Guinness - Place

To reach consumers, Guinness, like all other products, must be distributed. There are a number of ways in which this may occur.
Channel of distribution (place) refers to "a group of individuals and organisations tbat direct the flow of products from producers to consumers" (Dibb, Simkin, Price and Ferrell, 2012). Figure 5.0 displays the four channels of distribution available.

Figure 5.0

Factors when choosing a channel of distribution:

Cost:

The more stages in the channel of distribution, the more costly the product will be for the consumer as every member of the channel wants to make a profit.

Types of goods and durability:

Some goods are bulky whilst others are perishable. Perishable goods - "likely to decay or go bad quickly" (Oxford Dictionary, 2014) - need to be distributed more quickly than bulky goods therefore products like this are generally directly sold to the retailers/consumers, avoiding wholesalers etc.

Market size:

If the market is large, it may be more economical to use a wholesaler to break bulk, store, and transport the goods to the retailer.

E-business:

Using a company website, companies can advertise and sell their products and services online. Orders are placed and the items then are sent to the postal service or courier services. E-businness has become extremely popular in recent times.

Channel of distribution used by Guinness:

Guinness uses a channel of distribution which starts at the producer, to the retailer and finally to the customer. In Ireland, large supermarkets such as Dunnes Stores and Tesco buy directly from Guinness itself in Dublin, to then sell the product onto the consumer. This channel benefits both the consumer and the retailer. The retailer buys in bulk from Guinness. This is cost effective compared to buying in smaller quantities as buying in bulk avails of discounts. The retailer then sells the product in smaller quantities to consumers. This is known as bulk breaking - "the division of larger product quantities into smaller quantities as products get closer to the final market" (Stafford, 2016). Therefore the consumer has the benefit of buying in small quantities and the retailer makes a profit from the discounts availed of through buying in bulk.
As aforementioned, Guinness is sold directly to retailers in Ireland. However, Guinness is also sold directly to customers from producers in Ireland. This occurs at the brewery tour in Dublin, where visitors learn about brewing Guinness and therefore get to directly taste "fresh" Guinness and also buy it in their restaurant. Pubs around this area in Dublin also buy their Guinness directly from the storehouse, again using this shorter channel of distribution. Short distribution channels like such, provide the chance to establish added value in the area and to highlight the distinctiveness of Guinness in this case. There is even a competition between pubs in Dublin near the Guinness Storehouse for who sells the best Guinness.
On a global level, since Guinness has merged by Diageo, the same channel of distribution of producer, retailer and customer has been able to still apply. This is because as Diageo owns many breweries worldwide, Guinness is also now brewed in Diageo's breweries. This is ideal as it would be more costly for Guinness to have to ship product worldwide from Dublin.

References:
1) Diageo (2016) Guinness. Available at: http://www.diageo.com/en-ie/ourbrands/infocus/Pages/Guinness.aspx (Accessed: 22 November 2016).
2) Dibb, Sally; Simkin, Lyndon; Pride, William M. and Ferrell, O. C. (2012). Marketing: Concepts and Strategies (6th ed.).London: Cengage.

3) Oxford Dictionary (2014) Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/perishable (Accessed: 21 November 2016)

4) Stafford, A. (2016) Bulk-breaking marketing definition. Available at: http://www.marketingbinder.com/glossary/bulk-breaking/ (Accessed: 21 November 2016).