet and cellular phones.  Here are a couple of articles that highlight the opportunities that big companies like Coca Cola and Walmart see in Africa:  “Africa:  Coke’s Last Frontier” (Bloomberg BusinessWeek, October 29, 2010) and “Can Walmart and Coca-Cola make profits in Africa” (GlobalPost, November 8, 2010).  The GlobalPost story notes that “…59 million African households earn at least $5000 per year and that number is forecast to reach 106 million by 2014.”  Both stories provide some goodexamples of these two companies efforts.

This could help you bring an international dimension when discussing opportunity analysis, retailing, channels of distribution, and logistics.

The Bloomberg BusinessWeek cover story this week (“What Amazon Fears Most: Diapers,” October 7, 2010) is a long article on Diapers.com.  Our kids are older — so we are not in the target market and we were unaware of the success this company is having.  The story is interesting and relays the low-cost start-up strategy.  The founders spent their seed money on building a customer friendly website.  When they launched they were buying diapers from the local club stores and storing them in a friend’s garage.  They have since moved into three state-of-the-art warehouses.

The article describes Diapers.com’s retail and pricing strategy — let’s not make money on the diapers but on the other products shoppers add to the cart with the diapers.  The article also has some excellent examples of logistics and distribution.

UPDATE, November 13:  Amazon buys Diapers.com.

UPS is leaving its “What can Brown do for you?” campaign behind.  The new campaign – “That’s Logistics” – targets small and medium size businesses that “love” logistics.  See this article, “UPS Leaves ‘Brown’ for New Love (Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2010 or click here if the link to the article doesn’t work) for more details.

Package-delivery giant United Parcel Service Inc. is launching a global ad campaign to promote its expanding logistics business to small and medium-sized businesses that want to sell their wares globally.

Of course I love logistics — but most of my students find it kind of boring.  This ad might be used when you discuss logistics, organizational buying, or segmentation and targeting.  It is always nice to have a few B2B examples.

U.S. automakers are now seeing an upsurge in demand for their vehicles.  But the big three cut production and now dealer inventory is running low.  This video describes the current situation and might work as a short video (1:30) to show when talking about channels, logistics, or even implementation and control (topics covered in chapter 19 in our Basic Marketing book).

The video could also fuel a little discussion of cross-functional business relationships.  I like to use the first few classes to show non-marketing majors why marketing is important to them.  I will probably show this in the first couple of weeks of class and ask:  1) Supply chain and operations majors — how does this show why marketing is important to you guys? (the links here are pretty straightforward) and  2) How about finance majors?  What can you learn?  (They might bring out that cutting production saved costs — but what is the cost of lost sales?).

The Wal-Mart vs. Amazon battle continues to become increasingly intense (see “Price War Brews Between Amazon and Wal-Mart,” New York Times, November 23, 2009). These two competitors have already engaged in price wars over toys, books, and DVDs this holiday season.  Now Wal-Mart is cleverly using one of their strengths relative to Amazon — their physical stores — to their advantage.  This a nice example of competitive advantage, SWOT, and logistics.  Check out “Wal-Mart Uses Its Stores To Get an Edge Online” (see The Wall Street Journal, December 15, 2009 – subscription required, or search the net using the article title).

“Whirlpool Cleans Up Its Delivery Act,“ The Wall Street Journal, September 24, 2009.  It can be tough to find good articles about distribution and logistics – it is even my research area and the few I find are usually pretty dry.  Even though this is a short article, it’s interesting to see that even a big name company like Whirlpool can find opportunities for significant savings and improved customer service in its distribution operations.