What is Distributed Marketing?
Distributed Marketing is a term that some people may not fully understand, so we broke it down for you. Understanding whether a company uses Distributed Marketing strategies or not can save marketers time, money and effort when searching for solutions to brand marketing challenges.
Know Thyself
Researching marketing terms sometimes leads to outdated, vague and ambiguous definitions. This can be an issue if you’re searching for solutions and get lost in industry jargon. So, it’s important to understand whether your company can be described as a “distributed organization” or one that employs a Distributed Marketing strategy.
If brand marketers aren’t able to accurately identify their company’s strategy as one that includes Distributed Marketing, they may not be able to find leading solutions that meet their company’s unique needs. We will clear up the definition so brand marketers can easily determine whether they need a Distributed Marketing solution or not.
What is a Distributed Organization?
Many companies, brands and manufacturers have business relationships with a vast number of partners, resellers, agents, retailers, distributors, dealers, franchisees or branches that sell brand products in local markets. As a group, these local businesses are commonly referred to as distributed marketing networks or “channel partners” because they are considered “channels” by which the brand sells its products or services. These channel partners can be distributed in different geographic locations. And that distributed network structure may be organized in various ways, including by region, class, tier or partner level. Companies or brands that have such a structure are distributed organizations. However, if a company or brand has only one location or a small number of locations that do not sell brand products through a network of local channel partners, then such a company does not fit the definition of a distributed organization.
What is Distributed Marketing?
Distributed Marketing refers to the process of national-to-local marketing for brands that sell their products or services through networks of local partners. Distributed Marketing encompasses all aspects of aligning marketing strategies, creating marketing campaigns and assets, funding Co-Op Advertising strategies, automating marketing execution and fulfillment, and managing local marketing analytics. Distributed Marketing — also referred to as channel marketing — involves both digital marketing technology and traditional marketing (radio, TV, newspaper, outdoor advertising and direct mail) with customized local marketing campaigns and assets that deliver co-branded messaging to local markets.
Leading Distributed Marketing platforms, also called Through Channel Marketing Automation (TCMA) platforms, offer comprehensive solutions for brands and their distributed networks of local partners. This includes innovative options to promote local participation in Co-Op Advertising programs and automated marketing campaign enrollment designed to ensure both national-to-local alignment and brand-compliant messaging.
Now What?
If you have identified your organization as one that uses a Distributed Marketing strategy, but you’re not using Distributed Marketing software solutions or a TCMA platform, you may be wasting time and money on outdated systems and antiquated processes. Your local partners may also be wasting time and spending too much money on creating local marketing materials and executing local campaigns that are neither brand approved nor brand compliant. Leading Distributed Marketing platforms can easily scale marketing for organizations that need customized, brand-compliant local advertising for their channel partner networks. Gaining a deeper understanding of your brand’s Distributed Marketing challenges, processes and strategies can help you identify solutions to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your local marketing initiatives.
Click here to learn more about SproutLoud’s Distributed Marketing Platform.
