Retail Marketing Services: How To Generate More Sales

  • book T-ROC Staff
  • calendar Mar 30, 2021
  • clock 10 mins read

Retail Marketing Services (RMS): How To Stand Out And Win Sales In A Consumer Driven Era Of Retail.

 

Quick Synopsis: This blog digs into retail marketing services; why they are so important; and how to make sure your brand or retail business is running in the right direction.

Retail has been on course to become a more consumer-centric industry for quite some time now. However, the past year has kicked this trend into high gear. As we gradually emerge into a new normal following those dismal hours of the global pandemic, retail has become more customer-focused than at any other time in its history. It’s a buyer’s market and retailers better quickly get on board with the fact that today’s shoppers are more demanding, more impatient, and bring greater service expectations than they ever have in generations past.

This is why retail marketing services are so important. Connecting with your customers in ways that are meaningful and convenient to them is the only way to drive sales and success. At the same time, that’s grown more difficult as we are all living in a world of information overload. Customers are bombarded with and endless stream of messages on a daily, if not hourly, basis. They’re coming at them from all directions and in all forms of media – emails and banner ads to television commercials to in-store retail merchandising and promotions.

So how do you cut through the clutter and connect? That’s the million-dollar question and we hope this post helps answer it, or at least helps point you in the right direction.

Interested in digging deeper into marketing and merchandising for the next generation of retail? Ready to talk about new technologies and digital solutions that are driving retail marketing and customer engagement with space-age innovation? Make an appointment to ask the experts at T-ROC about ViBA, the Virtual Interactive Brand Assistant. 

What is retail marketing?

Retail marketing is the entire process by which a product or products are brought and presented to consumers. It includes the retail sales channels used, which might be retail stores, an e-commerce website, even special events. Retail marketing also includes how brands and products are represented in advertising and marketing materials; the pricing and promotions surrounding them; and the product packaging and in-store retail merchandising services designed to attract the attention of shoppers.

Retail marketing services (RMS) can be defined as the best practices, tools, resources, strategies, and techniques used to initiate and drive retail marketing programs. Retail marketing is usually built around four fundamental principles, widely considered to be the core components of success.

The Four P’s of Retail Marketing

1. Product.

This one might seem a bit obvious. After all, you really wouldn’t require any retail marketing services if you didn’t have a product to sell. But it’s important to clearly understand your product and its attributes. Is it a tangible good or an intangible service? Is it a mass market or niche product? Is it well-known or is it something being brought to market for the first time?

One key component of the product that may not be top-of-mind is packaging. Packaging is part of the buying experience. Look at brands like Apple, Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, even the smiling Amazon delivery box (a package for your package). These designs are all part of the product. They contribute to the buying experience.

2. Price.

How much does your product cost? How much are customers willing to pay and how much do you need to make to generate reasonable returns? Pricing is tied to marketing and there are two primary ways for brands and retailers to calculate it.

Cost-plus pricing – this method requires determining the break-even price to produce a product and then adding a mark-up to make profit. The advantages of cost plus pricing lie in its simplicity. It doesn’t require an inordinate amount of research. It provides full coverage of costs and a consistent, measurable rate of return.

Value-based pricing – this type of pricing requires understanding exactly what your product is worth to customers. It relies on the emotional attachment buyers have to a specific product. Think high-fashion brands where customers are willing to pay extra to wear that prestigious designer label.

3. Place.

Where and how are you distributing your products? In today’s world, you’re most likely going to need an omnichannel sales and marketing approach to get your product in front of customers whenever, wherever and however they happen to be shopping. Omnipresence is an area where a good retail marketing services partner can prove invaluable. After all, when you’re reaching customers through multiple channels, it naturally makes it more difficult to manage inventory and fulfillment, create and track sales and marketing promotions, and provide consistently great customer service across all platforms and venues. This is why many brands and retailers will partner with a retail marketing services and management company to help guide promotions, operations and sales in an omnichannel world.

4. Promotion.

This is where retail marketing services arguably play their most impactful role. How do you reach customers? What’s your brand message and selling proposition? Are you offering discount pricing or some other incentive to purchase? Additionally, how are your reaching your target? Traditional advertising? Online and email marketing? Through brand ambassadors and social media influencers?

A good retail marketing and management partner will provide new insight into your audience and help develop an effective messaging and marketing strategy to reach them. Many of top companies incorporate advanced digital data capture solutions into their programs, which can provide new and deeper insights into target markets. After all, it’s a customer centric world, the more you know about your customers, the more effectively you can connect with them.

Retail Marketing – Tips & Techniques

Now let’s get into the nuts and bolts of retail marketing services with some takeaways you can use to carve out a bigger slice of your market and generate new retail sales.

1. Google Shopping Campaigns

There are billions and billions of Google searches done every day. The question for brands and retailers becomes, “how does my company stand out?” Google campaigns are a great marketing tool because the world’s top search engine has become the primary info source for shoppers. They’re not just looking for specific names, by the way. They’re searching for the “Best this”… the “Nearest that”… the “Favorite one of all” … all sorts of unique searches. Here are a few tips to making the most of your Google Shopping Campaign:

  • Include rave reviews from customers and authorities
  • Get at least 50 reviews and you can add a “star” rating to your ad
  • Make sure imagery is always cofigured to Google guidelines
  • Highlight special offers

2. Give Customers A New Reason To Visit Your Stores

Online shopping may have taken a chunk out of brick-and-mortar retail revenue, but that doesn’t mean people still don’t love visiting stores. You just might have to give them an extra-good reason to get off the couch and avoid going directly to Amazon. Maybe it’s a special in-store guest. It might be a great product demo or an in-store only promotion or discount. It might even be an in-store clinic or class. Remember, today’s customer expects more from brands and retailers. Providing a genuinely unique and enticing reason to visit your store is sure to be appreciated.

3. Think local

This is especially true for small to medium-sized brands and retailers. People connect with those who are actively part of their local communities. Fill your online and social channels with images of your local store; show your products being used around town; invite loyal local customers to post about your store and why they love shopping there.

4. Consider guerilla marketing

Your customers face a barrage of messages and communications every day. That’s why, even when it’s done effectively, it can be hard to stand out online, in social media and over conventional media channels. It might make sense to do something dramatically different. Maybe it’s a pop-up store that lasts for a month or two. Maybe it’s having a local artist paint a colorful mural on the side of your building. Maybe it’s creating a living and breathing advertisement complete with stage actors in the heart of a major city. There are no rules to guerilla marketing. And that’s the beauty of it.

5. Is your product podcast worthy? 

Podcasts are great way to build a loyal following. If you’re product lends itself to a podcast, it might be worth considering. Though they do take time to gain traction, if your podcast does eventually win over an audience, it can add up to fantastically inexpensive and effective marketing support.

6. Instill a sense of urgency

Some things never change and this marketing approach is one of them. We’ve all responded to those ‘limited time offers’ and ‘while supplies last’ disclaimers. They’re timeless marketing tricks that resonate with our all-too-human need not to miss out on anything good. Short-term discounts and special offers prompt customers to make those impulse purchases. They justify the decision to buy and that leads to added sales and revenue.

7. Understand your customers

Again, this may sound fairly obvious, but far too many brands and retailers come up short in truly understanding their customers. This is particularly unfortunate in a day and age when technology is able to provide customer data and insights with a depth and detail that was never before possible. If you’d like to learn more about how digital data solutions are driving better retail performance, enjoy a free consultation with the retail marketing services experts at The Revenue Optimization Companies (T-ROC).

8. Engage your customers

Retail marketing services are ultimately about optimizing the ways you connect with and engage customers. Reaching an audience is one thing. Winning them over is another. Sometimes effective customer engagement means thinking beyond the status quo. A good example of this is the latest innovation launched by The Revenue Optimization Companies (T-ROC) and key strategic partners.

The technology is called ViBA, which stands for Virtual Interactive Brand Assistant, and it allows brands to connect with customers (and vice versa) using the latest virtual reality and live video technology. This is the first omnichannel retail marketing solution to truly blur the lines between entertainment, information and commerce. It serves as a prime example of how technology can be used to deliver an even more personal shopping experience. To learn more, contact the experts at T-ROC.

If you found this post helpful, you can learn more about retail marketing services and retail management best practices at www.trocglobal.com. Be sure to check out our other retail-focused blogs at https://trocglobal.com/company/#blog.

TROC is the leading provider of premier staffing outsource, software, managed technology services, and consumer insights for the top global brands, retailers, manufacturers, service providers, and distributors. The company’s distinctive solutions address the entire lifecycle of brick and mortar brand and retail operations by combining retail expertise, best practices, and technology to help its customers achieve sales and operational excellence as well as a sustainable competitive advantage. As a Retail 4.0 thought leader, T-ROC enables companies with high-value products in the physical world to thrive through the digitalization of the physical shopping experience. To learn more about T-ROC, visit www.trocglobal.com.

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