Assignment Title: Weekly Integration Assignment 06
Date: 23 April 2021
1. After reviewing chapters 12 and 13 of the Kotler and Keller text, and using specific information derived
from the text, provide a brief comment about each of the following:
a. The benefit to an organization about linking the target market to the design of the supply chain
to form a value chain. Include an assessment of how this supply chain to value chain transition
is captured in demand chain planning (consider information from pages 192 – 197 of the text).
Please use appropriate APA citation and attribution rules for all information sources.
Technological advancements have changed the ways customers buy products. With this
trend, it is highly beneficial for organizations to keep up with the continuously evolving
and increasingly complex channel system and value network (Kotler & Keller, 2016, p.
216). Many organizations now engage in digital distribution strategies, strive to adopt
omnichannel marketing, and ensure the delivery of value to each target customer (Kotler
& Keller, 2016, p. 217). This approach helps organizations increase their market coverage,
reduce costs, and increase customized sales, thus increasing profitability (Kotler & Keller,
2016, p. 217).
Identifying the target market with the objective of achieving a value chain is fundamental
in optimizing the supply chain of an organization. The supply chain is concerned with links
between suppliers and distributors to ensure the delivery of value to customers while the
value chain is a means of identifying ways to enhance the overall product that will create
a better customer experience. According to Kotler & Keller (2016, p. 217), demand chain
planning is an effective distribution strategy that allows an organization to think of the
target market at first, and then develop the details of the supply chain backward to ensure
demands are adequately met. This strategy ensures that all channels are well structured and
coordinated, minimize cost, and increase accuracy. It allows an organization to easily
detect any disruption within the supply chain as it relates to costs, prices, or supplies (Kotler
& Keller, 2016, p. 217).
Also, demand chain planning captures the transition of the supply chain of an organization
to the value chain and ensures margins are directly proportional to the value delivered. The
entire supply chain includes external stakeholders such as suppliers, target customers,
among others. The demand chain planning strategy enables an organization to assess and
estimate the node (upstream or downstream) at which the highest value is created, thus
establishing a value network. With this, the organization can determine whether backward
integration is necessary by assuming the role of some suppliers or forward integration by
distributing directly to the customer without any intermediary (Kotler & Keller, 2016, p.
217). This assessment helps the organization to increase its profitability. More so, demand
chain planning enables the organization to improve communications with upstream
(suppliers and expedite raw materials which result in reduces cycle time and inventory
cost), and downstream (information from target market enhances demand forecast and
reduces turnaround time and on–time-delivery). Furthermore, an organization must
properly manage the demand chain planning strategy to avoid overproduction or
underproduction that can deplete its profit.
b. How an organization can select the most effective and well-fit channel members to enhance
the overall consumer experience. Assess the impact to brand equity for inadequate channel
member alignment (consider information from pages 196 – 205 and all other appropriate
chapters of the text covered to date). Please use appropriate APA citation and attribution rules
for all information sources.
To improve the overall customer experience of a brand, an organization must select the
most effective and best-fit channel members. Analyzing customer needs and wants,
establishing objectives and constraints, and identifying and evaluating channel alternatives
are fundamental in the selection process (Kotler & Keller, 2016, pp. 220-222). In
considering the channel alternatives, marketers contend with three factors: the types of
intermediaries, the number of intermediaries, and the terms and responsibilities of channel
members (Kotler & Keller, 2016, p. 222). An organization can identify the number of
intermediaries needed to enhance the customer experience as well as determine the type of
strategy to be employed: exclusive, selective, or intensive.
The value network is made up of the intermediaries and the primary firms and as such
extensions of the brand. It is important to assess the relationship between the intermediaries
and the impact on the entire value network. The retailer is the final link downstream and
has a direct relationship with the customer. The producers need to consider the impression
a customer gets from an intermediary as this can make or mar the brand (Kotler & Keller,
