Marketing Essay Answers

Marketing

SHORT ANSWER ESSAY

1. Define and describe: Merchant Wholesalers, Agents and Brokers. Who takes title and who does not? Briefly (couple of sentences) describe three (3) types of Merchant Wholesalers.

Wholesaling, unlike retailing, is the activity of selling merchandise to anyone other than a retail customer or end customer. There are several terms and key positions used in wholesaling; wholesalers, and agents and brokers are some of the main positions who act as intermediaries in the wholesaling process. During wholesaling, huge amounts of sales take place in quantities and costs significantly lower than the average retail price, also known as mass production. If wholesalers did not exist in the wholesaling process, manufacturers would have to market their products directly to huge number of customers at high costs and it would be an inconvenience to the customer as well.

The most important position in the wholesaling process is the Merchant wholesalers. The Merchant wholesalers are independent businesses that buy merchandise in great quantities from manufacturers and resell it to retailers. According to Kotler, “Merchant Wholesalers are independently owned businesses that take title to the merchandise they handle. They are full-service and limited-service jobbers, distributors, mil supply houses.” The negative aspect of Merchant wholesalers having the title to the goods is that they take in certain risks and may suffer losses if the products get damaged, become out of date, obsolete, are stolen, or they don’t sell. On the positive side, because Merchant wholesalers own the products, they are free to develop their own marketing strategies, including setting prices. Full-service merchants are comprised of wholesale merchants and industrial distributors, while limited-service merchants are comprised of cash and carry wholesalers, truck jobbers, drop shippers, rack jobbers, cooperatives and mail-order wholesalers.

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