How Consumer PR Is An Essential Part of the Trade PR Mix

Big retailers are always on the lookout for new products. Here, our MD, Daisy lets you in on how we’ve made consumer marketing an essential part of the trade PR mix…

Want to target buyers at big retailers and show them why your product will stand out on their shelves?

We’ve worked with a bunch of producers and relatively young brands over the last decade to support them in their mission to secure listings in major retailers.  Brands including Didsbury Gin, Zymurgorium and Diablese Rum to name a few.

It’s every food and drink producer’s dream to see their product on the shelves of national supermarkets or luxury retailers such as Selfridges or Harvey Nichols.  PR is a vital part of the strategy to make this dream a reality.

The conversation always starts with clients asking us to build a trade marketing campaign that tells their stories in the trade media - depending on the product this might be Imbibe, Retail Week or The Grocer. To be honest, it’s pretty much always The Grocer.

For a brand with a great story - or raft of stories - and the willingness to share their successes, failures and business statistics, this isn’t a tough job.  We can craft these stories to make them media worthy and secure the coverage they’re looking for.

But I always ask clients the same question - why just trade? 

Retail buyers want to see that there is a market for a product and that means customers.  A consumer PR campaign can be an effective way to highlight that there is an audience for a product or brand.  

As part of a consumer campaign, we aim to generate coverage in magazines and newspapers that are appropriate to the individual product. Titles like Good Housekeeping, Stylist, HTSI and the Sunday Times Style can drive huge amounts of traffic and even sell out products in days. They bring products  alive on a page and give a point of reference outside of the brand’s own website and social media channels too.

Consumers trust certain publications and so to see a brand or product within these pages can have a direct impact in sales generation. Recently, Beauty Pie’s Youthbomb serum sold out after India Knight waxed lyrical about it in Sunday Times Style.

By targeting these product reviews, we can raise your profile with existing and potential customers and demonstrate that an audience exists by tracking the journey of consumers from coverage to social, website and ultimately purchase, or another call to action if appropriate.

This is invaluable data to share when pitching to a retailer to demonstrate that there is a market for a product.  Most buyers also want to see that a business has an effective marketing strategy so it ticks that box too.

Product placement, newsjacking, consumer PR and trade PR – why you should do it all…

Alongside product placement, partnerships (remember when Didsbury Gin recreated Simon Wood’s Masterchef winning dessert in gin form?) and news jacking are a useful and effective part of any campaign to support SEO, drive website traffic, communicate brand values and personality and develop a deeper engagement with consumers.  More evidence of a brand that’s investing in growth and taking marketing seriously.  

This example of newsjacking that we activated in about 15 minutes for Beartown Brewery when Big Jet TV hit the headlines over Storm Eunice, is such a brilliant example of quick, cheap and effective reactive digital PR.

Finally, a retail buyer will always want to know who your customer is and if there is a market for them, marketing can support here too. We often work with our brand partner Distinctly Aware to support clients here. Leanne and her team have recently delivered a programme of in-store customer sampling for CBD plus, functional drink MEDAHUMAN. This helped the brand to connect with consumers as they shopped, listening to their feedback first hand. Such useful data when jostling for space with other products in a growing market.

So in summary, there’s no denying that trade marketing and PR is vital in supporting a growing brand in achieving its goals and PR can be a huge part of a sales strategy when wanting to prove the potential for a new or existing product. 

But please don’t forget that a truly effective campaign recognises that consumer PR and customer intelligence is of equal importance and it makes sense for this activity to be integrated to close the loop.