When manufacturers compete with their channel members: An experiential learning project for marketing channels students

Abstract

This paper describes an experiential learning project for students enrolled in a Marketing Channels course. Students conducted small scale research studies involving manufacturers and their channel members by investigating behavior related to electronic marketing channels and pricing practices. Students developed hypotheses based on their channel management expertise and then collected primary data to test the hypotheses. The research efforts investigated the use of dual channel pricing by consumer product manufacturers in the U.S. market. The project served as the culminating experience for the course. Assessment feedback received from the students showed that the project was a beneficial addition to the course.

Keywords:

• Class project
• experiential learning
• marketing channels