RESEARCH ON THE MARKETING CHANNELS OF PRINTER MARKETS IN TAIWAN AND CHINA--EPSON AS AN EXAMPLERESEARCH ON THE MARKETING CHANNELS OF PRINTER MARKETS IN TAIWAN AND CHINA --EPSON AS AN EXAMPLE

• Main Authors: Wu Chen-Kung, 吳成功
• Other Authors: Lee Hsien-Che
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/57203319497490712906

碩士 === 大同大學 === 事業經營研究所碩士班 === 93 === RESEARCH ON THE MARKETING CHANNELS OF PRINTER MARKETS IN TAIWAN AND CHINA --EPSON AS AN EXAMPLE Advisor: Professor Hsien-che Lee Student: Chen-Kung Wu Department of Business Management, Tatung University, 2005 ABSTRACT The increasing consumption power from China’s 1.1 billion of population is what the world’s largest companies are looking for. There have been 400 out of the top 500 businesses in the world that had their companies registered in China for operation in a hope to take a prominent part in the warfare. Change of environment and revolution of technology have displaced the traditional pa-and-mom retail stores with the emerged large 3C franchise, hyper-marts, and TV marketing. A recent of this is the close-down of Ming-Yang 3C and Shu-Yau, contrary to the emergence and prosperity of the hyper markets and electronic chain stores. This change in the retail channel structure and the great potential of the greater China market identify the fact that channel management will be a key success factor in today’s retail frontiers. Seiko Epson is a Japanese company and has subsidiaries in Taiwan, China, and many of the countries in the world. From the famed Seiko watches, to Epson printers and peripherals, the company possesses core technologies and is well established in the global market. With the presence in China, Epson shows its aggression in building up the network and dominates the market. This research provides thorough analyses on the channel management of Epson in Taiwan & China. Comparison and contrast of the channel implementation are based on the comprehensive information, references, and interviews during the search, and are shown as follows: In comparisons, Epson implements different marketing channel strategies and formations in China and Taiwan respectively, so to better suit the markets and corresponding macro-environments. In Taiwan, the “selected or/and prioritized dealers” is a design to intensify the competition and to boost best efforts from channels; whereas in China, due to the distance boundaries and the immature channel structure, Epson China relies heavily on the regional agents or/and distributors and gives agents direct control over the channels. Epson’s future development on channel strategies across straits should focus more on the strengths of products and customize channels to generate best sales results. Another important issue concerning marketing channels is the “partition”. In Taiwan, the characteristics of respective channels are vague and indifferent, with printer market is a saturated market, a proper management on channel partition helps to reduce or eliminate channel conflicts. In China, the channel management is more complicated and the structure process is time-consuming. Therefore, to urging the implementation of IT systems at the agents’ ends will be an effective way of managing the channels. Keywords: Printers, Channels, Epson, Dealers, Hyper Markets