Marketing and Merchandising
Marketing: Modern distribution The field of marketing Study of the product Study of the market Trade channels Selling to the jobber Wholesale middlemen Selling to the retailer Selling through exclusive agencies Influencing retail sales Selling to the consumer Good-will and price maintenance Reaching the market and the complete campaign Merchandising: The jobber Modification of the jobber's service Problems of the jobber Retail competition Retail types Chain stores Mail-order selling Training the sales force Buying Stockkeeping Cooperation for service
There are three different kinds of things that must be considered by everyone who has anything to sell. One group of considerations has to do only with personal salesmanship and sales management. Another has to do only with advertising. Still a third is concerned solely neither with personal salesmanship nor with advertising, but is common to both. Before an effective force of salesmen can be selected and trained and an advertising campaign mapped out, the plan behind the personal selling and advertising campaign must be devised—the marketing methods must be determined.
The considerations here may be grouped under three heads: the goods to be sold, the market for the goods, and the methods of reaching that market.
A number of questions must be asked and answered about the things to be sold. For example: Is there a ready demand or must one be created? Is the commodity a necessity or a luxury? Is it subject to seasonal variations? Is the trade-mark well known? And so on.
The first part of the Text, Marketing, concerns the problems of the manufacturer; the second part, Merchandising, treats of the problems of the dealer, both wholesaler and retailer. Between them they present a complete picture of the processes by which goods reach the consumer, and reveal the tendencies in modern distribution.