Chuck Taylors All Stars Essay

A.) Marketing Channel Converse uses a distribution channel when marketing the Chuck Taylor All Stars basketball shoes; they have two distribution centers in Ontario, California that uses an automation system to get the shoes into their reserved racks and shipped out to their destinations. These distribution centers handle both Converse and Hurley products as a multi-channel distribution in retail, wholesale, and e-commerce processing. Through this the company has increased the speed of their production by taking two days off the retail order processing timeline and reducing the CPU of apparel by 20 percent. They follow the APCD format which stands for Act, Plan, Check, and Do. The company â€Å"acts† by deciding on the changes needed to improve processing, â€Å"plan† by designing or revising business process components to improve results, â€Å"check† by assessing the measurements and reporting the results to decision makers, and â€Å"do† by implementing the plan and measurin g its performance (Webstoryteller, 2012). B.) Type of Distribution Converse is an intensive distributor because their products and footwear are aimed at maximum market coverage; they try to have the shoes available in every outlet where potential consumers are willing to buy them. The strategy is to sell a large percentage of their products to wholesalers and retailers that are trying to stock their own products. (Lamb, Hair, McDaniel, 2012) C.) Maintaining Channel Cooperation For the most part, Converse has no problem maintaining their distribution channel since they follow the APCD guidelines. The distribution centers’ warehouse management and control systems manages the daily order requirements due to the coordination of their employees, processes, and systems all working together. The company operates a 2 shift/5 day schedule that allows them to receive over 20,000 cases per day, stored over 9 million units of footwear, replenish their orders within 48 hours, and perform dynamic routing (Webstoryteller, 2012). D.) Physical Distribution In footwear, Converse has 12 automated value add and 5 case sealing stations that print of RDIF tickets that are required by client contract services. The shoes are packaged and then shipped off to retailing stores like Target, Kohls, Journeys, Journeys Kids, Macys, Nordstrom, Foot Locker, Champs, Finish Line, JC Penny, Lord & Taylor, Converse Outlet, Nordstrom Rack, Famous Footwear, Foot Action, Amazon, eBay, Sears, Sports Authority, Dicks Sporting Goods, and Zappos (Webstoryteller, 2012).