The marketing channel for Mary Kay Cosmetics is called a direct selling channel. The company uses a sales force of over 1,000,000 Independent Beauty Consultants around the world. These consultants are not employees of Mary Kay Corporation; they buy cosmetics from the company at a wholesale price and sell to end-users at a retail price. They maintain personal relationships with their end-user consumers and deliver product to them after it is ordered; it is a high-service purchasing relationship from the consumer's point of view. Consultants thus act as both distributors and retailers.

a. To what extent does an Independent Beauty Consultant participate in the eight universal marketing flows?

b. How might these flows be shifted, either among the members now in the channel or to different agencies or institutions not presently included? What do you think would be the implications of such shifts? (Think about how cosmetics are sold through department stores or through drugstore chains, for example.)

c. Within each of these distribution systems, specify the consumer's role from a flow- absorption perspective. Contrast this with the consumer's role when buying cos metics from a department store or a drugstore chain.? P-325