Peer Review

Should We Use a Wholesaler?

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Reviewed:: Jul 21, 2022 by Business

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

A common cliché is ‘let’s cut out the middle man’. Removing the middle-man (a wholesaler) from the channel will provide a higher per unit margin for a manufacturer, but will it result in a higher profit overall? For this activity, help the following manufacturer decide whether or not they should use a wholesaler?

Type of Material:

Assignment

Recommended Uses:

The material can be used as an individual assignment or as the basis for a group/team discussion during class.
An additional idea is to use all or part of the assignment as an essay question on an exam.
Given that there is no one right answer to this question, it may be useful for a take-home exam.

Technical Requirements:

Used Chrome and Edge

Identify Major Learning Goals:

Students will gain a greater understanding of the relationship between the business, supplier, and customer within the supply chain.
Students will understand the pros and cons associated with using a wholesaler versus selling directly to a consumer.

Target Student Population:

Lower level marketing class

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

An introductory principles of marketing class would be helpful, but this assignment could also be incorporated into the channels/wholesale/distribution segment within a principles class.

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

Simple case study that can be easily implemented to illustrate the supply chain.
The module purposely does not contain a lot of details and information that students may want to know in order to make recommendations. A benefit of this approach is that it encourages students to think critically and conceptualize questions to help make important marketing decisions.
The lack of details/information also provides flexibility for the instructor to customize the assignment by adding parameters (such as timelines, external factors in the marketing environment, human resource constraints, budgets, etc.).

Concerns:

The content concern is also a strength, namely that the module does not contain a lot of details.
For students who struggle with critical thinking skills, they may be uncomfortable making recommendations without sufficient information.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

This exercise can be easily implemented in the classroom for discussion purposes or as an individual case study.
The material is well-suited for a variety of ways to help students learn more about wholesaling.
Instructors should have a relatively easy time assessing the extent to which students were able to identify the advantages and disadvantages of selling through a wholesaler versus direct.

Concerns:

The fourth question seems to be more general rather than related to the case information about Olive's Olives.
The instructors may want to provide additional context to help students expand their thinking on this question.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

The material can be accessed directly from the website or downloaded as a .pdf file.
Students will be able to grasp the concepts immediately and begin working on the assignment without issue.

Concerns:

None.

Other Issues and Comments:

The white paper under the module is from 2020, and many of the statistics about cloud computing likely have changed.
In order to download the file associated with the module, a whitepaper, students must agree to their information being processed in the Avaya database.
Students should be alerted to the company's Privacy Statement and reminded that they can manage their Email Preferences at any time.
They do not have to opt in to the emails (presently) in order to download the white paper, but they must fill out the form and provide their email address.
Since this whitepaper is a lead generation tool targeted at businesses, they are not the target audience and hopefully will not get spammed.

Creative Commons: