Place (Physical Distribution) Mix, Promotion Mix and the Extended Marketing Mix

Place, also called physical distribution, covers everything involved in getting the product from the producer to the final customer, in the right quantity, at the right place, and at the right time.

Channels of distribution are the paths a product travels from producer to consumer:

• A direct channel has no intermediary at all — the producer sells straight to the consumer (for example, through a company-owned outlet, direct mail order, or an online store run by the manufacturer itself).
• An indirect channel uses one or more intermediaries — wholesalers, distributors, and/or retailers — between the producer and the final consumer. Indirect channels are common where the producer wants wide market coverage without having to build and manage its own retail network everywhere.

The choice between a direct and an indirect channel, and how many levels of intermediaries to use, depends on factors such as the nature of the product (perishable items usually need shorter, faster channels), the size and spread of the market, the cost the firm can bear, and how much control over the final sale the firm wants to keep.

Beyond choosing a channel, physical distribution also involves:

• Warehousing — storing goods safely between the time they are produced and the time they are actually needed by the market, which helps balance production schedules against uneven or seasonal demand.
• Transportation — physically moving goods from the factory/warehouse to wholesalers, retailers, or directly to customers, choosing a mode (road, rail, water, air) that balances speed, cost, and the nature of the goods being moved.

Promotion covers all the activities a firm undertakes to inform, persuade, and remind customers about its product, so that they choose to buy it. The main tools, together often called the promotion mix, are:

• Advertising — any paid, non-personal form of communication about a product through mass media (television, print, radio, digital media), aimed at a large audience at once. It builds wide awareness quickly but cannot adapt its message to an individual customer.
• Personal selling — direct, face-to-face (or one-to-one) communication between a salesperson and a prospective buyer, which allows the message to be tailored to that individual customer's questions and objections, though it reaches fewer people per unit of cost than advertising.
• Sales promotion — short-term incentives designed to encourage an immediate purchase, such as discounts, coupons, free samples, contests, or "buy one get one" offers; effective for a quick boost in sales, but not meant to be used continuously, since it can train customers to buy only when there is a special offer.
• Publicity and public relations — communication about the firm or its product carried through independent news or media coverage, which the firm does not pay for directly (unlike advertising). Because it comes from a source seen as more independent than the firm's own advertisement, it often carries higher credibility with the public, though the firm has much less direct control over what is actually said. …