The different strategies in dealer marketing

Regardless of whether in retail, in the insurance industry, as a franchise or a decentralized company, working with local dealers is often a great opportunity for companies to address local customer groups, position themselves on the market and increase sales. Nevertheless, working with independent partners is often a challenge and internal competition with competitors even before customers even come into play. The dealers usually not only offer the products and services of one manufacturer, but also have different brands in their range. It is therefore particularly important to enter into a good partnership with the retailers and to find strategies for how they advertise their own product more and better than that of the competition. The main thing here is to provide incentives and to work together on an equal footing in the long term. Dealer marketing and sales work particularly well when a win-win situation arises on the part of the dealer and the brand, from which the end user also benefits.

Why are local traders important?

The dealers are particularly important for companies and brands, as they are on-site with customers and maintain direct contact with the target group. They are the first to face customer demand or potential problems. This means that retailers are not only important for sales and marketing, but also a channel for registering trends and changes, which in turn can be valuable for future product development.
For retailers, a partnership with big brands can not only provide popular products, but also individual marketing support. With this help, even smaller retailers can build a successful, cross-media marketing mix and dare to use new marketing channels on the Internet (such as the social media platforms "Facebook" and "Instagram"). This is ensured above all through a constant dialogue, incentives and discounts as well as training in marketing and sales. This increased marketing can ultimately increase sales. Traders and companies benefit equally from the profits made.

Cooperation marketing under the name of the manufacturer

One option is to advertise with local dealers. In this cooperation strategy, the names of the dealer and the manufacturer are mentioned on the marketing materials. The company usually provides the local partners with the marketing documents, which they can use inexpensively for their local marketing. These advertising materials are either provided directly or can also be customized by the retailer and adapted to the target group. However, the design and corporate identity are usually determined by the manufacturer. Thus, the manufacturer's brand is brought to customers via local dealers and is generally known. The retailers, on the other hand, receive support in the form of partially free or discounted marketing materials and templates for various forms of advertising (e.g. advertising, internet advertising, social media or traditional printing pieces). Depending on the success and sales of the partner, these grants can be awarded and extended. Successful dealers thus receive advantages and an incentive to advertise more of the products and increase sales in the future. However, it is important to make clear arrangements right from the start and to regulate exactly who is responsible for the procurement, creation and production of marketing materials and who bears the costs.

Advertising on behalf of the retailer (private labeling)

In contrast to cooperation marketing, there is a private labeling strategy. Here, the dealer has the opportunity to create the marketing completely in his own corporate design and with his own data (logo, etc.). The materials for this are provided as templates (usually in a marketing portal) by the manufacturer and can be edited and ordered by the dealer. Nevertheless, the marketing materials still contain the products and information of the manufacturer's brand, which, however, are sold under the name of the local dealer. This strategy is particularly interesting for brands that want to strengthen their local retailers and do not want to appear as end users themselves. In doing so, they provide retailers with the opportunity to use many new marketing strategies and to easily produce advertising measures. Any agreements on corporate design requirements are therefore eliminated and the retailer is given additional freedom in marketing the products. This gives retailers the advantages of maintaining their independence and still being able to rely on the manufacturer's marketing know-how, information and advertising measures.

Growing together and breaking new ground

Regardless of which strategy you ultimately choose, as a brand you ideally always offer dealers the opportunity to produce and publish advertising for their own product or service as simply and varied as possible. This is particularly interesting when new advertising measures such as social media or general online advertising are also to be introduced. The young target group in particular mostly uses search engines such as Google when searching for providers, or even searches directly on Instagram and Co. Only those who know this customer journey of their own customers can select the right platforms and address their own target group directly. However, advertising online in particular is often new territory for local retailers and is not yet sufficiently used. With the right cooperation between the brand and the retailer, these areas can also be expanded and a joint, regional online marketing can be realized. This collaboration generally leads to increased sales, which in turn provides financial benefits for both parties.

If you are about to decide how you want to do marketing with your dealers, we look forward to hearing from you. We would be happy to show you in case studies how other companies deal with this challenge.