Financing and Marketing Management

13.1. Marketing Channel Functions and Flows

Unit 13 - Marketing Channel Functions and Flows

Marketing Channel Functions and Flows
A marketing channel performs the work of moving goods from producers to consumers. It overcomes the time, place and possession gaps that separate gaps that separate goods and services from those who would use them. Members in the marketing channel perform a number of key functions and participate in the following marketing flows:

• Information: The collection and dissemination of marketing research information about potential and current customers, competitors, and other actors and forces in the marketing environment.
• Promotion: The development and dissemination of persuasive communications about the offer designed to attract customers.
• Negotiation: The attempt to reach final agreement on price and other terms so that transfer of ownership or possession can be effected
• Ordering: The backward communication of intensions to buy by the marketing-channel members to the manufacturer
• Financing: The acquisition and allocation of funds required to finance investors at different levels of the marketing channel
• Risk Taking: The assumption of risks connected with carrying out the channel work
• Physical Possession: The successive storage and movement of physical products from raw materials to the final customers
• Payment: Buyers paying their bills through banks and other financial institutions to the sellers
• Title: The actual transfer of ownership from one organization or person to another