Creating Products and Pricing Strategies

Place (distribution) strategy is creating the means (the channel) by which a product flows from the producer to the consumer. Place includes many parts of the marketing endeavor. It includes the physical location and physical attributes of the business, as well as inventory and control systems, transportation, supply chain management, and even presence on the web. One aspect of distribution strategy is deciding how many stores and which specific wholesalers and retailers will handle the product in a geographic area. Cosmetics, for instance, are distributed in many different ways. Avon has a sales force of several hundred thousand representatives who call directly on consumers. Clinique and Estée Lauder are distributed through selected department stores. Cover Girl and Coty use mostly chain drugstores and other mass merchandisers. Redken products sell through hair salons. Revlon uses several of these distribution channels. For services, place often becomes synonymous with both physical location (and attributes of that location such as atmospherics) and online presence. Place strategy for services also includes such items as supply chain management. An example would be that an engineering firm would develop offices with lush interiors (to denote success) and would also have to manage the supplies for ongoing operations such as the purchase of computers for computer-aided drafting.