answer the following questions based on the learning and your personal knowledge with the concept of Best Practices at mind.

Your team has been charged with considering a proposal to open your own retail locations and need to determine the following:

Presently, your distribution channel looks like this Manufacturer (you) sells to Wholesaler (grocery distributor in local area) who sells to the retailer or restaurant. You would be the first company of your type to go direct to the customer with retail stores. What other success stories can your company look to to emulate and why? (Try to think of at least two manufacturers who have opened their own retail locations).

Thinking of your target customer, where would you want to locate these retail stores (types of locations not exact addresses)? Why?

How would you position your retail locations ie. Store image, target customer, positioning statement?

Describe your store pay special attention to atmospherics? What types of merchandise would you carry? What types of services would you offer? How would you make your location have a unique competitive advantage that would be difficult for a competitor to copy?

You want to give your boss alternatives, because you feel that what he really wants is to re-evaluate the distribution method (place function). So what other options might you present to your boss (other than opening your own retail stores) and why (come up with at least two other options)

At present, one of your products is priced between $1.50 and $4.50 in a range of retail outlets (from convenience stores to grocery to online sellers) suppose it costs $0.50 to make and package the product, $0.50 is profit to your company, and the distributor makes $0.50 per item with the retailer taking the remaining margin (if any). What do you suppose the current pricing strategy is? Is this an effective price strategy? Why or why not?

Your CEO has come to you and asked that you develop a NEW approach to pricing for your product for a specific new distribution outlet (he wont tell you much, but it will reach a new target market: urban, mid to upper-income, multicultural, 20s-30s). What pricing strategy will you utilize and why?

How does this new pricing strategy fit with the Marketing Mix, Positioning, and Differentiation strategy for your company? What other creative new pricing methods might your brand consider to appeal to current customers and sell more product?