Trade Marketing

You need a marketing strategy to get more distributors, retailers, and supply chain partners and reach out to more consumers. Despite this, it is surprising to see several startups and small to medium sized businesses with no clear trade marketing plan. Many of them do not even know what trade marketing is, so let's take a look at the basics of these type of marketing.
The basics info
A business' marketing plan is generally focused on end consumers who buy and actually use the products or services. Trade marketing, however, is about marketing your products/services to retailers, wholesalers, and others that buy and sell your products to the end consumers. They form part of your supply chain that starts from your production line and ends with your product in the hands of a consumer.
Why trade marketing?
The supply chain partners like retailers, wholesalers, and distributors are the ones that deliver your product to the consumers, earning you profit and a consumer base. Each of these partners can sell your product to a certain number of consumers. As you get more retailers and distributors, your supply chain grows and your product/services reach more people. The end result is more consumers, better brand recognition, and growth across several geographical areas. When developing your supply chain structure offers so many benefits, why should you not be trade marketing?
More about
It does not target the end consumer, but that does not mean it has to be separate from or replace your brand marketing strategy. In fact, a trade marketing strategy is best done as a supplement to your brand marketing plan. This allows you to promote your product across a wider audience as your supply chain structure develops.
Customers
In this type of marketing, customers refer to the supply chain partners who buy products from you and sell them to other customers or end consumers. There are three common types of customers- wholesale, retail, and trade outlet customers. There may be more, but they are all important in their own way. For instance, wholesale customers like distributors and sub-distributors are important because they reach to a wide range of retail outlets.
Similarly, retail outlets are important because they are now the dominant form of reaching consumers in many industries. Trade channels and outlets include supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience stores, and mass merchandisers. You have to reach out to all these customers as part of your trade marketing plan. At the same time, you have to deal with changes in supply chain structure, marketing trends, and budget restrictions. All this makes it difficult to implement a trade marketing strategy.

by Josef Kura