Unusual approaches are ‘contractual systems’, frequently led by a wholesale or retail co-operative, and `administered marketing systems’ where one (chief) member of the distribution chain uses its place to co-ordinate the other members’ activities. This has customarily been the form led by manufacturers.
The intention of vertical marketing is to give all those concerned (and mainly the supplier at one end, and the retailer at the other) ‘control’ of the distribution chain. This takes away one set of variables from the marketing equations.