Canais de Distribuição e Diferenças entre Produtos e Serviços

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1) A distribution channel is the route that moves a product from the manufacturer to its final consumer. For example, a coffee bean producer may sell his coffee to an exporter at $0.90/lb. The exporter then sold the beans to an importer in other country at $1.00/lb (10% mark-up). The importer sold the beans to a distributor at $1.50/lb (15% mark-up). The distributor then sold the coffee beans to a retailer at $24.00/lb (700% mark-up). Finally, the retailer sells the coffee beans to customers at $36.00/lb. Can you explain what the value is for customers of this distribution channel?
The value is that in a product with a big market like coffee where there are millions of customers, it will be very expensive to search and sell to each and every one of them. As the text says “The advantages are leverage and cost effectiveness, enabling the supplier to reach a wide, mass but low-volume market, at the cost of further distance from the customer and market.”
The value for the customer is to be able to purchase coffee in practically any corner, a thing that would be very difficult without a distribution system like this. 
2) Some companies distribute the same product through multiple channels. For example, a manufacturer may sell its products through full-service specialty retailers, while also having its sales force calling directly on particularly large customers, and selling to price-sensitive customers via the internet at "factory direct" prices. What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of this distribution strategy?  
This distribution strategy (a mix of different distribution models), could be used if you want to cover the market completely and reach different customer segments. The disadvantages of using this strategy are that it could create channel conflict with two or more channels taking the same product into the same customer, some channels could have an “unintentional advantage” which can be very damaging in delivering the product. (The text gives the example of someone that goes to a specialist shop, with trained sales people and then buying the product in the warehouse with a huge discount)
3)      What single concept or idea did you find most confusing or difficult about distribution channels? If nothing was confusing or difficult, what did you find of most interest?
I find very interesting the example of Coca-Cola beating Pepsi in all major holidays because they can provide stock to the stores three times a day through their distribution system and Pepsi could not match this. How you have to understand the business model of your channel partners to communicate your company’s value proposition but also you have to look inside and by identifying the strengths of your of business you can find ways to overpower your competitors.
	
1) Your reading for this class states “Developing new products, and then figuring out how to market them, usually leads to disaster.” What do you think the authors meant by that? Why would that practice be disastrous?
I think the authors meant that you should first “market the product”, that is to say: segment, search the needs and wants of the segment, target customers, positioning, etc. and then start to develop a new product, basing on this previous work and results. It would be disastrous in two ways: first, how would you develop a new product without looking at needs of a group of people? It could be a very broad search and an expensive one. In the other side, after you have your new product, is more difficult to then start searching the segment for that product in particular or you could find out that it will positioned in the same place of an already existing product. 
2) What are, in your opinion, the key differences between goods and services?
In my opinion, the key difference is the typical definition of goods being tangible and services intangible, although we can see this not as a dichotomy but as a continuum, having some products or services in between (for example, a restaurant or made to measure clothes). I think that another way to differentiate is by how involved is a person in the delivery of the product: a pure service like teaching or a haircut need the person doing the action and delivering the service (right there, in the moment), while with to buy soda or a fruit you could just pick one from a counter. This makes services more time dependent, not like product which can be stored.
3) Check the questions posed by the authors on pages 6 and 7. Replace “your industry” for “post-secondary education.” Can you think of any products (or services) launched in the last 10 years that have changed post-secondary education? Are they breakthroughs or incremental innovations? How have they impacted the market?
A product that comes to my mind is the "tablet" (basing on my own experience), a relatively new product but one that has definitely revolutionized the post-secondary education. I think is a breakthrough product, because has brought: new set of performance features (the fact that is a “touch” device provides new things to do in almost every application), improvements in performance (you can now read a paper or text and highlight it like it’s a real paper, much better than reading in a notebook or having to carry all the reading to all courses) and reduction in cost for some features (following the powerpoints of a class or taking notes is much easier with a tablet than with a notebook)
In my case, now this semester that I’ve been using one I hadn’t print any reading or powerpoint and it so much more practical than carrying all of them because you have all the information you need with you all the time. I have a lot of friends than have recently bought one (and other than have asked me how productive and useful it is) so I think it has impacted the market and will keep doing it, for example replacing the purchase of notebooks (I’ve read in the news that “ultrabooks” stopped being produced because have being replaced by the tablets)
Another good example could be the data show, another breakthrough product that has changed the post-secondary education for similar reasons.