Place

It is important for a business to get its goods to where the customer wants them, or is able to buy them. This place is known as the point of sale. Place refers to both the point of sale and how the goods reach it. Goods are not normally bought from where they are manufactured, this means that they have to get to the consumer. This will usually occur in one of three ways:

• Delivered directly to the customer or sold through a factory outlet.

• A large retailer will buy the goods directly from the manufacturer and sell them on to the customer.

• The manufacturer will sell in bulk to a wholesaler, who then sells the goods on in smaller quantities to retailers, who in turn sell to the consumers.

These methods are summarized in the diagram below:

It is also possible for a business to use personal selling or direct mailing:

• Personal selling - this involves the use of sales representatives calling from door to door, or on the telephone, in the hope of convincing the customer to buy the product.
• Direct mailing - information is sent through the post or via e-mail to groups of consumers who the company think will buy their product or services. To make this method more efficient companies often purchase lists of people who are in the target groups they want to reach.

Whichever method of distribution the manufacturer chooses it is important that customers can easily obtain the product - if they cannot, they will go to a competitor who makes it easier for them to buy it.