DISTRIBUTION AND CHALLENGES REGARDING FMCG PRODUCTS IN HIMACHAL PRADESH

Abstract

Distribution Channels perform a crucial role in the successful distribution and marketing of all products. They have various contacts, expertise and wider knowledge of the products. The rapidly growing markets and increasing complexities of distribution have increased the demand and requirement of the distribution channels. Channels of distribution for a product the route taken by the title to goods they are from the producers to the ultimate consumers. It is very important because product in one place while the consumption scattered in many place. So there is big gap between producers and the consumers. So through channels of distribution can only fill the gap. A channel of distribution connects a link between the producers and the consumers. The middle man plays an important role in consumer orientation demand. The middlemen are specialist in concentration, equalization and dispersion, i.e. collects output of various producers, subdivide the products according to the needs of the consumers and disperse this assortment to the consumers. In Himachal distribution of products is relatively more difficult than that in plains because of various reasons such as terrain, population, area, routes and much more. The objective of this research is to find out the different strategies used by distributors, challenges faced by them and possible ways with which they overcome these challenges and minimize the cost. The industry that I took up for this research is FMCG industry as it mostly has a demand throughout the year and there are just a limited number of products which have a seasonal demand. The research methodology used is personal interviews. The distributors belonging to the FMCG sector were personally interviewed with the open ended questions from a self made questionnaire according to the area. The city in which the research was held is Parwanoo, which is a feeder town on the border of Himachal Pradesh. It has the biggest wholesale market in Himachal Pradesh and therefore an adequate number of distributors were able to be contacted for the research.