A qualified comparison of the middleman working in consumer and industrial product markets:A survey in Eskişehir

The distribution channels selected by companies have great effects upon other marketing decisions. The rapid changes and developments in economic, social and technological areas have caused changes and developments in distribution channels.In the past, the market of consumer products and that of industrial product were handled together in general. However, besides similarities, many differences have been come out between types of markets. In this study, it is aimed to put forth whether there are distinctive differences in the structures and working styles of the middleman of consumer products and industrial products.The study was designed as three sections (parts). In the first section (part), the structure and operating styles of the distribution channels were summarized in general. In this part, the definition of the distribution channel, related literature review, the functions of the distribution channels, the alternative of distribution channel, and channel management decisions were explained.In the second section (part), the types and qualitative features of the middleman working in both types of markets were theoretically handled from a wide perspective.In the third and last section (part), by adopting (conducting) a qualitative analysis, it was targeted to clarify whether there are distinctive differences in the structures and working styles of the middleman running consumer markets and industrial market. In the analysis, The NVivo program, which is used to carry out analysis of semi-structured and non-structured data, was employed.