Home »

Basics of Trade Marketing

Thứ Ba, 22 tháng 7, 2014
When most people talk about marketing, they focus on the end consumers- those who buy and use the products and services. However, anyone who runs a business knows that a product does not go from the manufacturer’s warehouse directly to the consumer’s hands.

There are wholesalers, retailers, and other parties that form the supply chain of any business. When these middlemen exist, you have to market your product to them just as much as you market to the end consumers. This process is called trade marketing.

Understanding trade marketing

Trade marketing is the marketing discipline that focuses on distributors, retailers, wholesalers, and other supply chain partners instead of the consumer. The main goal of trade marketing is to increase demand for products/services in the supply chain. It is not an alternative to brand and consumer marketing, but rather acts as a supplement to traditional marketing disciplines.
A successful traditional marketing campaign can increase your supply chain and number of distributors, allowing more consumers to access your products/services in the end. This form of marketing is also important in order to ensure that the supply of your products meet consumer demand.

General components of trade marketing

As mentioned before, trade marketing does not target the consumers. Instead, it targets the customers that buy the products/service from the business itself.
Given below are three common customer types that form part of a supply chain structure and a company’s trade marketing strategy.
  • Wholesale customers
Wholesale customers include various distribution centers, distributors, and sub-distributors.  They may buy directly or indirectly from the manufacturer, depending on the company’s supply chain structure. These customers have the ability to deliver a wide range of products/services from many manufacturers to different retail outlets.
  • Retail customers
The retail customers can be categorized by the type of ownership into two types- corporately owned and independently owned retailers. In many supply chain structures, there are also wholesale-retail hybrids like controlled and chain distribution centers.
  • Trade channels and outlet types
Trade channels are often considered different from outlet types in complex trade marketing models, but they are treated as the same in simple models, where they both represent supply chain entities that are engaged in similarly structured or common programs. Convenience stores, grocery/supermarkets, mass merchandisers, and home improvement stores are some examples of trade channels

Trade marketing strategies

A trade marketing strategy is important to reach out to all the customers in your supply chain structure. Even with the simplest supply chain structure, it can be difficult to develop and implement a trade marketing strategy and align the entire organization with it. This is because you have to deal with different customer types.
Nevertheless, you need a trade marketing to develop your supply chain structure further and ultimately reach more consumers and grow your business.

(V.A)
Bài Viết Này Thuộc Chủ Đề >> ,

Bình Luận

Comments[ 0 ]


Đăng nhận xét