China Architectural Book Marketing Channels - The Books Have A Competitive Advantage Marketing Channels

In China, the publication and distribution is a special industry. On the one hand, as a kind of commodity, publications like other common commodities, are priced and have value and use value, and can generate value in the course of circulation. On the other hand, as a carrier of information of knowledge, culture, ideology, politics and technology, publications fall into the category of intellectual product and hence are supervised as a special trade and much emphasis has so far been placed on its ideology attribute.Due to the Government's promise of a phased open up of its field of circulation of publications to various capital, foreign capital included, after its entrance into WTO in the year 2001, an unprecedented change of the relations between supply and demand is sure to take place. It is certain that the change will further the prosperity of the industry, but in the meantime, the growth of the buyer's market will demand more and more from publishers, which in turn will intensify the keen competitions within the industry. Unfortunately, enterprises engaged in publishing and distribution of publications lag far behind their counterparts in the developed countries either in scales or in management ideas or conceptions. Therefore, how to face the international competitions and enable our publishers and distributors to gain some advantage in them becomes an issue of great importance facing us at present.The present thesis focuses its analysis and research only on a segmental market - the publishing and distribution of publications of the construction category. The reason is as follows: First, the distribution of publications of this category has its characteristics. At present, 60% of the books on or about construction are sold by the professional bookstores; in other words, the professional bookstores have already taken an advantage over Xinhua Bookstore, the main distribution channel. Second, publications that fall into various categories require different distribution strategies and channels, which in turn require a clear aim of the concerning research. Third, publications on or about construction fall into the industrial and technological category and are mainly the carrier of technological information, that is to say, they claim less ideology attribute than other publications. Once the publication market is opened up, publications of this category are likely to be the first to face the free competition. Therefore, the present study is more of practical significance.Guided by the trade competition analyses and competition advantage theory put forward by Prof. Michael Porter, the present paper has conducted an analysis over the five competition forces facing the construction publication trade after China's accedence to WTO. The five forces are 1) the existing competitors within the trade; 2) the potential newcomers;3) substitutes and substitute service; 4) the seller's ability in bargaining; 5) the buyer's ability in bargaining. As to how to face the competition and gain advantage in the competition, the publishers and distributors in China have three strategic choices, they are 1) overall cost leadership strategy, 2) differentiation strategy and 3) focus strategy. Based on the analysis over the above-mentioned strategies, the author draws the conclusion that the only way for publishers dedicated to construction publications to ensure their advantage in the competition is to adopt the differentiation strategy to. Again as to how to put the strategy into practice, the author's argument is to build up a set of competitive marketing channels. Based on the analysis of the existing distribution channels and their problems and on Louis Stern's marketing channel theory, the thesis has also conducted a probing discussion over the constructional design of channels, the choice of channel members, the management and control over channels. The second conclusion is: to push forward the distribution and enlarge the market scale by the professional marketing channels and thus to gain advantage in the competition.T...