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.

This relatively current development integrates the channel with the unique supplier - producer, wholesalers and retailers working in one combined system. This may arise for the reason that one member of the chain possesses the other elements (often called `corporate systems integration’); a supplier possessing its own retail outlets, this being ‘forward’ integration. It is probably more likely that a retailer will possess its own suppliers, this being ‘backward’ integration. (For instance, MFI, the furniture retailer, possesses Hygena which makes its kitchen and bedroom units.) The integration may also be by franchise (such as that provided by McDonald’s hamburgers and Benetton clothes) or easy co-operation.