This document provides an overview of marketing distribution channels and intermediaries. It discusses that distribution channels involve independent organizations that make products available to consumers, and can be viewed as the company's circulatory system. Marketing intermediaries are used to perform functions like information gathering, promotion, contact with buyers, matching products to needs, negotiation, physical distribution, financing, and risk taking. Common intermediaries include wholesalers and retailers. The document also notes that distribution channels in hospitality and travel industries move customers to products like hotels and flights.

1. TEAM MEMBERS:
ANOOP K.C
ARUN K.A
NISHA MARY THOMAS
RHEEJA M

2.  Describe the nature of distribution channels, and
tell why marketing intermediaries are used.
 Discuss the different marketing intermediaries
available & state the benefits each of these
intermediaries offers?
 Describe the relationship between internet
marketing, database marketing, and direct
marketing?
 Describe how firms in the tourism industry are
using internet as a distribution channel?

3.  A distribution channel is a set of independent
organizations involved in the process of making
a product or service available to the consumer
or business user.
 Distribution systems can be viewed as the
company’s circulatory system.
 Distribution systems provide a steady flow of
customers.

4.  Starts with the selection of channel members.
 Once members have been selected, the focus
shifts to managing the channel.
 In Marketing, distribution systems are
traditionally used to move goods(tangible
products) from the manufacturer to the
consumer.

5.  In the hospitality and travel industries,
distribution systems are used to move the
customer to the product: the hotel, restaurant,
cruise ship or airplane.
 In the hospitality and travel industries,
distribution channels create thousands of jobs.
 It overcomes the major time, place &
possesssion gaps that separates goods &
services from those who would use them.

6.  The company does not have to maintain several
display rooms and a large sales force in every
major city.
 Selling through wholesalers and retailers is
much more efficient than direct sales.
 It enables the purchaser to have access to
small quantities of products, which inturn
become part of a large order.

7.  Reduces inventory requirements, number of
deliveries, and number of processed invoices.
 Can avoid unnecessary work and shipping
costs for both the manufacturer and the
customer.
 Intermediaries can provide economies.

8.  Information: gathering and distributing
marketing research and intelligence
information about the marketing environment.
 Promotion: developing and spreading
persuasive communications about an offer.
 Contact: finding and communicating with
prospective buyers.

9.  Matching: shaping and fitting the offer to the
buyer’s needs.
 This includes activities such as manufacturing,
grading, assembling, and packaging.
 Negotiation: agreeing on price and other terms
of the offer so that ownership or possession
can be transferred.

10.  Physical distribution: transporting and storing
goods.
 Financing: acquiring and using funds to cover
the costs of channel work.
 Risk taking: assuming financial risks such as
the inability to sell inventory at full margin.

11.  Distribution channels can be described by the
number of channel levels.
 Channel level: each layer that performs some
work in bringing the product and its ownership
closer to the final buyer.
 The number of intermediary levels determine
the length of the channel.

12. THANK YOU