What is trade marketing, many of us heard this word these days, but don’t know the meaning of it? There are many case studies and study material available on google to tell you about different aspects of trade marketing. Here I am writing some shades of trade marketing and how to get it done these days, from my experience.
Trade marketing is one of the oldest forms of marketing. You can say its traditional way of marketing, where there are many players of trade exists, and they all have to play a significant role to play to get some value to the customer.
In simple words in a business eco-system, where there is a manufacturer, few location-wise distributors, many retailers tagged to these distributors, Logistics, suppliers, promotion to create a demand, service team to give after-sales support and finance or commercial department to make sure all the compliances are correctly working. Now Research and development are also an essential part of this eco-system.
I believe, you must have a fair idea of a typical Indian firm, most of the companies in Indian subcontinent work like this, now there is some disturbance or new parallel eco-systems are also working based on digital where companies are directly getting connected through customers, even though they need logistics who deliver the goods to homes.
Let’s talk about trade marketing and its ingredients, What are the main factors of trade marketing? A trade marketing manager’s role in running this operation. This part of the article is very much crucial for freshers and marketing students.
1. Marketing Calendar
Make an ABC calendar (Activity-based calendar). It depends on demographics and may different one markets to anther market. A specific market is having its own features and buying days- such as festivals, In Bengal, its Puja, whereas in Maharashtra, its Ganpati festivals. Apart from this, there are so many local customer touchpoints – exhibitions, Haats, sports, and religious programs. A Marketing manager has to create his calendar according to his market so that he can plan well in advance.
2. Implementing Brand strategies
Brand strategy is always guided and monitored by head offices. Focus products are always promoted through local activations, and category managers want trade marketing to push their products to local activities. Similarly, the company has some thought processes to promote his brand in a specific way. A Trade marketing manager has to implement brand strategies and focus products on ABC and local initiatives.
3. Activity Planning, Deployment, Execution & Analysis
In Trade Marketing, Engagement activities are essential parts. Every month some trade engagement and consumer engagement activities have to plan and execute. After the execution, it has to Track & review the performance & take corrective actions based on the analysis.
4. Alternate trade channels
Trade marketing in charge is not only responsible for retail, but he has to take care of other channels too, such as B2B, Modern Sales, and Institutional sales. After every campaign and activity, detail analysis and learnings/findings should be shared with the team as well as head office and concerned HOD.
5. Budget and Process Compliances
This is one of the most crucial aspects of trade marketing. A budgetary and commercial process such as budget planning, approvals from concerned authorities, estimates, and PO generation. Marketing managers and coordinators should always ready with facts and supporting for any sudden audits.
I have been observed in my career that a marketing manager is easily blamed for any financial irregularities. Sometimes it happens that due to sales pressure or some other urgent business need, a marketing manager has to take the decision of execution or procurement, but it always advisable to keep in the loop of HODs and finance team, better to keep it on mail.
6.Competition Tracking
In trade marketing, competition tracking is as important as other activity planning. In the business eco-system, each brand has its own strengths and weakness, new product launches, and strategies. A Trade marketing profession is expected to track all new product launches, price strategies, and promotional activities of competitions and keep it informed to the concerned product and category team. For this, his network of subordinates, vendors, and even the sales team must be synced, so that it can be captured and described in PPT format.
7. ISD Management
Most of the consumer durable companies keep internal sales demonstrators in stores; they may be called SSEs, or ISDS, depends on companies. From outside, it looks not so complicated to manage these sales force, but practically it requires a lot many things to achieve it. This includes. – Daily sellout follow-ups – product-wise, value and volume-wise, and store wisely. Regular product and behavioral training are also required. Actually, a dedicated article can be written on ISD management, which I will do later on, here I just emphasized that in trade marketing, ISD management is an essential part.
8. GTM and NPI
– Although New product introduction and launches in the market are a GTM plan, which requires all departments to work collectively towards its effective launch in the market, I believe a Marketing manager has to play a pivotal role to manage the entire operation. After getting passed from all department finally when the product is ready to be launched in the market, then an effective plan is necessary which create curiosity among its possible users, distribution, logistic and most important promotion. My other article on GTM for more depth information. https://www.theashishsingh.com/go-to-market-myth-reality/
9. POSM and Signage
– In India, point of sales material, popularly known as POSM, mainly Poster, dangler, banner, shelf tape, dummy box, shelf tape, leaflets, etc. There are so many specifications of these materials, and it depends on the company. When I was working with dishtv, inserts of the direct sales team was printed on 80GSM low-cost matt paper, whereas trade leaflets on 80 to 90 GSM art paper.
Signages are the most essential brand elements for visibility. This may be a non-lit flex board, glow sign board, and premium ACP boards; it again depends on brand and budget. When a brand has to be positioned itself as a premium brand, then they use ACP or higher specifications of POSM, but when a brand has low product value, then they go with normal flex signages to cover more space and more outlets in given budget.
There was a time when Trade Marketing Managers spent 80% of his time in POSM and signage management when the telecom sector was in a boom, and there were so many companies fighting for the limited space in the retail outlet. I remember how we used to be so aggressive for getting facia for Signage with our vendors and concerned area managers.
10. Google & Facebook marketing
– This is a new thought, and I believe digital marketing is a part of trade marketing. A company can’t run its campaign from the Head office or by one digital marketing team sitting in HQ. Suppose there a video campaign runs on across all platforms on the digital world, but this cant successful if it doesn’t integrate with channels down the line – brand stores/retail networks. https://www.theashishsingh.com/9-digital-marketing-strategies/ It has to be diversified, customized as per regional preference; for example, Google my business for promoting local offers by dealers or YouTube videos can be run in the local language with the details of nearby outlets. This is actually through the line activity, and I will write another article – integration of digital and BTL. Indeed, advertising has been changed a lot since the last decade, and now it’s not only local but personalized for each customer but global in nature
Now when low customer footfalls are a big concern for trade networks; therefore, traditional brand elements such as Signage and POSM are becoming less relevant. It’s time to invent new ways to draw customer’s interest so that they come to visit the shop. Experiential marketing and customization are the solutions backed with data science and Artificial intelligence. These are the future tools of trade marketing operations but The essence of trade marketing will remain the same.