Chapter 11: Deliver the Goods
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.
purchase and what steps could the related retailer take to lessen those risks?
Students can have a lively discussion about the risks of online shopping. How can a shopper
know if he/she is getting the item itself or an imitation. For example, I needed a watch strap
for a Cartier Tank Watch. Many were offered online, but I couldn’t verify whether they were
produced by Cartier or not. I ended up buying the watch strap at a Cartier dealership.
11-27 Critical Thinking As colleges and universities are looking for better ways to satisfy their
customers, an area of increasing interest is the distribution of their product (which of course is a
student’s education). Describe the characteristics of your school’s channel(s) of distribution.
What types of innovative distribution might make sense for your school to try?
To answer this question, students should be encouraged to think about how the educational
product is delivered to them. They might remember that the educational product might come
through classroom lecture, television, continuing education, extended or distance learning,
video or audiotape, or foreign travel. New forms that might be explored are CD-ROM, surface
transportation (such as on a train), the Internet, websites, teleconferencing, or other recorded
means. The students should be encouraged to look at the factors (such as cost, competition,
technology, mission identification, etc.) that would affect the choice of these forms.
11-28 Critical Thinking Can a company’s reverse logistics system have a significant influence on
how a consumer views the organization and its brand? Are there specific types of products for
which a company’s reverse logistics system could play a more important role in contributing to
a customer’s view of the organization? For those companies what characteristics would you
expect their reverse logistics systems to have in order to create high added value for a
customer?
Logistics is also a relevant consideration regarding product returns, recycling and material
reuse, and waste disposal—reverse logistics.
Reverse logistics becoming even more important
as firms start to more seriously consider sustainability as a competitive advantage and put more
effort into maximizing the efficiency of recycling to save money and the environment at the
same time. There are many companies, for example, coffee companies, that boast about fair-
trade products and an environmentally friendly supply chain. More and more consumers make
purchases based on whether or not a product is made by a company, seriously interested in
protecting the environment. Reverse logistics adds value to a product from the customer’s
perspective.
11-29 Ethics RFID tags are extremely useful for retailers, but many consumers have responded
negatively to them, even calling them “spy chips.” What are the ethical issues that retailers
must be aware of when they use these chips? What responsibility do retailers have to educate
consumers about how they will use the information contained in these chips?
Technology known as radio frequency identification (RFID) is used to tag clothes,
pharmaceuticals, or virtually any kind of product with tiny chips that contain information about
the item’s content, origin, and destination. This technology has the potential to revolutionize
inventory control and help marketers ensure that their products are on the shelves when people
want to buy them. Some consumer groups are creating a backlash against RFID, which they