The product of shipping lines is the ocean transportation services which is intangible, and unlike those consumer products which can be easily reached to the final users through retail channels. The buyers in shipping industry are limited to those raw material suppliers, multi-national corporations and trading companies, but not individual consumer.
Unlike the consumer products, the product of a shipping line is not targeted at broad consumers in the market. It is targeted at a specific segment of customer. Therefore, commercial advertisement is not an effective mean for a shipping line to sell its product. The more common channels for a shipping line to sell its product is through advertisement in shipping magazines and through interview with the journalists in selling its product to the market.