Marketing is a total system of business activites designed to plan, price, promote, and distribute want-satisfying products to target markets to achieve organizational objectives. This definition implies that the entire system of business activitiis should be customer-oriented, and a marketing program should start with an idea about a new product and should not end until the customer’s wants are completely satisfied, which may be sometime after the sale is made. The combination of the four primary elements that comprise a company’s marketing program is termed the marketing mix. The design, implementation, and evaluation of the marketing mix constitute the bulk of a firm’s marketing effort. The four elements of the marketing mix are. ·Product—Managing the product ingredient includes planning and developing the right goods and/or services to be marketed by the company. Strategic decisions are also needed for changing existing products, adding new ones, and taking other actions that affect the assortment(分类) of products carried. Strategic decisions are also needed regarding branding, packaging, and various other product features. ·Price—Management must determine the right base price for its products. It must then decide on strategies concerning discounts, freight (货运) payments, and many other price-related factors. ·Distribution—Even though marketing intermediaries(中介)— primarily wholesalers and retailers are largely a noncontrollable environmental factor, an executive has considerable latitude when working with them. Management’s responsibility is to select and manage the trade channels through which the products will reach the right market at the right time and develop a distribution system for physically handling and transporting the products through these channels. ·Promotion—Management needs to inform and persuade the market regarding a company’s products. Advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and publicity are the major promotional activities. The four ingredients in the marketing mix are interrelated; decisions in one area usually affect actions in the others. Each of the four also contains countless variables. A company may market one item or several—related or unrelated. The item may be distributed through wholesalers or directly to retailers, and so on. Ultimately (最后) ,from the multitude of variables, management must select the combination that will best adapt to the environment, satisfy target markets, and still meet marketing and organizational goals. As far as distribution is concerned, ______.
A. wholesalers and retailers, although uncontrollable, are responsible for the selection of trade channels and development of distribution system B. the marketing executive has great freedom in selecting trade channels and developing distribution system in spite of the presence of some uncontrollable factors C. the marketing executive is free from the control of wholesalers and retailers D. the marketing executive works with wholesalers and retailers with great consideratrion of position