Emergence of new distribution strategies: a call for a paradigm shift

The purpose of this research is to empirically formulate new distribution strategies that can service the fast moving consumer goods industry and the service industry as a whole. Inspiration was drawn from the orthodox distribution strategies (intensive, selective, and exclusive) currently used in the service industry. To approve its empirical efficacy, the study is set also to determine the impact of these new strategies on sales performance. The study is implemented through a two-stage process of literature review and empirical survey. Evidence was drawn from Ghanaian fast moving consumer goods industry. Structured questionnaire was used to gather data from 415 randomly sampled members in the target population. The data obtained were processed using SPSS version 24. Multiple regression analysis was also used to assess its impact on sales performance. The study revealed that intenelectro aggressive strategy with an average mean of 4.02 is the most adopted strategy by the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Companies followed by selec-electro aggressive distribution strategy (average mean of 3.81) and exclu-electro aggressive distribution strategy (average mean of 3.74) in that order. The study again revealed that there is a positive significant relationship between inten-electro aggressive strategy and sales performance (��= .490, p< 0.05). This newly propounded strategy (inten-electro aggressive strategy) is proven to have a significant impact on sales performance in the fast moving consumer goods industry understudy. Thus, inten-electro aggressive strategy has a moderate positive relationship with sales performance. The statistical implication is that, holding all other variables constant, inten-electro aggressive strategy induces 49.0 % change in sales performance of the fast moving consumer goods firms understudy. Thus, this result proves that a unit change in the effective execution of this strategy will induce 49.1% change in sales performance. In other words, when inten-electro aggressive strategy is improved by 1%, sales will be improved by 49.0 percentage change. The significance level of this outcome according to the study results was 0.00 which is less than 0.05 indicating that the variance between the two variables in question was significant. The result again proves that exclu -electro aggressive distribution strategy, impact positively on sales performance. It poses as a reasonable positive inclination to sales performance; thus (��= .595, p<0.05), Thus, holding all other variables (InEADS & SeEADS) constant, Exclu -electro aggressive distribution strategy causes 59.5 % change in sales performance. This result proves that a unit change in the efficacy of exclu -electro aggressive distribution strategy in will induce 59.5% change in the company’s sales. The significance level of this outcome in reference to the study results was 0.000 which is less than the standard value of 0.05 indicating that the variance between the two variables in question was significant. Selec-electro aggressive distribution strategy has a positive significant impact on sales performance thus (��=.532, p< 0.01). It can be said therefore that any improvement made in selec-electro aggressive distribution strategy, will cause sales performance of FMCG companies to increase by 53.2 %. Index Terms—Affran Marketing Distribution Strategies, Sales Performance, Ghana, Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Industry.