PLACE(MENT)
By David Pearson
This is the third in our series from Criticaleye Associate David Pearson whose upcoming book
The 20 Ps of Marketing expands on the traditional marketing mix. In this overview of the
third chapter, David looks at the evolution of market places and indeed, placement.
Perhaps Archimedes did not have
marketing in mind when he made his
famous pronouncement about leverage,
but place, or placement, is certainly a
vital plank in the marketing edifice. The
very word marketing is derived from
market - the place where people have
traditionally met to trade goods and
services. To make a market is the act of
forming a place where traders may come
together and exchange their produce.
Was the first retail outlet the baker’s
shop, as one person may have been more
skilled at making bread than another, or
perhaps it was the brothel, as the ‘oldest
profession in the world’ would state?
We can trace the lineage of such places
of business from the inn to the hotel,
the café to the restaurant, the street
vendor to the fast food outlet. From
the market and its market stalls to the
shops, department stores, supermarkets
and hypermarkets. Traditional fairs,
or messe in Germany, live on in the
form of trade shows and exhibitions.
Not all places are fixed and permanent;
there is a long line of travelling business.
For example, the market stall trader
who takes his stall and its speciality
goods around the county to its different
market on different days of the week. In
England, such markets were authorised
by royal charter and in many cases still
are. Such charters were highly restrictive
in that, not only did they grant the
right to a particular town to hold a
market or fair on a particular day or
days, but by the same token prohibited
neighbouring towns from doing the
same so that the market would thrive.
This concept of travelling to get the sale
is taken further by selling direct door-todoor. When I was growing up in a suburb
of Manchester in the 1950s, we had
much delivered to our door. In addition
to the milk and newspapers that are still
widely delivered today, there was also
meat from the butcher, bread from the
baker, a weekly order from the grocer,
a soft drinks supplier who collected the
empties, and every day in the summer an
ice cream van whose jingle announced his
presence to us children who then nagged
our mothers for an ice cream cornet.
Whole business models have been
successfully based on door-to-door selling
including Avon cosmetics, encyclopaedias,
insurance, double-glazing and vacuum
cleaners. In many cases, this was seen as
a low-cost method of distribution because
it eliminated the middleman and because
most of the cost of employing the salesmen
and women was variable commission.
“Give me but one firm spot on
which to stand, and I will move the
earth.” - Archimedes 287-212BC
It was also a highly effective method of
selling, convenient to the customer and
allowing the seller to make his full pitch.
Telesales and its modern equivalent
of e-mail both developed out of this
concept. Direct mail is also a form of
door-to-door marketing substituting a
brochure or other printed enticement
for the physical salesperson. Every year
some 4.5 billion pieces of ‘direct mail’
are posted through letterboxes in the
UK. Most of the envelopes this junk
mail comes in end up in landfill, as they
are almost impossible to recycle.
A further development of marketing direct
to home is mail order, a practice that
grew in the latter part of the nineteenth
century, when the postal service improved
enormously with the development of
the rail network. In this case, the place
is not strictly the home, but rather the
mail order catalogue. People in that
sector talk about ‘selling off the page’
making the page the place. There is of
course a direct line of succession from
that to today’s online retailing.
To read the rest of this chapter go
to www.davidcpearson.co.uk
© Copyright David C Pearson
2009 All rights reserved
David Pearson
Associate, Criticaleye
David enjoys a varied portfolio career working
across the public, private and voluntary
sectors. He has extensive experience with
several of the great brand owners worldwide.
David is a Criticaleye Associate. Please visit
www.davidcpearson.co.uk for more information.