1. The departmental store provides all facilities under one roof to enable the customer to by all his requirements.
2. The central location attracts a good number of customers which increases the sales turnover.
3. Large variety of goods is stored. This has a special appeal to the customers.
4. The financial strength of departmental store enables it to have experts in all sections.
5. Centralized buying helps them to get merchandise at lower cost together with advantages in transporting, storing etc.

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The third element in marketing mix is to find out appropriate ways through which goods are to be made available to the markets. It is a management function and a decision in the matter is required to be taken before the commercial production is undertaken. The entire function of getting goods into the hands of the consumer is often referred to as distribution. In its broadest sense this function includes transportation as well as the middlemen who handle the goods and help to transfer title to the goods. The term channel of distribution is used to denote the middlemen engaged in moving goods form place of production to the used to denote the be middlemen engaged in moving goods form place of production to the place of consumption. This is inaccurate and unwise. This is in fact is a 'channel' through which goods are made to move as smoothly as possible to the desired places. In other words, the route through which goods move form the place of production to the place of consumption is termed as 'channel of distribution'.

Channels of distribution are the means employed by manufacturers and sellers to get their products to market and into the hands of users. Channels are management tools used to move goods form production to consumption, they are means by which title to goods is transferred form sellers to buyers. The process of transferring title is not so simple especially in present day markets that are characterized by heterogeneity on both the demand and the supply sides. This means that there is a wide variety of goods produced for sale, while on the other side, there are highly varied and complex desires of consumers.

Marketing, as seen earlier, creates various utilities to the products. Most of these utilities are, in fact, created by performing the function of physical distribution promptly and efficiently. Channels of distribution help to move goods form one place to another, hence they add place utility. They bring goods to the consumer when the consumer wasts them, hence they add time utility also. They bring the goods to the consumer in convenient shape, unit, size, style and package; hence they add convenience value. They make it possible for the consumer to obtain goods at a price he is willing to pay, and under conditions which bring him satisfaction and pride of ownership, hence they add possession value.

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The consumer market is the sum-total of all the goods and services purchased in a given period by all the inhabitants of given country or section for the satisfaction of their consumption needs. The consumer market actually consists of four components:

1. People
2. Purchasing power
3. Need for a specific product
4. Willingness to fill the with a given product.

The factor 'people' requires some explanation. It is true that very often markets are quoted,”markets are people”. All the people do not constitute market and the people without ability to bye should be exclude from the 'people'. For example, in India, we have a vast population but the whole population does not constitute 'market' simply because a vast majority does not have the ability to buy. It is also stated that the whole people in India or China do not purchase in one year what the people of new York alone purchase.

The second component is purchasing power, that is, the money needed to buy. Ti should be understood that even people with money to spend do not, by themselves, constitute a potential consumer market of a particular product. People musts have need or want for a specific product. This forms the third component of consumer marketing.

Even when there are people with money to spend and with a desire to buy the type of things that are produced, still one cannot say that there exists a market. In a competitive economy, exclusively based on consumer choice, a consumer can satisfy his need with a variety of items. And, most of these products are quite similar and need not necessarily be the one currently (or newly) manufactured.

For example, take the case of soaps or powders. There are innumerable varieties produced by various manufacturers and there are also various brands produced by a single manufacturer. Same is the case with most of the consumer products. It is here that the fourth component of the consumer marketing appears on the scene-the willingness of he consumer to satisfy his need or want with a particular brand or item.

Thus, from the point of view of a manufacturer, the consumer market is only that segment of the people who can afford to buy his product, who have need for it, and who are willing to buy the product in preference to all similar products sold by other manufacturers.

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In the literature on marketing there is no other functions which attracts more attention than selling. The credit for this definitely goes to industrialization and mechanization. Mechanization increases production which, in turn, necessitates wider and equitable distribution of the products. This is more convincing when one sees the uninterrupted flow of newer products into the market. The selling functions is a perpetual one helping the business to operate continuously. Moreover, it is not disputed that the sole aim of production is selling. The function of selling is very often described as a creative function. It is through this function that desires are created. This is the function, again, that persuades prospective customers to buy.

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The object of marketing and its functions is to promote harmony and bring about an equilibrium between production and consumption. This equilibrating function is essential on account of: (i) the various disparities that exist in the quality and quantity of the products, and (ii) the various lags that are present in the marketing process such as those of time and place. The functions necessary to remove these disparities are the inevitable concomitants for the economic progress of a country. The efficiency of an economy, in fact, ultimately rests on the growth of its marketing system.

Numerous functions have to be performed in order to resolve these lags, which have recently been growing in complexity. Chief of these are transport, warehousing, finance, risk-taking and standardization. These functions, on the basis of their importance and close relationship with the process of marketing, are classified into three: Functions of Exchange, Functions of Physical Supply, Facilitating Functions. The relative importance of these functions varies greatly according to the social and economic conditions and the existing marketing facilities on the one hand and the nature of the product on the other. The third group of functions, through essential, is treated as an 'auxiliary' or 'ancillary' function only. This is because, their presence in the process of marketing remains as an undertone. Furthermore, their involvement in the marking functions is inert and indirect. Yet their necessity cannot be ignored as they are helpful in resolving the various lags between production and consumption created by time, quantity and quality elements. The facilitating functions are: financing, Risk-bearing and Standardization.

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Industrial marketing is concerned with marketing of goods and services to business or institutional organization for use in the further production of goods and services. The industrial goods may be component parts of other goods, for example, electric motors or ball bearings. Again, the industrial goods may be meant for rendering facilitating functions, for example, a lathe or cleaning materials.

The selling of goods to final (end) household consumers is not industrial marketing. At the same time, all selling of goods to business need not always be industrial marketing. For example, when a shoe-manufacturer sells shoes to a whole seller or a retailer for resale to consumers it is not industrial marketing. On the other hand, selling a pair of safety shoes to a whole seller or a retailer for resale to consumers it is not industrial marketing. On the other hand, selling a pair of safety shoes to a firm which sells them to a factory would take shape of an industrial marketing activity. In other words the type of product, type of customer, and the final user must all be considered in distinguishing industrial marketing form consumer goods marketing. In general it may started that all goods bought for industrial or business use are industrial goods and the marketing of them represents industrial marketing.

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Modern marketing is a dynamic field of business activity that is becoming more an more complex. That is the reason why marketing today guides the business and satisfies the needs and wants of customers at the place and time they desire. The business would be more one in the business. The reason is simple to satisfy their theoretical needs alone. What a business should produce and whether a business would prosper are today not the decision of business men but that of customers.

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From the management point of view, marketing involves four functions:
-Analysis of forecasts i.e. Marketing Research
-Product Development and Planning
-Creation of Demand

-Distribution

The above are the independent functions by themselves and coordinating them effectively is often described as Marketing Mix.

The idea of 'mix' of marketing function was conceived by prof. Nail Borden of the Harvard Business School as- “a schematic plan to guide analysis of marketing problems through utilization of:

a) a list of the important forces emanating from the marketing which bear upon the marketing operations of an enterprise.
b) a list of the elements (procedures and policies) or marketing programme.”
Thus marketing mix denotes the combination of various elements, which in total constitute a company's marketing system. They are often described as four P's: Products Policy Price, Distribution and Promotion (Sales Promotion, Advertising and Marketing Research).

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In the marketing of certain manufactured goods and industrial raw materials of agricultural origin, certain specialized institutions have come up with functionaries and technique of their own. Their functions are different from those of the marketing institutions we have already seen. These institutions have come to be known as organized markets. These organized markets are of two types viz. Organized commodity markets and organized stock markets. These are popularly known as Commodity Exchanges and Stock exchanges.

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An important part of the marketing process is the determination of the shape or form in which a product is to be put in the market. Some of the most vital marketing problems centre around this activity, viz., establishing and maintaining standards, and providing conformity to them. It is not only a most desirable element in marketing but also manufacturing operations where the standards play an important part in securing efficiency and economy. Furthermore, the buyers attach certain values to standard products in terms of its quality, value and its uses. Thus standard provides an ethical basis for marketing transactions.

Standards are ideal or model products which provide a basis for comparison with identical products. In other words, standards convey the idea of uniformity and identity in respect of quality or quantity or some other matters. Thus standard is “a measure that is generally accepted as having a fixed value”. The measure ,may be in units of intrinsic qualities or characteristics of a product or a service. A standard is determined as a result of scientific study of the essential qualities or characteristics that must be present in a product.

Standards are classified into:

Positive Standards: The standards which express positively the qualities present in the product.

Negative Standards: The standards which express positively the qualities absent in the product.

Standards are also classified as General Standards and Private Standards. General Standards relate to all similar commodities, no matter who produces them. Standards are private, when an individual manufacturer limits or prescribes certain standards for his products.

For example, Terene (for clothes) is a general standard and Liberty Shirts a private standard.

Standardization is the process by which already decided standard is attained. Broadly stated, standardization involves the determination of basic measures to which articles must conform (i.e., fixing a standard) and includes the process of conforming to such standards. Standardization is considered to be a facilitating or ancillary function of marketing because it helps in the efficient performance of the various marketing functions, particularly in buying and selling.

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A stock exchange is an organised market for securities. It is an essential concomitant of the capitalistic system of economy. Its evolution and growth have given new dimensions to the promotion and growth of joint-stock enterprises all over the words. It also forms an important part of financial mechanism of the modern quasi-government institutions and local authorities. It has been described in so many ways as (i) a barometer of a nation's prosperity and adversity, (ii) the nerve-centre of politics and finances of a nation, (iii) the fortress of capital and the pivot of money market, (iv) a mirror reflecting all events and issued affecting the profitable working of business enterprises and the future of a nation, (v) a mart of the world, (vi) an open sesame for treasure, (vii) a place where one gets rich in an easy and effortless way, (vii) a veritable hell, (ix) a bottomless pit, (x) a thief's kitchen, and (xi) as the market where business of businesses is carried on. These descriptions go to emphasis only the important functions performed by stock exchanges and some of the pitfalls that are likely to be encountered by some. Some of ht above uncomplimentary remarks are born either out of ignorance about the institution or the knowledge of misutilisation by vested interests.

It is this misutilisation of stock exchanges which are not regulated properly that makes people to say that a stock exchange is nothing but a complete system of knavery, founded in fraud, born of deceit and nourished by trick, cheat, wheedle coining false news, whispering imaginary terrors, and praying upon those who have elevated or depressed.

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