The Service
industries is the provision of services to businesses as well as final
consumers. Therefore, include accounting, tradesmanship (like mechanic or
plumber services), computer services, restaurants, tourism, etc.
Product
distribution (or place) is one of the four elements of the marketing mix. An organization
involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or
consumption by a consumer or business user.
The channel decision is very important. In theory
at least, there is a form of trade-off: the cost of using intermediaries to
achieve wider distribution is supposedly lower. Indeed, most consumer goods
manufacturers could never justify the cost of selling direct to their
consumers, except by mail order. Many suppliers seem to assume that once their
product has been sold into the channel, into the beginning of the distribution
chain, their job is finished. Yet that distribution chain is merely assuming a
part of the supplier`s responsibility; and, if they have any aspirations to be
market-oriented, their job should really be extended to managing all the
processes involved in that chain, until the product or service arrives with the
end-user.