Analysis of Intermediaries, Utility Creation, and Non-Store Retailing

This essay discusses the critical role of intermediaries in marketing, highlighting their function in connecting producers and consumers, enhancing demand, and minimizing distribution costs. It explains the concept of utility, detailing form, place, time, information, service, and possession utilities and how intermediaries contribute to their creation. The essay also explores non-store retailing, focusing on its growth due to lower costs and varied formats like direct sales and direct marketing, exemplified by companies like Amazon. The document is available on Desklib, a platform offering a wealth of study tools and solved assignments for students.

Running Head: Introduction to Business
Introduction to Business

Introduction to Business
Answer 1
Intermediaries play a great role in the process of marketing. An intermediary is an
individual who makes a connection between the people so that deal can be made easily. It is seen
that marketing intermediaries search and analyze the buyers of the products and services. The
intermediaries identify the actual requirement of the customers so that demand can be enhanced
by the products in the market. Intermediaries are important in marketing as it is evaluated that
they only create a communication link between the market and the company through producer
and consumers (Khaire, 2017).
When communication takes place with the customers then it is seen that demand for the
products can be enhanced effectively and also marketing of the products can be done easily.
Intermediaries gather different products and services from many producers and supply the
products to the customers. It is seen that the products are given to the customers on time with the
help of intermediaries which enhances the overall satisfaction level. Also, when a product is
marketed or given to the customers the intermediaries try to minimize the overall distribution
cost (Bernard, Grazzi and Tomasi, 2015).
So, it is seen that low price products are offered to the customers that help to enhance the
demand for the product in the market. To market the product it is seen that feedback and need of
the customers are important to be analyzed. So, intermediaries focus on receiving the reactions
and experience of the customers about the products. The information is offered to the producers
which help the company to enhance the overall demand in the market.
Answer 2
The concept of Utility created by intermediaries
A utility is related to the want-satisfying ability that companies add to the products and
services so that it can be more useful to the customers. There are six types of utilities like form,
place, time, information, service and possession. It is seen that in form utility the products are
added through the process of production where transformation takes place of raw material to
form a finished product. In the place utility, the intermediaries take into consideration shipping
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Introduction to Business
of the product to a new location so that customers can easily purchase it. In time utility the
intermediaries try to create utility by making the product available on time. Also, the information
is offered to the customers with the help of intermediaries. In service and possession utility it is
seen that the customers can avail the services properly by having proper communication with the
intermediaries.
Answer 3
Non-store retailing is related to the selling of products and services outside the confines
retail outlet. This term states that the retailing takes place outside the shops and stores. There is
no fixed shop or retail location and market. It is analyzed that the activities conducted by a
particular shop or outlet and sale are happening directly with the customer without taking into
consideration retail space.
Sale happening to the customers by not having a particular a particular retail store. The
best example of this is Amazon. The company conducts the activities without having its own
retail space for selling the products to the customers. It is evaluated that the company sell the
products from its website and not through the retail space. There are various types of non-store
retailers who are selling their products and earning products without having any retail space. It is
also analyzed that non-store retailing is not an average line business but it is a business which is
conducted on a large scale.
Non-store retailing is growing because of the low cost of establishment and the expenses
are also not fixed and varied. The cost of establishing a business is low if a comparison is made
with the retail outlet that is only the reason for the growth.
There are many types of non-store retailing like direct sales and direct marketing. Direct
sales are one of the old forms of the non-store retailing is direct sales. In this, it is seen that door
to door selling is done to sell their products on the market. Many others activities are done like
promotions through posters. This type of non-store retailing takes into consideration manual
involvement and it also involves the use of good selling methods.
Next is direct marketing which is taken into consideration in the form of direct mail
services where the customers receive coupons. Email marketing is one of the techniques which
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are used by the companies so that the emails can be sent to a large audience (Rezaei, Chandran
and Oh, 2018).
References
Bernard, A.B., Grazzi, M. and Tomasi, C., 2015. Intermediaries in international trade: Products
and destinations. Review of Economics and Statistics, 97(4), pp.916-920.
Khaire, M., 2017. The importance of being independent: The role of intermediaries in creating
market categories. In From Categories to Categorization: Studies in Sociology, Organizations
and Strategy at the Crossroads (pp. 259-293). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Rezaei, S., Chandran, R. and Oh, Y.M., 2018. Pre-Purchase User Perceptions of Attributes and
Post-Purchase Attitudes in Building Successful Online Retail Promotional Strategies. In Digital
Marketing and Consumer Engagement: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp.
368-382). IGI Global.
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