Consumer Insights And Trade Marketing

Brands are spending more to reach customers at the point of purchase or consumption, while retailers control the critical moments of purchase. By working together, brands and retailers can improve the consumer journey through to conversion. Brands must lead in the evolving consumer journey because the battle is now in the trade.

Imagine having to decide which product to buy at a retail shop in the midst of competing brands. What do you think fuels impulse buying? The customer may not remember the different advertising on the products but would have to decide right there what brand to go with.  Branding and placement of product information in retail environment aids decision making in favour of your brand.

Understanding the profile of your customer, the decision corridor in the channels and placing the right materials in the right quality and quantity will make the customer’s decision easier and favourable to your brand. This is what trade or channel marketing is all about.

Historically, the focus of traditional marketing has been the strategic evolution and development of brand building platforms and the communication of differentiating value propositions and brand essence across main media. This usually comes with the expectation that target consumers will respond by going to recognised wholesale and/or retail outlets to purchase/consume the advertised brand.

The concept of Trade Marketing adds a new / vital dimension to the desire to win the preference of target consumers – that of inducing and assisting the consumer to demonstrate preference for own brand, particularly when they are confronted with tempting options/alternatives at these points of purchase/consumption.

To enhance profit margins, the co-operation and continuing support of channel partners is critical to the success of any brand.

Understanding where target consumers can be found, and more critically, where they can be influenced, helps a strategic marketing team to prioritise channels: to choose which retail outlets they should focus on for which categories and brands. Convenience stores might be a priority for one brand, but not another. Discount chains might be high value when it comes to driving consumption frequency but lousy for driving penetration amongst young consumers.

Trade marketing today calls for brands and channel partners to increase investment in digital space, where the consumer seeks information and alternative solutions before a purchase decision – digital trade marketing. It’s about targeting trade campaigns and leveraging the power of online buying and selling processes to achieve a positive step change in profitability for both channel partners and brand owners.

Digital offers a lot more, from precise audience targeting to robust campaign measurement. It helps channel partners create more relevant and personalised experiences at the points of consumption / purchase. Leveraging the power of both data and digital disruption would deliver far more positive results for all stakeholders, at a time when margins with the industries are thinning out.

Indeed the battle is in the trade.