Is your goal to sell more? Then it’s time to start paying attention to innovations in trade marketing. In fact, trade marketing and sales growth are closely linked, because the main goal of this strategy is to increase demand with the help of partners across the retail chain.

Instead of relying solely on creating needs among consumers, trade marketing drives sales growth through a Business to Business, or B2B, strategy, which consists of encouraging other retailers to purchase products in order to create constant demand and supply for the end consumer.

In this post, we’ll show you the main reasons to invest in trade marketing, how it relates to sales growth, and what can be done in terms of customer experience and technology to reach the goal of selling more. Stick with us, because this complete guide will demystify trade marketing and show you the innovations and trends that will help your brand sell more!

Why invest in trade marketing

To begin understanding how trade marketing and sales growth are related, we need to take a closer look at the concept. Trade marketing is the marketing discipline focused on increasing demand among partners and distributors, rather than directly among consumers. Here on the blog, we always talk about how important the consumer experience is, and we want to make it clear right off the bat that trade marketing doesn’t ignore this factor.

However, it’s a distinctive approach that can bring amazing results to your business. That’s because, although trade marketing focuses on the distribution chain, it also concentrates part of its efforts on the ongoing need to manage a brand so that it generates steady demand.

The idea is that, once identification with the consumer has been built, a retailer needs to make sure its brand’s products are actually reaching them. After all, the shopper experience needs to be enriched in many ways, and one of the main strategies for doing so is ensuring that shoppers always have access to the products they prefer.

But to do this, trade marketing works alongside other businesses, strengthening one brand over others and making sure it gets the exposure it needs to remain among the customer’s preferences. So how can a company do that?

One of the main tools in trade marketing is offering benefits to business partners. These benefits can be tangible or intangible, as long as they give the partner assurance that it’s a good idea to keep promoting Brand A’s products over Brand B’s.

We can say, then, that trade marketing is the marketing we do to influence other brands. This influence creates demand for a company’s products throughout the distribution channels, not exclusively among consumers. We can therefore infer that, even though trade marketing is a trend, it’s far from new.

The focal points of trade marketing — that is, the strategies it uses — can be summed up as improving distribution channels, creating innovative displays, investing in promotions, and maintaining an aggressive focus on price. With the data and information now available thanks to resources such as Big Data, trade marketing becomes better, more effective, and more aligned with brand marketing.

Still unsure about the benefits trade marketing can bring to your organization? Check out some of its advantages in the topics below.

Trade marketing brings consumers closer to a brand

One of the main benefits of trade marketing is how it manages to bring end users closer to a brand. Although the strategy is aimed at other businesses, trade marketing has the advantage of building good agreements between retailers and manufacturers. The result of these good agreements is products that are better positioned at the point of sale and brands with greater visibility than others.

When a business practices trade marketing efficiently, it’s able to increase its sales because it earns better exposure at the POS. Because it offers higher profit margins to B2B partners, those partners feel the need to promote certain categories and brands more than others. As a result, those who practice trade marketing reach potential customers with better prices and in a more accessible way.

What we mean is that, although trade marketing is obviously not focused on the consumer, it’s the consumer who receives the most evident benefits. These benefits are enough to promote one brand over others and make it stand out, converting and building loyalty at a higher rate than the competition.

It strengthens business relationships

Trade marketing plays yet another role: it strengthens the relationship between two businesses — in this case, the one that produces and the one that distributes a given item. Manufacturers and the distribution chain develop a closer relationship through trade marketing because they become interdependent. This interdependence creates a bond in which the exchange of strategic information between both businesses is mutually beneficial.

Because of this exchange, trade marketing makes it easier to generate value, increases inventory turnover, and gets customers moving more around the point of sale. This movement generally results in more sales and more benefits for both the retailer and the partner manufacturer.

Trade marketing increases market share

Market share is how we refer to the portion of a market controlled by a specific brand or business. It’s in businesses’ interest to expand their market share, since this means they sell more than their competitors. When it comes to trade marketing and sales growth, market share is one of the goals, and it’s easier to achieve thanks to the way the strategy is structured.

With a focus on more advantageous B2B negotiations, placing your products in prominent spots at the retailer’s point of sale is less complicated. The result is that manufacturers find it easier to avoid market concentration — that is, the absence of their product from certain spaces in favor of a competing brand.

Trade marketing looks for ways to meet the demands of everyone involved in the sales chain, bringing benefits to both retailers and manufacturers. That’s why it rethinks the relationship between distributors and producers, and focuses on it to achieve results such as increased sales.

POS content

Within trade marketing, one of the most widely used tactics for increasing a manufacturer’s sales is creating distinctive points of sale. These points of sale are attractive to retailers because they make their stores more interesting and draw more traffic. For manufacturers, however, they deliver the greatest advantages, helping to successfully convert as many people as possible.

Today, creating interactive and dynamic content for the POS is one of the focal points of trade marketing and retail innovation. Below, we’ll show you how some of these initiatives are driving sales around the world.

Creating experiences at the point of sale

Many people believe that marketing ends when the consumer walks into a store. After all, what other initiatives could change their mind once they’ve already chosen between one retail chain and its competitors? It is a mistake, however, to believe that in-store actions at the point of sale lack the power to influence the purchase decision right up to the last moment.

Given that you need to keep convincing consumers they need a product until the moment they actually take it home, POS initiatives can have a huge impact on your sales. The practice of optimizing points of sale and making them more appealing is part of the strategies that can set your trade marketing apart, because it benefits manufacturers and retailers alike.

One of the most widely used POS tactics over the years has been creating experiences. Initially limited to product tests and demos, these initiatives now aim to make the environment interactive and bring the shopper into a unique experience, one capable of convincing them that buying a particular item is the right choice.

We are more likely to make a purchase when we can try out the product in question. So it doesn’t matter whether you sell technology or food. Creating an exclusive experience in which the user has the opportunity to interact with the product and verify its quality is one of the best things you can do to get better results at the POS.

Brands like Whole Foods do this all the time. By setting up kiosks where customers can sample the company’s products, it stands out from competitors, because it lets customers know exactly what they’re taking home. When it’s time to make a decision, that information is taken into account, and the brand’s sales stand out.

The same happens in Apple stores around the world. Being able to try a product and see what it can do makes us more likely to buy it.

Increasing interaction at the point of sale with exclusive apps

Another option for improving results at the point of sale is creating exclusive apps. This was the approach adopted by brands like Target. Today, consumers are more motivated to buy something when they can be sure they’re getting the best possible deal, and to capitalize on this, the American retailer invested in a tool that automates the task.

The app created by the brand works as a “shopping companion,” with capabilities that vary according to what’s available at each store. The “Cartwheel App” checks your location and shows the best deals based on the profile registered in the app.

Several other brands are betting on this concept, and Starbucks is one of them. Using gamification, the brand runs a game for people who visit its stores, awarding points as customers purchase one product or another. At the end of a period, exclusive perks like discounts and free drinks make the point-of-sale experience richer.

Optimizing the place of purchase

Point-of-sale initiatives can deliver better results when combined with optimizations of the place of purchase. The retailer’s space can be used to promote a brand and convince customers to take a product home in many ways. Tools like apps that guide users through the store are not the only ones likely to achieve results of this kind.

Specialized sales associates — who interact with the consumer at key moments throughout their shopping experience — can achieve similar results. In fact, having more than one point of sale spread across the retailer’s space can help you promote your brand and influence the consumer’s decision-making process.

By working with trade marketing and sales growth, you’ll have the opportunity to become a partner to the retailer. This way, it becomes possible to make better use of the place of purchase and develop points of sale that take into account the specific characteristics of each location.

Customizing the shopping experience

Personalized shopping experiences are an innovation that is delivering great results for manufacturers. With the help of partners, and thanks to trade marketing, they are an incredible tool for increasing sales volume and building loyalty.

Want to understand how to create these personalized shopping experiences? Check out some of the ideas we’ve selected to help you!

Think beyond increasing sales

For initiatives to customize the shopping experience to work, you need to think of them as more than a way to increase your sales. If customers get the impression that they are receiving personalized experiences not because the brand wants to build a relationship with them, but because it has sales targets to hit, they may walk away.

That’s why you should use objective data and business intelligence wisely. CRM information and data gathered through Big Data can make it easier to deliver significantly better interactions to customers, but they must be designed individually to count as personalization. What your brand should strive for is to offer, exclusively, exactly what your consumer is looking for — not a series of customizations that create no value for the end consumer.

Use data to understand consumer needs

Today, we have access to a myriad of data that helps us better understand the consumer profile. How they interact with your brand’s website, which social media initiatives drive engagement, and which products attract the most attention are all pieces of information we can use to personalize the customer experience.

Focus on them, drawing inspiration from successful companies like Amazon. What it does is understand what people are looking for and try to shorten the distance between them and those items. This way, the brand manages not only to increase its sales but also to show that it understands the desires that drive its customers.

Tap into consumer emotions

To build a lasting relationship with your customer, you need to understand the emotional connection between them and a brand. To do this, you need to invest in developing messages that reach the consumer on a personal level.

Ads that take into account what you know about a customer and tailor the brand’s message to address exactly those needs are one of the tools used in these situations. They turn passive shopping experiences into something far more meaningful.

Trade marketing and sales growth: the role of technology

The role of technology in sales and marketing has never been as relevant as it is now. But what can your company do today to start making better use of the available resources and convince customers they need your products? We’ll show you that it’s possible to better understand consumers and increase your sales with the knowledge you gain.

Analyze everything you can

Since most marketing campaigns today are run with the help of automation tools and connect with customers in environments where data is easy to collect — like the internet — we can analyze our relationship with the consumer much better. Marketing software such as CRM makes it possible to understand and track everything, from social media posts to the emails your consumer actually reads.

Tracking and analyzing all this data is what will give you the insights to do better marketing. With the right technology, you can test and experiment to find which initiatives bring the best results for a business, and collect data along the way that will help you understand your customer better and better.

Create consumer profiles and personas

One of the best tactics for understanding and improving a business’s marketing initiatives is the use of personas. Personas are semi-fictional profiles of a company’s customers that provide more data about them than we usually have access to when creating target audiences. Personas have names and personalities, like specific things, and interact with your business for a reason.

All of this information is essential for creating personalized shopping experiences and developing products that fully meet customers’ needs. With the data you have on your consumers, gathered from visits to your website and to the stores that sell your products, you can build accurate personas of the people who buy from you. Use them to develop increasingly effective solutions and marketing strategies.

Invest in marketing automation

There’s a lot your marketing team can do better with automated solutions that create specific triggers and actions for every consumer interaction with your brand. These solutions will maximize the results your marketing department can achieve, without requiring you to invest in hiring more staff or spend countless hours interacting with consumers.

Marketing automation can boost the department’s performance and help it better organize business processes. Repetitive tasks such as sending emails and running follow-ups can be optimized through automation and deliver incredible results for the business.

Actions retailers and manufacturers can take to increase sales

Still wondering which actions manufacturers and retailers can take together to optimize sales and achieve better results? Check out some initiatives that can increase sales and transform the relationship between your brand and consumers.

Focus on interactive experiences

Interactive shopping experiences are one of the best options for anyone who wants to sell more. They leverage the point of sale to create unique opportunities for interaction and, as a result, attract more traffic. Vigor recently launched a refrigerator that, paired with smart screens, lets customers choose the perfect yogurt before they even open the door.

The initiative helped generate interest in the brand’s products and, as a bonus, save energy. Shoppers only took their favorite yogurt out of the fridge after choosing it, making them more likely to be satisfied with their purchase.

Get logistics right

By working together with a partner, a brand has the opportunity to improve its logistics processes. This means that matching product supply to demand becomes easier, since information is shared between supplier and retailer. When warehouses are in sync with distribution, customers are less likely to be frustrated by out-of-stock products, and building loyalty gets easier.

Combining your data with the retailer’s data will help you deliver more satisfying experiences and optimize the business’s logistics process.

Invest in business intelligence

Retail-focused loyalty programs can provide meaningful insights for business intelligence. They are one of the strategies that can be used to achieve better results, providing consumption data to manufacturers and sellers while delivering exclusive perks to customers.

Working side by side with a partner through trade marketing initiatives is one of the best strategies for increasing a business’s sales. Technology, exclusive content for points of sale, experience customization, and the use of data can also boost manufacturers’ profitability and optimize the distribution chain.

So, are you convinced that trade marketing and increased sales can go hand in hand? Get in touch with an AliceWonders consultant right now and find out how your business can benefit!