In marketing convenience goods store location is very important. Personal salesmanship is not so much important but display becomes of prime importance when they are sold in self-serve all-in-one stores. If distribution is to be efficient the manufacturer must market the convenience goods through many retailers. It is necessary to have such goods on sale in as many stores as possible to avoid the loss of possible sales.
In order to market convenience goods through the largest possible number of outlets, they must be offered for sale wherever people pass in large numbers or at convenient points in neighborhood where many consumers live together. This factor does not permit the use of exclusive agencies for the distribution of convenience goods.Similarly, selling directly to retailers is too expensive for the manufacturer. So he commonly sells goods through the wholesalers. The retailers get the goods supplied from the wholesalers. This is why, distribution of convenience goods through wholesale channels remains important.
The manufacturer relies on wholesalers to reach part of the retail market. In the commercially advanced countries where large-scale retailing has considerably developed, the manufacturer of convenience goods make considerable use of large-scale retailers as outlets, since convenience goods are better adapted to mass distribution. The responsibility of advertising the convenience goods entirely falls on the shoulder of the manufacturer. He must carry on extensive advertising with the object of creating a consumer demand which will make his products attractive to the wholesalers and retailers.
Because of the small unit value of such articles and the fact that if properly located, the average retailer will enjoy considerable sales without promotional effort, he is not interested in doing promotional work with respect to them. Many retailers of convenience goods have therefore, adopted a self-service marketing technique. Self-service in retailing places great importance on point-of-purchase displays and packaging because these tools have considerable influence on impulse buying.
“Convenience goods comprise the most clear cut of the three classes of consumers’ goods. For, while it is true that some consumers shop about for convenience goods in order to save a penny here and there or to compare qualities, such “shopping” is not comparable in its prevalence to the shopping for the class of goods known as “shopping goods.” ;
and although some may be willing to walk a mile to obtain a particular brand of cigarettes, no cigarette manufacturer can count on such insistence on the part of any large number of consumers, as can some manufacturers of the “specialty” products of the third class of consumer’s goods.
