Trade marketing aims to boost demand for your products through supply chain partners, such as distributors, wholesalers, and retailers. Unlike traditional consumer-focused marketing, it aims to convince partners to stock and promote products to customers.
In this guide, we’ll explain how to develop effective trade marketing strategies, outline why they are important, and recommend the top five advertising agencies that can help deliver the best results for your business.
Table of Contents
- Who Uses Trade Marketing?
- Why Is Trade Marketing Important?
- 5 Best Trade Marketing Strategies With Examples
- How To Develop a Trade Marketing Strategy in 5 Steps
- Top 5 Advertising Agencies To Help You Build a Trade Marketing Strategy
- Trade Marketing Expert Tips
- Trade Marketing Key Takeaways
- Trade Marketing FAQs
Who Uses Trade Marketing?
The supply chain typically involves the following parties:
- Manufacturers create consumer packaged goods (CPG) and dispatch them to distributors. The manufacturer offers discounts, bonuses, and other incentives to ensure the distributor promotes their products to retailers and consumers.
- Distributors sell the products to selected wholesalers.
- Wholesalers sell the goods to retailers.
- Retailers advertise the product to shoppers by displaying them on prominent shelves and creating promotional displays.
This step-by-step process ensures availability and a consistent supply from the manufacturer to the end consumer. Effective trade marketing strategies drive demand for products and increase stock movement, which benefits manufacturers.
Why Is Trade Marketing Important?
By targeting retailers, wholesalers, and distributors, your brand can secure prime shelf space, improve product visibility, and drive sales. Important benefits of trade advertisinginclude:
- Building relationships
- Providing a competitive advantage
- Increasing your market presence
- Boosting profitability
1. Building Relationships
Trade marketing helps you build long-lasting relationships by fostering collaboration and mutual benefit with your channel partners. This leads to easier distribution, increased profits, and constructive feedback on possible product improvements.
Regular communication, joint planning, and exclusive deals further enhance trust and loyalty, creating long-term partnerships. In the long run, your brand and your partners benefit from increased market share and sales.
2. Providing a Competitive Advantage
Effective trade advertising captures the attention of more trade partners and encourages them to prioritize and promote your products over competitors. By ensuring your brand’s products stand out to retailers, wholesalers, and distributors, you can secure better shelf placement and visibility.
With strong business partnerships within the supply chain, you gain a stronger foothold in your market. Success begets success, and you set your business up for long-term growth and broader audience shares.
3. Increasing Your Market Presence
Trade advertising helps you increase your market presence by making your products accessible to customers who go to brick-and-mortar retail and local shops. These customers trust retailers from which they have purchased goods in the past, so they are likely to show interest in your product if they are prominently displayed and recommended in the store.
Through targeted promotions, merchandising strategies, and collaborative partnerships with distributors, your brand can secure prime shelf space, wider product distribution, and greater consumer exposure. This expands your market footprint and enhances availability across various channels.
4. Boosting Profitability
Trade marketing increases profitability by optimizing the relationship between manufacturers and retailers, leading to higher sell rates and increased inventory turnover. Merchandising support and in-store promotions drive consumer interest and boost revenue.
Furthermore, stronger relationships with retailers and distributors result in more efficient supply chain operations, which reduces costs and improves overall profitability for your brand and its partners.
5 Best Trade Marketing Strategies With Examples
Effective trading marketing strategies are crucial for brands aiming to strengthen relationships with distributors and drive sales within the supply chain. These five strategies can help you stand out and foster profitable relationships with your trade partners:
1. Branding
Effective business branding allows you to communicate your unique value proposition and the benefits of your product, increase awareness about the value of your offerings, and foster trust and credibility. A strong, recognizable identity makes your products more desirable and easier for trade partners to understand and promote.
A reputable and well-known brand can negotiate more promotional support and better shelf space, leading to increased sales in the long run. Continued growth and success benefit all parties in the supply chain.
Example: Nike’s world-renowned branding ensures that retailers prioritize their products through eye-catching displays and compelling marketing materials. This drives higher sales and even stronger trade partnerships.
2. Trade Promotions
Trade promotions allow you to increase your market placement and generate sales by giving wholesalers and retailers healthy margins to promote your products. Through discounts, rebates, and co-op advertising, you can encourage trade partners to stock more of your inventory and actively promote your products.
Example: Procter & Gamble offers discounts to retailers for purchasing larger volumes, ensuring their health and hygiene products are well-stocked and prominently displayed.
3. Trade Shows
Trade shows, also known as exhibitions or trade fairs, allow you to showcase your products directly to potential trade partners. With well-thought-out product displays, you can demonstrate their benefits, highlight innovations, and negotiate deals in real time. Through face-to-face interactions, you can build relationships and gain valuable insights into market trends and competitor activities.
Example: The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is held annually in Las Vegas, where consumer electronics manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and enthusiasts gather from all over the world. Manufacturers showcase and promote their latest innovations, connect with industry experts, and establish partnerships with potential trade partners.
4. Strategic Partnerships
Strategic partnerships with well-known brands allow you to benefit from their popularity and credibility, along with their data and insights, to raise awareness about your products, build trust, and boost sales. These relationships ensure consistent product placement, ongoing promotional support, and reliable supply chains, which ultimately drive sustained sales growth.
Example: Coca-Cola has maintained a long-standing strategic partnership with McDonald's since 1955. Coca-Cola is the exclusive beverage provider for McDonald's restaurants, and their collaboration includes joint marketing campaigns, co-branded promotions, and special menu offerings.
5. Advertising
Advertising directly to potential trade partners through business-to-business (B2B) digital campaigns — such as LinkedIn ads and email newsletters — trade publications, and catalogs effectively reaches decision-makers throughout the supply chain. You can showcase new products and promotional deals to encourage retailers and distributors to stock and promote your items.
Example: Unilever’s digital campaigns showcase new product launches and promotions to target retail buyers. This ensures their products stay top-of-mind for trade partners.
How To Develop a Trade Marketing Strategy in 5 Steps
An effective trade marketing strategy can help your brand build strong relationships with retailers, wholesalers, and distributors. These key steps will help you develop a comprehensive strategy to maximize your market presence and sales growth:
- Conduct market research
- Study current market trends
- Design targeted trade promotions
- Establish your product proposition & monitoring system
- Monitor performance
1. Conduct Market Research
Through market research, you can understand your trade partners’ needs, allowing for more targeted marketing efforts. This is the foundational step in developing a successful trade marketing strategy.
1.1 Retail Partner Needs
Directly engage with potential trade partners through surveys or feedback sessions to identify opportunities for collaboration. Learn about the types of promotions that motivate them (bulk discounts, rebates, exclusive product offers) and offer tailored incentives to increase their willingness to stock and promote your products.
If you can provide logistical support, offer ways to ease their workload and streamline their operations. This can make your brand more attractive to potential partners and help you get ahead of your competitors.
1.2 Consumer Insights
By analyzing end consumers’ buying behavior, product preferences, and overall demand, you can provide insights and suggestions for products with strong selling potential. This can make it easier for trade partners to choose which items to carry and how to promote them to consumers.
Furthermore, understanding where consumers prefer to shop and how they respond to merchandising and display techniques will help you ensure your products are available in stores where they are most likely to be purchased.
1.3 Competitor Analysis
Assess your competitors and their strategies for engaging with trade partners. Identify gaps or opportunities to differentiate your brand and incentivize distributors to prioritize your offerings. You can offer unique products, value-added services, better pricing, or more attractive trade deals and promotions.
2. Study Current Market Trends
Research current B2B marketing trends to develop fresh trade marketing initiatives that will work for you. This involves analyzing shifts in consumer behavior, competitive dynamics, industry innovations, and technological advancements to identify emerging opportunities and risks.
Find opportunities you can use to your benefit, such as ideal pricing, added value, or new solutions to current problems. Align your product offerings and promotions to meet current demand, making your products more appealing to consumers and trade partners alike.
Use the following to track market trends:
- Sales data: Analyze internal sales data to spot product demand trends and seasonal buying patterns.
- Consumer feedback: Surveys can help you understand changes in consumer preferences, buying behaviors, and product expectations.
- Industry reports: Review industry publications, trade journals, and market research reports to gain insights into shifts in consumer behavior.
- Competitor monitoring: Track your competitors’ product launches and promotional strategies to identify industry patterns and innovations.
- Networking: Attend trade shows and industry conferences to observe the latest technologies, innovations, and best practices shaping your market.
3. Design Targeted Trade Promotions
Create targeted promotions that will entice distributors, wholesalers, and retailers to pursue partnerships with your brand. These tactics can boost product turnover and drive consumer purchases:
- Discounts: Offer volume discounts for trade partners purchasing items in larger quantities. This encourages them to stock more of your products and promote them aggressively.
- Incentive programs: Rebates or performance-based rewards will entice trade partners to meet or even exceed set sales targets.
- Co-op advertising: Share advertising costs with retailers to boost promotion and sales.
- Promotional materials: Provide branded displays, point-of-sale materials, and other marketing support to ease the workload.
4. Establish Your Product Proposition & Monitoring System
Create a unique value proposition and create a compelling pitch for distributors, wholesalers, and retailers. Your pitch should address their needs and highlight how your product can help them succeed:
- Product differentiation: Emphasize what sets your product apart from competitors, whether it's superior quality, innovation, or pricing.
- Consumer alignment: Explain how your product appeals to the distributor or retailer’s target audience and fits within their existing product mix.
- Market potential: Provide data to demonstrate strong demand that will lead to high sales and long-term success in your market. Show proven results with other distributors and retail partners.
- Profitability: Demonstrate how distributing or carrying your product can increase their profits (volume discounts, low-risk stocking options, favorable margins, etc.).
- Support: Offer training, customer service, and ongoing assistance to help their sales teams push your products to consumers.
Identify distribution channels that will help you reach your target consumers and work with your trade partners to ensure that your products are stocked in the right places at the right time. You must also implement systems to manage simultaneous promotions at multiple retailers and supervise inventory movement within the supply chain.
5. Monitor Performance
Use sales analytics tools to track product performance over time, including sales velocity, regional performance, and retail partnerships. Track sales data before, during, and after trade marketing campaigns to gauge their effectiveness.
Request reports from distributors and retailers to assess how your products are performing in their stores. Track whether they are using the marketing materials provided and if they help drive sales. Gather feedback to identify opportunities for improvement to maintain strong relationships with your trade partners.
By regularly reviewing relevant metrics, you can make informed decisions to optimize your trade marketing efforts and refine promotions or incentives if needed. Over time, you may need to reallocate your resources toward higher-performing regions or partners to maximize impact.
A trade marketing strategy, guided by the expertise of a market research company, will help you reach your target audiences and successfully promote your product.
Top 5 Advertising Agencies To Help You Build a Trade Marketing Strategy
Working with an advertising agency with a proven track record can help you build one of the best brand awareness strategies to ensure your products reach your target customers. An agency can also support your direct response marketing efforts to evoke an immediate response from your target groups and encourage them to search for your product.
Here’s our roundup of the top five advertising agencies that can help you achieve measurable trade marketing results:
1. AXIS visual
Headquartered in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, AXIS Visual combines creativity with extensive knowledge of business and production processes to promote your brand. The agency creates marketing materials that you need to be noticed, understood, and valued.
AXIS visual offers the following services:
- Branding
- Advertising
- Corporate communications
- Logo development
- Product design
- Consulting
Notable clients include United Incentives, Compass One, Acurian, and Crothall.
2. LaSoft
Headquartered in Wroclaw, Poland, LaSoft specializes in building innovative applications to help startups raise awareness about their products. Its structured and tested approach integrates CRM, email marketing, social media, and web analysis tools to drive results.
LaSoft offers the following services:
- Mobile app development
- Custom software development
- Digital services for marketing technology industries
Notable clients include TheSpoke, Casadesk, Servant, and SapientBot.
3. Identity Marketing Group
Identity Marketing Group is a complete promotional brand marketing agency that designs products and solutions for organizations across North America. Its experts tailor strategies to fit your specific needs and objectives, ensuring maximum impact and return on investment.
Identity Marketing Group offers the following services:
- Video production
- Advertising agency services
- Branding
- Digital marketing
- Print design
Notable clients include MasterCard, VISA, Drake Williams Steel, and Miller Electric.
4. Black Propeller
Black Propeller is a Google Partner, a Bing Ads Elite SMB Partner, and a Facebook Marketing Partner that manages over $10 million per year in ad spending across various paid search channels. The agency assigns an Account Manager and Paid Search specialist that blend strategy and implementation to ensure you achieve your digital advertising goals.
Black Propeller offers the following services:
- PPC
- Digital advertising
- Digital marketing
- Video marketing
- Social media marketing
Notable clients include Optex, Fast Pace Health, Next Day Floors, and Valet Living.
5. Ten Feet Tall (Previously KHJ)
Ten Feet Tall specializes in consumer brand marketing. Its proprietary proprietary BrandPQ™ insights platform evaluates organizations’ brand pride, or the deepest level of emotional engagement a person can have with your brand. It unites employees, drives performance, creates loyalty, and increases sales.
Ten Feet Tall offers the following services:
- Strategy & planning
- Creative
- Media activation
- Digital & analytics
- Brand inside
Notable clients include Quest Diagnostics, MassGaming, Abbott Molecular, and Nordblom.
Trade Marketing Expert Tips
Here are some top tips from our experts to help make your trade marketing strategy a success:
- Create a promotion schedule around annual festivals and holidays, like Christmas and New Year’s.
- Pitch your products to trade partners by comparing them to your competitors, showcasing the benefits they can bring in terms of price, quality, etc.
- Plan campaigns well in advance to properly allocate resources.
- Pay to retailers on scan, meaning reimburse them for what shoppers have purchased rather than paying huge amounts in advance.
- Set goals for your trade promotions and analyze the results, considering all costs, such as retailer fees, discounts, and fixed expenses
Trade Marketing Key Takeaways
Trade marketing is a vital strategy for businesses seeking to build strong relationships with retailers, wholesalers, and distributors. By focusing on the needs of trade partners, offering tailored promotions, and supporting in-store merchandising, you can ensure better product placement and increase consumer engagement. These mutually beneficial partnerships lead to increased profitability and long-term success.
If you need help strengthening your brand presence within the supply chain, professional advertising companies can boost your offerings to engage potential trade partners.
Trade Marketing FAQs
1. What is trade marketing vs. brand marketing?
Trade marketing targets distribution channels to convince retailers and wholesalers to stock and promote a specific product. In contrast, brand marketing focuses on building and enhancing brand image and reputation among consumers to gain loyalty and drive demand. Both approaches are important and often work together to achieve overall business objectives.
2. What are the advantages of trade marketing?
Trade marketing offers the following advantages:
- Stronger relationships with retailers and distributors
- Increased shelf space and product visibility
- Improved brand presence
- Increased brand presence
3. What businesses use trade marketing?
Trade marketing is widely used by businesses across various industries (electronics, food and beverage, beauty, household products), particularly those in consumer goods, retail, and manufacturing.
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