Apple Inc. and Mary Kay Cosmetics

P29 Q1 1. The marketing channel for Mary Kay cosmetics is called a direct selling channel. The company user a sales force of over 1000000 Independent Beauty Consultants around the world. These consultants are not employees of Mary Kay Corporation; they buy cosmetics from the company at a wholesale price and sell to end-users at a retail price. They maintain personal relationships with their end-user consumers and deliver product to them after it is ordered; it is a high-service purchasing relationship from the consumer’s point of view. Consultants thus act as both distributors and retailers. a. To what extent does an Independent Beauty Consultant participate in the eight universal marketing flows? b. How might these flows be shifted, either among the members now in the channel or to different agencies or institutions not presently included? What do you think would be the implications of such shifts? (think about how cosmetics are sold through department stores or through drugstore chains, for example.) c. Within each of these distribution systems, specify the consumer’s role from a flow-absorption perspective. Contrast this with the consumer’s role when buying cosmetics from a department store or a drugstore chain.

P64 Q1,2,3 2. For each of the three scenarios below, categorize the demand for bulk-breaking spatial convenience, waiting/ delivery time, and assortment/ variety as high, medium, or low. In each case, explain your answers. a. A woman in an emerging-market country of Southeast Asia wishes to buy some cosmetics for herself. She has never done so before and is not entirely sure of the occasions on which she will wear the cosmetics. She does not live near a big city. She is too poor to own a car but has a bit of extra money for a small luxury. b. A manufacturer uses a particular industrial chemical in one of its large-scale production processes and needs to buy more of the chemical. The rest of the raw materials for its plant operations are