Distribution (Place)

Author: Jim Riley Last updated: Sunday 23 September, 2012

Marketing - Distribution (place)

Place (or its more common name “distribution”) is about how a business gets its products to the customers.
It is one thing having a great product, sold at an attractive price. But what if:

Customers are not near a retailer that is selling the product?
A competing product is stocked by a much wider range of outlets?
A competitor is winning because it has a team of trained distributors or sales agents who are out there meeting customers and closing the sale?

Distribution matters for a business of any size – it is a crucial part of the marketing mix. The objective of distribution is clear. It is:

To make products available in the right place at the right time in the right quantities

Distribution is achieved by using one or more distribution channels, including:

Retailers
Wholesalers
Distributors / Sales Agents
Direct (e.g. via e-commerce)

The role of a distribution channel

A distribution channel can be defined as:

"all the organisations through which a product must pass between its point of production and consumption"

Looking at that definition, you can see that a product might pass through several stages before it finally reaches the consumer. The organisations involved in each stage of distribution are commonly referred to as “intermediaries”.

Why does a business give the job of selling its products to intermediaries? After all, using an intermediary means giving up some control over how products are sold and who they are sold to. An intermediary will also want to make a profit by getting involved.

The answer lies in efficiency of distribution costs. Intermediaries are specialists in selling. They have the contacts, experience and scale of operation which means that greater sales can be achieved than if the producing business tried to run a sales operation itself.

The main function of a distribution channel is to provide a link between production and consumption. Organisations that form any particular distribution channel perform many key functions:

Information	Gathering and distributing market research and intelligence - important for marketing planning
Promotion	Developing and spreading communications about offers
Contact	Finding and communicating with prospective buyers
Matching	Adjusting the offer to fit a buyer's needs, including grading, assembling and packaging
Negotiation	Reaching agreement on price and other terms of the offer
Physical distribution	Transporting and storing goods
Financing	Acquiring and using funds to cover the costs of the distribution channel
Risk taking	Assuming some commercial risks by operating the channel (e.g. holding stock)