ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the 'place' element of marketing strategy. It discusses the structure of marketing channels, followed by logistics. Marketing is a key factor in a continuous cycle that begins and ends with consumer wants. It is the role of the marketer to interpret consumer wants and combine them with empirical market data, such as the location, numbers and preferences of consumers, to establish the starting point for manufacture. Relationships among channel members are influenced by the structure of the channel. Marketing channels can be described as sets of interdependent organizations involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption. The chapter examines the ways in which distribution systems are designed and how channel policy is determined, depending on the degree of market exposure sought by a company. Marketing channels can be characterized according to the number of channel levels.
