Distribution

“…beyond practicing good customer relationship management, firms must also practice good partner relationship management.” (Marketing: An Introduction, pp.31)

That’s why Joysticks will try to partner with GameStop in the near future. This way we could be able to get discounts on consoles, games or other equipment, and maybe gift cards for the winners of our weekly tournaments. And since they target the same market as we do, but with a different product, we could benefit from each other by them advertising us and us advertising them.

“In the past, many companies used a single channel to sell to a single market or market segment. Today, with the proliferation of customer segments and channel possibilities, more and more companies have adopted multichannel distribution systems—often called hybrid marketing channels. Such multichannel marketing occurs when a single firm sets up two or more marketing channels to reach one or more customer segments. The use of multichannel systems has increased greatly in recent years.” (Marketing: An Introduction, pp.320)

Our other goal is to make Joysticks a known brand, that everyone recognizes the logo. Then another market would be selling shirts, hats, and other things with restaurant’s logo, like the Hard Rock does. Then we could sell that merchandise in the restaurant itself, or GameStop if they do join us, and maybe stores like Hot Topic. And people like it and start to wear, that will work as free advertisement for Joysticks.

“In some markets, the distribution system is complex and hard to penetrate, consisting of many layers and large numbers of intermediaries.” (Marketing: An Introduction, pp.325)