ABSTRACT
The role of marketing in economic development is a crucial one. If marketing is defined as the delivery of goods and services from manufacturer or producer to the user or consumer, then any improvement in the standard of living of a society must be channelled through its marketing system. Therefore, channels of distribution must have the capability to accommodate timely and efficient flows of goods and services that improve a society’s standard of living. But distribution functions represent portions of marketing that are complex, tradition bound, and cannot rapidly be changed. Additionally, distribution functions and institutions are adaptive to the demands placed on them by the system, but are subject to environmental constraints.
