A Brief Look at the Distribution of Soda

A Brief Look at the Distribution of Soda The third element of the marketing mix is place or also called distribution. Distribution is described as the movement of goods and services from the source through the distribution channel, right up to the final consumer and the movement of payment in the opposite direction, right up to the original producer. Distribution is a very significant aspect of the marketing mix; it can decide whether a small business can compete with the big businesses. Distribution takes a major role in the growth stage of the product life cycle due to its ability to not only help sell the product, but to also allow their product to advertise itself. If a company focuses mainly on promotion and never really sets up a good distribution channel, their efforts will be lost due to the lack of ease for a consumer to purchase their product. Even the perfect product, attractively priced and ingeniously promoted, cannot be sold without a means of distributing it to consumers (Russ & Kirkpatrick, pg.297).
Distribution Channel
A distribution channel is the sequence of firms that sell, buy, or hold products as those products move from manufacturers and producers to end buyers (Russ & Kirkpatrick, pg.297). Every channel must have at least two members or levels. These levels are the producer or seller, and the user or buyer. There are also two different kinds of members that are known as middlemen, these middlemen are known as retailers and wholesalers. The distribution channel is and will remain a problematic marketing subfunction for most firms because of the built-in conflicts between manufacturer and reseller (Bonoma, pg.49). Manufacturers must work through these different channels to attain diverse markets to reach their ultimate goal; provide their customers with what they want, where they want it, and when they want it.
Orange Crush Soda
An example would be the soft drink business and how they manage to distribute their product

References: Bonoma, T. V. (1985). The marketing edge. New York, NY: The Free Press. Kotler, P., Armstrong, G. (1987). Marketing: An introduction. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc. Kurtz, D. L. (2008). Contemporary marketing. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Russ, A. R., & Kirkpatrick, C. A. (1982). Marketing. Canada: Little Brown & Company.