Marketing

Homework Week: | HW Week 5 |

Due Date: | 21.02.2012 |

Student name: | Charlotte Escoffier |

1. Analyze the various distribution partners of the company Auer in its domestic and foreign markets. What were Auer’s considerations when engaging these channel partners?

At first, in ist domestic market, Auer did much acquisitions and company creation instead of distribution partnerships. For example, the Acquisition of Lippe and Lux allowed Auer to target a more high.end market segment. Auer also acquired Floridia and kept the brand this time. Then in the eighties, Auer was the venture partner of many domestic companies: Luc GmbH was one of them. The consideration of Auer for this partnership was to enter a new product line segment. To not be only know in the waffer business but also in the chocolate bar business. By creating “Scoko‐Coco,” they were able to compete with chocolate bars like Mars or Bounty. Auer was not prepared to enter such a competitive market facing a giant like mars and suffered from a competitive product „Rondoletti“ made by Mars more than it benefited from the Scoko-Coco product. They stopped the partnership. The second partnership made was with GeoKA to entert he sgement of high end cakes decoration products. In the foreign markets, with Bahlsen, Auer tried to enter the german market, with Barilla in Italy. They also made a prtnership in Hungary and had then two warehouses that were producing, one right outside Vienna, and one in Budapest to open up tot he Eastern European markets. Also to enter the market in the United States, Auer made a partnership with an Immigrated Austrian there that knew som channel to distribute the products there. Auer thought that an austrian person with both cultural knowledge would be a good way to enter this market.

2. Discuss Auer’s channel relationship with the various channel partners in respect of the respective degree of collaboration, commitment, trust, power, and dependence.

With Ferenc...