The Fundamentals of Trade Marketing Trade marketing is a form of business-to-business (B2B) marketing, in which companies attempt to market and sell their products to wholesalers, distributors, or retailers, rather than directly to consumers. Profitable trade marketing is contingent on a number of factors, from an awareness of retailer and consumer needs to the ability to formulate innovative and modern sales techniques. What follows are some of the fundamentals of trade marketing practices.

1. Trade Marketing Fundamentals
The Fundamentals of Trade
Marketing
Trade marketing is a form of business-to-
business (B2B) marketing, in which
companies attempt to market and sell their
products to wholesalers, distributors, or
retailers, rather than directly to consumers.
Profitable trade marketing is contingent on
a number of factors, from an awareness of retailer and consumer needs to
the ability to formulate innovative and modern sales techniques. What
follows are some of the fundamentals of trade marketing practices.
Benefits of Trade Marketing
Manufacturers can benefit from marketing their products to other major
retailers or distributors in a number of ways. First of all, when successful,
the process guarantees that a manufacturer will be able to get its product
on store shelves. More importantly, the process ensures that the
manufacturer or marketer will have a retailer’s full support in helping to
promote and advertise the product. In other words, trade marketing
essentially increases the sales team behind a particular product, since both
the retailer and the marketer want a product to sell.
Necessity of Research
One of the most basic fundamentals of trade marketing is the necessity of
market research, which is conducted at several levels. First, marketing
specialists must conduct research into a variety of different retailers to
locate the best company or companies to which they can sell their
products. Once that relationship has been established, both marketer and
retailer will work together to research the best promotional tactics for the
product. Should it be placed at the checkout to encourage point of sale
purchases? Should it be featured in a window display? Is it a product that

2. needs to be marketed online, through various social media marketing
strategies? Research is integral to answering these questions.
Methods of Research: Primary Sources
Trade marketers and their retail partners generally take one of two main
tactics when conducting product or market research. Some use primary
sources, such as interviews and surveys, to determine consumer wants
and retailer needs. While this is one of the most popular ways of gathering
market research data, in the past this was also an incredibly time-
consuming tactic. With the popularity of the internet, however, and the
ability to conduct surveys and compile information via e-mail or website
links, this method has become efficient.
Methods of Research: Secondary Sources
Another method used by trade marketers to gather information about
clients and consumers is to compile secondary sources, such as pre-
calculated trade statistics. This is information that has already been
tabulated by major national or international market research companies
such as Nielsen, and published in trade industry journals and databases
such as Business America. This information can give a broad picture of the
market trends surrounding a particular product, serving as a starting point
for trade or B2B marketing strategies; however, the information is not as
well-tailored to a specific business or product as that gathered from primary
sources.
Basic Strategies: Trade Shows and Technology
Marketers should be ready to present their products or services at trade
shows - one of the foremost ways to advertise for trade marketing - but
they should also be willing and able to contact retailers before the trade
show, and be ready to follow up afterwards. Creating an online presence is
one of the best ways to do this. According to research conducted by
Vanessa Fox, a former PR representative for Google and author of
Marketing in the Age of Google, the top three targets for trade marketers
today are actually websites, e-mail, and social media marketing outlets. To

3. keep up with the competition, marketers will need to utilize this technology
for their benefit.
Overall, the fundamentals of trade marketing include copious market
research, an ability to create an online presence, and a well-maintained
personal relationship with retailers, distributors, or wholesalers. Marketers
should frequently analyze industry trends, and keep apprised of consumer
desires as well as those of their clients.
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