If you’ve studied marketing or are on the road to becoming an entrepreneur, then you’re probably familiar with the term intensive distribution.
Intensive distribution occurs when a business neglects market segmentation and instead, focuses on supplying their product to every accessible market.
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What Is Intensive Distribution?
To provide some clarity, intensive distribution is a strategy that companies use to ensure widespread availability of products.
Take soft drinks for example. You’ll be able to find a can practically everywhere you go, whether it’s the supermarket, gas station, drug store – you name it.
Manufacturers typically use this strategy to raise product awareness. After all, a can of soda is likely to become recognizable when it’s been placed in several locations.
Why do companies opt for an intensive distribution strategy?
The answer’s quite simple: large-scale distribution resorts to more sales which in turn boosts revenue. However, intensive distribution may not be the perfect strategy for every business.
For optimal results, companies should focus on several factors before deciding on a specific level of distribution. This includes target marketing, pricing, size of the product, promotion policies along with other necessary details.
Companies would also have to pay attention to the availability of organizational resources and retail locations. Typically, businesses with a low budget may not be at capacity to support such a strategy. It’s also worth mentioning that some manufacturers may have some trouble getting their products into large chain stores such as Target or Wal-Mart.
Intensive Distribution Examples
Many companies have implemented intensive distribution, some of the most immensely popular products include
- Pepsi cans
- Newspapers
- Toothpaste
- Herhsey chocolate bars
- Soaps
- Doritos
- Marlboro cigarettes
- Budweiser
- Photo printing shops
The above-mentioned products have implemented intensive strategy to increase widespread product coverage.
However, if a company were to have a different set of goals like maintaining brand image, they’d have to opt for a different marketing strategy (in this case, exclusive strategy would work best). Sometimes, a company may have to adopt a mix of strategies to obtain the best results, depending on their goals.
Intensive Distribution Advantages and Disadvantages
Every marketing strategy offers its own unique set of advantages and disadvantages. Below, we’ll be discussing the advantages and disadvantages of intensive distribution.
Advantages of Intensive distribution
Here are a couple of advantages of this marketing strategy:
Boosts revenue
When you think about it, the results are pretty simple. The more ground you cover, the more revenue you’ll be able to generate.
Additionally, manufacturers can also improve product visibility by investing in better product locations. This would further increase the chances of sales.
Encourages impulse buying
Though some experts undermine the effectiveness of impulse buying, it is definitely beneficial for companies under certain circumstances.
For instance, customers are most likely to select the most recognizable product if certain brands aren’t available. This can increase the chances of unexpected sales which wouldn’t have been possible if the product wasn’t widely available.
Product Awareness
Improved product awareness is perhaps the most crucial advantage of intensive distribution. Additionally, customers also begin associating print ads and digital ads with the products they regularly see in stores.
Disadvantages of Intensive distribution
Despite the many benefits of intensive distribution, here are a couple disadvantages marketers should know about:
Expensive
So this is fairly obvious: increasing product awareness can be expensive, especially if a company wants their manufactured product in every store.
The prices may vary depending on retailer location which is an important factor to consider if you want your company to do.
Low price margin
Most intensively distributed products are every day, low-cost items that don’t have a very high-profit margin. Because of this, marketers may be a bit reluctant before gearing up a mass marketing strategy.
To avoid any setbacks, professionals should thoroughly analyze the product. This is a very important step that can help determine whether the product can bring in extra revenue or not.
Controlling Retailers
Supervising multiple retailers can be tedious while implementing intensive distribution. Matters may become worse if there’s a problem with inventory or lost products to deal with.
However, in spite of these disadvantages, it’s safe to say that intensive distribution can be incredibly beneficial for an organization if used appropriately. Here’s where marketers will have to conduct thorough research to ensure if this particular marketing strategy is a good fit or not.
