Outcome: Product Distribution Strategies

What you’ll learn to do: explain product distribution strategies and how they contribute to business success

A treasure map showing a circuitous path between the starting point and X (which marks the treasure). Also shown is the distance between the point and X (as the crow flies), which is a fraction of the "path" route.

If you lived during the Middle Ages and managed to avoid dying from the plague, chances are that you met your daily needs by walking around your village going to the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker. You didn’t, that is, drive to a shopping mall twenty miles away. The reason for the close proximity of consumers and producers was that businesses had not yet discovered ways of moving their goods beyond the local village and connecting them with potential buyers. In short, they lacked product distribution strategies. In today’s competitive marketplace, effective distribution strategies can mean the difference between success and failure. If one baker is out of apple pies, the customer can go elsewhere and choose from dozens or even hundreds more (which wasn’t the case in medieval times).  In this section we’ll look more closely at the “place” component of the four Ps.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

The learning activities for this section include:

  • Video: Placement: Distribution Channels
  • Self Check: Product Distribution Strategies

Take time to review and reflect on this activity in order to improve your performance on the assessment for this section.