--- title: "The Value of Intermediaries: Filter or Sewer?" description: "From offline to online, from physical goods to services, from distributors to platform operators, the work of intermediaries has changed, but the standard of providing value remains unchanged. What is this value? What is the most basic value for intermediaries? By simplifying and drawing analogies, we can find answers from the topic of distributor value. Kotler's classic marketing theory points out that distributors bear eight major values, whether it's negotiation, promotion, or risk sharing, all of which are values relative to brand owners." author: "黄润霖" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2017-09-24" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/the-value-of-intermediaries-filter-or-sewer-64e30a7e/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/the-value-of-intermediaries-filter-or-sewer-64e30a7e.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/iWOuMXw41qSGG857oTpqjQ" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E4%B8%AD%E9%97%B4%E5%95%86%E7%9A%84%E4%BB%B7%E5%80%BC-%E6%98%AF%E8%BF%87%E6%BB%A4%E5%99%A8-%E8%BF%98%E6%98%AF%E4%B8%8B%E6%B0%B4%E9%81%93-64e30a7e.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/the-value-of-intermediaries-filter-or-sewer-64e30a7e/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # The Value of Intermediaries: Filter or Sewer? > From offline to online, from physical goods to services, from distributors to platform operators, the work of intermediaries has changed, but the standard of providing value remains unchanged. What is this value? What is the most basic value for intermediaries? By simplifying and drawing analogies, we can find answers from the topic of distributor value. Kotler's classic marketing theory points out that distributors bear eight major values, whether it's negotiation, promotion, or risk sharing, all of which are values relative to brand owners. **From offline to online, from physical goods to services, from distributors to platform operators, the work of intermediaries has changed, but the standard of providing value remains unchanged.** Just what is this value? What is the most basic value for intermediaries? **By simplifying and drawing analogies, we can still find answers from the topic of distributor value.** Kotler's classic marketing theory points out that distributors bear eight major values, whether it's negotiation, promotion, or risk sharing, all of which are values relative to brand owners. Distributors selected by such standards must face the enterprise rather than the consumer. **In the interconnected world of the Internet, if you don't solve consumer problems but only focus on corporate indicators, the business risk will definitely have a cumulative multiplier effect.** Even the value of distributors relative to consumers includes both the responsibility to provide quality products and the obligation to provide a comfortable purchasing environment, both the requirement to provide professional technical services and the need to provide convenient payment conditions. Among the various values, which one is the most basic value demand that consumers have for distributors? The so-called most basic value demand is the thing that "if the skin is gone, what will the hair adhere to?" All other values are built on the bottom-line value. To make a vivid analogy, the bottom-line demand of foodies for a gourmet restaurant is not the exquisite taste or the high-end dining environment, but food safety. Without this bottom line, other value propositions are nonsense. **On the issue of value bottom line, offline distributors have also taken many detours.** In the 1980s, having goods meant having money. Distributors, still in their infancy, began to learn to walk, naively believing that as long as they provided products to consumers, they were providing value. Bad habits like passing off inferior goods as superior and shortchanging quantities were formed at that time. In the 1990s, distributors began to pay attention to the added value of channels. With the emergence of brand franchise concepts, as long as a distributor got a big brand, it was basically clinging to a money tree. As a result, distributors with big brands only sold expensive items, not the right ones; distributors without big brands, knowing that certain brands were fake or counterfeit foreign brands, not only failed to help consumers distinguish truth from falsehood but even aided the evildoers. Entering the 21st century, distributors have become more and more successful in marketization, but they are also increasingly confused about exploring the value bottom line. Expanding stores, channels, and teams, becoming bigger and stronger has become the vane for distributor development. Channel differences became a reason for distributors to cheat each customer; in some markets, Kangshifu and Kangshuaifu ran side by side, leading to a battle between Li Kui and Li Gui, and regional distributors played a significant role in fueling the fire. **Consumers are a mirror; how you treat them, they will repay you.** **Soon, the roaring e-commerce, with only the hand of price, beat offline distributors to pieces.** Even if distributors shouted that e-commerce platforms were flooded with counterfeit goods, the rapidly growing e-commerce data had already slapped distributors in the face: why say that counterfeit goods are an invention of e-commerce? After all, consumers don't only encounter being cheated on the Internet. Look, the deeper the cause you plant, the faster the fruit will come! Not reviewing products, not adhering to survival of the fittest, and even turning a blind eye to the monsters and ghosts in products. **Internet platform operators, in handling this issue, seem to bring more hidden dangers than traditional distributors.** After all, from the development history of distributors to platform operators, distributors have already fallen into pits, and platform operators don't need to jump again. Because whether it's a distributor or a platform operator, although they are at the end of the industry chain, they neither participate in product design nor manufacturing, nor can they determine the appearance or quality of products. However, this position also has the most important power: to decide who can meet consumers. This power, although it cannot determine the birth of a product, can determine its growth. From another perspective, if intermediaries do not provide the function of a filter but only serve as a sewer passage, just wanting to rely on luck to claim a piece of land, then exploit laborers, collect rent, and keep concubines, such an era has long ended. Don't end up like those people in long gowns and braids, muddle-headed, when someone shouts "It's the Republic of China!" and you are still stunned. **If you keep thinking about it, there will be an echo. Consumers, this mirror, can not only reflect demons but also gods and Buddhas.** **The 3rd (CFIC) China FMCG + Internet Conference** will be held in Chongqing in November 2017. The conference will closely focus on the theme "New Forces, New Ecology" and invite **1000+ distributors, 500+ brand owners, 200+ B2B platform founders, and 100+ investment and financing institutions** to jointly explore a new chapter of cross-border integration! **Core topics of this conference:** > * **How can the FMCG industry achieve new growth opportunities through B2B** > > > > > > > * **How to build a new supply chain behind new retail** > > > > > > > * **How can intra-city logistics help B2B achieve leapfrog development** > **Highlights of this conference:** > * **The industry's first "2017 China FMCG B2B Industry Competitiveness White Paper"** > > > > > * **Case sharing of excellent transformation and upgrading distributors** > > > > > * **Conference + exhibition upgrade, Hall 6 Internet Technology Exhibition strengthens docking** > > > > > * **Alibaba Retail Link, ProLogis Finance, Eternal Asia Supply Chain, Best Store Plus, Yi Jiu Pi, Haiding, and other well-known enterprise leaders in various fields will give speeches on site to express pioneering views.** > **Registration is now open. Long press the QR code below or click "Read Original" to register.** Add friend and note "Conference Registration" Click the link below to review the grand occasions of the first and second FMCG + Internet conferences: [2016 "FMCG + Internet" High-Level Forum]() -END- --- ## Copyright and AI use This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL. Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671