Thinking Outside the Box: Futuristic Distribution Channels Are a Marketers Dream

Add some futuristic marketing and distribution channels to your event management software if you want to develop distribution channels that operate as strategic business alliances, not just as a logistical means to get your product from point A to point B. You have to consider your budget, your reach, your risk, and your already established means of marketing and distribution. The Internet's been buzzing with ideas of new marketing and distribution channels that will keep up with all the new computer and mobile gadgets. Marketers thinking outside the box will appreciate these three somewhat unusual, fun, and viable, considerations:

• The Internet of Things (IoT)
• Drones
• 3D Printing

The IoT: Marketing and Distribution Without Borders

Are you in the cloud? While companies look at the consumer-oriented Internet of Things as a viable distribution channel not confined by geographical borders, it still has some kinks. There's still latency (lag) issues that can affect marketing and distribution by affecting applications within the cloud. Fog computing is working to mitigate the issues. Then there's the upcoming billions of mobile end-users expecting immediacy. It's these consumers of the future that act as strategic alliances within the IoT, using word-of-mouth and online reviews to spark sales and distribution. They are powerful allies in the world of the IoT. But can consumers be considered viable marketing and distribution channels in such an unconventional sense?

Absolutely. If you have a consumer who can't convert his shopping cart into a sale within seconds, you're going to lose not only that sale, but also a powerful and viable relationship. Distribution is interconnected with marketing, sales, and logistics. It's built on relationships. Lose the consumer, lose the relationship that gets people talking about products and how to get them smartly. Consumers thrive on connectivity that gets them what they want in a timely way. It's a brave new world of giving all you've got.

Drones: Not a Fly-by-Night Marketing and Distribution Channel

If you consider consumers an unconventional first tier of the distribution chain, consider drone marketing and delivery as a channel of distribution that isn't going away any time soon. Although it's still breaking the law to operate a drone for commercial purposes without an exemption from the FAA, both large companies like Amazon and small event planners have been vying for airspace.

These marketing and distributions channels are more than flights of fancy in a marketer's dream. They are a pipeline into the future of "things." For more information about improving your business's marketing strategies, talk to a company that specializes in event management software.

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