when all is said and done, the final channel structure may be close to the zero-based design but not actually zero-based. That is, some environmental or managerial bounds may not have been lessened, and this constrains the final channel solution. The end product is the best that the channel manager can produce but still deviates from the first-best or zero-based channel. We can thus call it a secound-best channel design, with the understanding that the firs-best design is not always attainable.