Functions and Institutions: The Roots and the Future of Marketing Channels

From its very beginnings as an academic discipline over a century ago, marketing functions and institutions have been core concepts of marketing. Except for the case of direct marketing channels linking producers directly with final users, all marketing channel structures contain intermediaries involving independent businesses or organizations working together to bring products and services to market. Considering if the functions now being performed by marketing channels may become obsolete in the 21st century, while acknowledging new and changing technologies used to perform these functions, the author concludes that these paradigms of functions and institutions are as relevant now, and for the future, as they ever were.