What is retail marketing?

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What is Retail Marketing?

The term retail marketing generally refers to the marketing activities of a retail company. As a rule, consumer goods are produced and sold to the end consumer either directly or with the support of retailers.

Many different areas of the marketing and the marketing of the commercial enterprises are considered. All areas that can influence the customer journey are relevant in retail marketing. These include, for example, the design of the store (point-of-sale, or PoS for short), the sales process, advertising, and even the pricing of the product and the handling of the purchasing process.

The four Ps in marketing

Similar to general marketing doctrine, the famous four Ps of marketing can also be applied to retail marketing.

Product

This is the product that is to be purchased by customers. In order to design and provide the right product, the brand must be clear about what its target group wants and what needs the customer wants to fulfill. The final products can be sold individually or packaged together.

Price

The manufacturer defines together with the distributors how high the price is that the customer has to pay for the product. Here, not only the procurement costs play a role, but also the current demand among customers. The price can influence the sales and popularity of products in that, for example, particularly inexpensive products are readily purchased spontaneously and particularly expensive products are usually regarded as being of very high quality.

Placement

To ultimately sell the product, it must be placed in the right places. The placement decides where the product is offered and sold. On the one hand, this can be the decision about different retailers and stores, and on the other hand, the decision about whether the product should be sold offline, online or everywhere.

Promotion

The promotion area decides which marketing activities are carried out in order to market the product in the best possible way. This involves deciding which marketing channels are best suited to the product, the manufacturer and the retailers, and how to advertise. For example, discounts, cross-media campaigns or product packages can be offered.

Another 2 Ps in retail marketing

In addition, various sources add two more categories to the four Ps in retail marketing: People and Presentation.

The People category determines which personalities represent the company and the brand. Here, the company's own employees, partners, retailers and advertising personalities (such as celebrity ambassadors) can all play an important role. To make the best use of these personalities for retail marketing, it is necessary to determine how they should interact with customers.

Presentation refers to how the product and the brand present themselves to the buyer and prospective buyer. This involves deciding how the product is to be staged and what first impression should ideally be made on prospective customers. The setup at the point of sale and the web presence are of particular importance.

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Local retail marketing

Retail marketing strategies are particularly popular in local retailer marketing. The local marketing of retailers and local stores still increasingly takes place at the point-of-sale. Here, the design of the actual sales area using marketing materials such as window displays or posters is an important influence on the first impression and the willingness to buy of local customers. In addition, retailers and companies try to convince the local audience of their own products through advertisements in local magazines and coupons (e.g. with discounts).

Digital and online measures are also becoming increasingly popular in local retail marketing. The phenomenon of retail convergence, the merging of online and offline, is becoming increasingly visible. After the first big online boom, brands and retailers are now increasingly trying to combine the digital and analog worlds. For example, online shopping sites that offer in-store pick-up, digital consulting services, or coupons that can be redeemed both digitally and on site are all suitable ways of doing this.

Retail Marketing Strategies

1. Be close to the customer

With the right retail marketing strategy, you'll be in exactly the same places as your customers and interests. To make this possible, you need to know your target group and their interests and circumstances. You know on which platforms (e.g. social media) the target group can be found, which media they consume and what the target group is interested in. Only then will you select the right marketing measures to reach as many touchpoints on the customer journey as possible. Whether this is social media, Google Ads, personal referrals or point-of-sale design.

2. Social media

Use social media. Even though local reference is important in retail marketing, there is no way around digital and online measures such as social media, especially in the younger target groups. On platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok, you can not only provide your potential customers with content, but also place targeted ads and reach a large number of people. Paid ads, in particular, can reach the ideal group of people based on precise targeting and inform them about your brand and products. In addition, influencer and ambassador programs can be used to reach even more people and achieve greater brand awareness.

3. Video-Marketing

In addition to the images and texts on your own website, on brochures or even on social media, video productions help to present the product and the brand even more vividly. With the help of a video, the products can be shown in action and you can highlight the benefits generated even better. Basically, video marketing helps to attract even more attention and to be better remembered. When selecting the right publishing platform, it is again important to know your own target group and its user behavior. In principle, however, video marketing is suitable both for the PoS and for digital marketing channels such as the website or social media.

[Translate to eng:] Erfolgreiche Partnerschaften

4. successful partnerships

In addition to the company's own online and offline marketing activities, it also helps in retail marketing to enter into targeted partnerships and exploit the synergies. Such partnerships can be entered into either with individual stores and suppliers or with specific retailers. Here, it is advisable to look specifically for partners who serve a similar target group. These thus offer an easy way to address customers, achieve greater reach and generate more sales. Furthermore, in addition to cooperations for sales, the joint organization of events can also be a successful way to reach more people.

How can a software support?

Those who work with different partners in retail marketing and sell their own products through them will increasingly face the challenge of equipping the partners with marketing materials. Despite the different partners, it is important to rely on a uniform and coherent marketing strategy along the customer journey. This consistency and the efficient use of marketing opportunities, can be supported and simplified by a software solution. A marketing management solution helps to easily distribute the marketing measures and to plan a common local retail marketing. In such a software solution, cross-media marketing materials of all kinds can be personalized and edited and ordered, printed or reserved directly from the service provider. Here, it is not only possible to create printed materials, but also to place digital ads and create and even promote posts on social media. The large mix of different marketing materials makes it possible to accompany a complete retail marketing campaign with the right marketing measures.

Retail Marketing

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What is Retail Marketing?