Reference no: EM13182736

World Tennis Ball Co. (WTB) makes tennis balls and sells them only in the U.S. Raul Fernandez, the firm's marketing manager, is comparing his firm's distribution with two major competitors.
1) WTB sells its products through four regional distributors who then sell to 22 sporting goods wholesalers. The wholesalers sell to a total of 7,000 retail outlets. From its website, WTB also sells directly to any customer who will purchase a minimum quantity of 24 tennis balls. WTB cooperates with members of its channel, but maintains some control through its economic power and leadership. It helps to direct the activities of the whole channel and tries to avoid or resolve channel conflicts.
2) American Tennis Ball (ATB) is a competitor that sells through two distributors--each with half the country. The distributors then sell through 6 sporting goods wholesalers, and they, in turn, sell to 1,000 retail outlets (split between two national sporting goods chains and two general merchandise stores). ATB and its channel make little effort to work together. However, because of a relatively low level of competition between the distributors, the wholesalers, or the retail stores, each member of the channel gives the product special attention.
3) National Tennis Ball (NTB) sells its products through only three tennis specialty wholesalers that sell only to tennis clubs. NTB actually owns the wholesale firms that handle its products. NTB's balls are only available at certain tennis clubs and NTB limits coverage to only one club in a particular geographic area.

1.National Tennis Ball's channel arrangement:
A) is called horizontal distribution
B) illustrates a traditional channel system
C) relies on exclusive distribution
D) is an example of intensive distribution
E) is likely to be characterized by a high level of conflict between channel members.
2.A wholesaler for American Tennis Ball is likely to perform which of the following regrouping activities:
A) Bulk-breaking
B) All of these alternatives are correct.
C) Assorting
D) Accumulating
3.Which of the following appears to best describe ATB's channel arrangements?
A) Intensive distribution
B) Selective distribution
C) Exclusive distribution
D) Global distribution
E) Direct distribution
4.Which of these companies uses a corporate channel of distribution?
A) National Tennis Ball.
B) Both World Tennis Ball and National Tennis Ball use a corporate channel.
C) American Tennis Ball.
D) World Tennis Ball.
E) There is not enough information to tell which company uses a corporate channel of distribution.
5.Which of the following describes WTB's channel arrangements?
A) Reverse channels
B) Intensive distribution
C) Corporate channel system
D) Traditional channel system
E) Exclusive distribution
6.Which tennis ball manufacturer is involved in direct distribution?
A) American Tennis Ball
B) National Tennis Ball
C) None of the firms use direct distribution
D) All of the firms use direct distribution
E) World Tennis Ball
7.Which of these companies appears to operate as a channel captain?
A) NTB
B) WTB
C) All of the companies appear to be channel captains
D) None of the companies is a channel captain
E) ATB
8.If American Tennis Ball adds more wholesalers and more retail outlets, this is likely to
A) increase trust and cooperation in the channel.
B) prompt both vertical and horizontal channel conflict.
C) create horizontal channel conflict.
D) require that the largest wholesaler take over the channel captain role.
E) lead to vertical channel conflict.
9.These three tennis ball producers all rely on retailers to reach consumers who want to buy only a few balls at a time. Apparently they all think that this is an efficient way to
A) handle discrepancies of assortment.
B) address discrepancies of quantity.
C) minimize the potential for conflict in the channel.
D) deal with sorting activities.
E) achieve intensive distribution.
10.If American Tennis Ball adds more retail outlets, which of the following would help it to manage channel conflict:
A) drop its national advertising and leave it to retailers to promote its tennis balls.
B) assign the channel captain role to the largest retail chain.
C) select new retail outlets that target the same customers as those who buy from its current retailers.
D) choose new retailers in the same geographic market as its current retailers but who sell at lower prices.
E) sell a different brand of tennis ball through the new retailers than what it sells through current retailers.