13 Examples of Marketing Intermediaries

John Spacey, January 18, 2020

A marketing intermediary is an individual or firm that plays a role in marketing a product or service to a consumer. This is mostly related to distribution -- the process of reaching customers with products and services. The following are common examples of marketing intermediaries.

Sales Partners

Partners that sell your goods in a way that you control. For example, a car dealership that is authorized to sell new cars from a particular manufacturer.

Promotional Partners

Promotional partners such as an affiliate that helps to generate sales leads.

Retail

Retailers that sell your goods without you controlling much about how they conduct their business. For example, a shampoo company that sells to a drug store without much control over how the shampoo is sold.

Ecommerce

Ecommerce platforms and sellers.

Agents & Brokers

Agents and brokers are representatives of buyers and sellers. For example, an insurance broker that represents sellers or buyers of insurance.

Markets

Markets are venues that connect buyers and sellers for a fee.

Parallel Import

Marketing intermediaries include entities that aren't officially approved partners of the producer. For example, parallel import is the practice of importing things without any agreement with the producer. This is often done because a good isn't officially available or because the price is higher in one location than another.

Trading Houses

A trading house is a firm that helps producers sell into foreign markets. For example, an Japanese firm that helps a German food manufacturer to reach customers in Japan.

Wholesale

Wholesalers purchase goods and sell in volume to resellers such as retailers.

Value-Added Reseller

A firm that purchases your product or service and adds value to it before reselling it. For example, a bicycle company that uses your brand of bicycle tires.

Cooperatives

Cooperatives pool the marketing and operational resources of small businesses. For example, an agricultural cooperative that sells the output of hundreds of farmers in order to obtain greater negotiating power.

Consumer Collective

A consumer collective is an organization that pools the buying power of many consumers. For example, an automobile associate that is the largest purchaser of towing services in a nation that helps to prevent consumers from being overcharged.

Financial Intermediary

An entity that helps buyer and seller to execute a financial transaction. For example, an organization that will hold payment for a domain name until the domain is transferred to a new owner.