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About Creating and Modifying Distribution Lists

Typically, marketing administrators create distribution lists that control which of their company's products are distributed to a customer's distributor accounts and the retail outlets they serve.

Creating a distribution list involves the following tasks:

• Creating Distribution Codes
• Creating a Distribution List

Before creating a distribution list for a customer, you must already have created the appropriate distribution codes. Distribution codes impose a logic on the distribution of products across the account-category hierarchy that is either inclusive or exclusive. In both systems, the distribution codes govern how products move from key accounts to subaccounts.

For information on creating accounts and account hierarchies, see Managing Accounts.

For each product you add to the key account's distribution list, an account-product record is automatically created. The distribution code you enter for each product on the key account's distribution list is matched with the distribution codes given to each subsidiary account.

With inclusive distribution, the sequence or order which is assigned to a group of distribution codes in the list of values (LOV), is used to assign rank to accounts. For example, a number of outlets might have different distribution codes within the Beverages category. The distribution codes and the order that is assigned to those codes in an inclusive system are shown in Table 7.

In an inclusive distribution system, subaccounts with the distribution code Premium receive the entire key account's list of beverages, that is, products with distribution codes Premium, Standard, or Limited. Outlets with the distribution code Standard receive a subset of the entire list, which includes products with Standard and Limited distribution codes. Outlets with the distribution code Limited in the Beverages category receive only those products with the distribution code of Limited.

With exclusive distribution, each distribution code defines a specific subset of products that is independent of the order assigned to the distribution codes. Table 8 shows an example of distribution codes and products that might be found in an exclusive distribution system.

In an exclusive distribution system, outlets with the distribution code Premium in the category Beverages receive a subset of the key account's distribution list of products, which includes products that are part of the Premium category with distribution codes Premium. Outlets with the distribution code Standard for the category Beverages receive a subset of the entire list, which includes only those products with the distribution code of Standard in the Beverages category. Outlets with the distribution code Limited in the category Beverages receive only the products with the distribution code of Limited in the Beverages category.

You can also add unauthorized products to subaccount distribution lists. An unauthorized product is a product that is added to a subaccount's distribution list outside the inclusive or exclusive distribution system.