March 28, 2014
In every pitch that came my way, I always posed the question, “Where’s your marketing calendar?”
Why did it matter to me so much? Because I would coordinate my buying timeline and in-store promotional activities to piggy-back off the brand’s marketing and media activities. If you don’t give me a marketing calendar, I don’t have an incentive or deadline to buy that product line. It would just languish on my desk indefinitely.
A good media and marketing calendar shows all the out-of-store marketing you are doing across various channels and media vehicles. The calendar presents the plans by month to reassure the retail buyer that you have a constant stream of marketing activity pulsing across various mediums. Having a constant cadence of marketing activity helps retailers avoid lengthy sales lulls. And convinced retail buyers you are a good vendor partner and will do your part to drive sales.
To further bolster your pitch, you should also provide examples of past marketing activity and the sales results it generated. That shows your buyer that not only can you provide the marketing to support sales of your product on shelf, but that IT WORKS! And it shows the degree to which you can drive sales growth. Obviously the higher you drive sales with marketing, the more anxious the buyer will be to say “Yes, I want your product!”
So no initial communication or presentation to a buyer is complete without this information, as it drives a sense of urgency and gives buyers a timeline for when they need to pull the trigger on bringing your product into stores.