[A] Inventories of this stored merchandise often need to be financed. Modern marketing is therefore a coordinated system of many business activities. But basically it involves four things: selling the correct product at the proper place, selling it at a price determined by demand, satisfying a customer's need and wants, and producing a profit for the company.
[B] Raw materials requiring little or no special treatment can be transported by rail, ship or barge at low cost. Large quantities of raw materials travel as bulk freight. But finished products that often require special treatment, such as refrigeration of careful handling, are usually transported by truck. This merchandise freight is usually smaller in volume and requires quicker delivery. Merchandise freight is a term for the transportation of manufactured goods.
[C] The terms market and marketing can have several meanings depending upon how they are used. The term stock market refers to the buying and selling of shares in corporations. As well as other activities related to stock trading and pricing. The important world stock markets are in London, Geneva, New York, Tokyo and Singapore, another tpe of market is a grocery market, which is a place where people purchase food. When economists use the word market. They mean a set of forces or conditions that determine the price of a product, such as the supply available for sale and the demand for it by consumers. The term marketing in business includes all these meanings, and more.
[D] In the past, the concept of marketing emphasized sales. The producer or manufacturer made a product he wanted to sell. Marketing was the task of figuring out how to sell the product. Basically, selling the product would be accomplished by sales promotion, which included advertising and personal selling. In addition to sales promotion, marketing also involved the physical distribution of the product to the places where it was actually sold. Distribution consisted of transportation, storage, and related services. Such as financing, standardization and grading, and the related risks.
[E] Marketing now involves first deciding what the customer wants, and designing and producing a product that satisfies these wants at a profit to the company. Instead of concentrating solely on product, the company must consider the desires of the consumer. And this is much more difficult since it involves human behavior. Production, on the other hand, is mostly an engineering problem, thus, demand and market forces are still an important aspect of modern marketing. But they are considered prior to the production process.
[F] The modern marketing concept encompasses all of the activities mentioned, but it is based on a different set of principles. It subscribes to the notion that production can be economically justified only by consumption. In other words, goods should be produced only if they can be sold. Therefore, the producer should consider who is going to buy the product. Or what the market for the product is before production begins. This is very different from making a product and then thinking about how to sell it.
[G] Because products are often, marketed internationally, distribution has increased in importance. Goods must be at the place where the customer needs them or brought there. This is known as place utility, it adds value to a product. However, many markets are separated from the place of production. Which means that often both raw materials and finished products must be transported to the points where they are needed.
[H] Along all points of the distribution channel various amounts of storage are required. The time and manner of such storage depends upon the type of product.