Why Distribution Supersedes Branding
You’ve invested a lot in building a brand that is well recognized and communicates the spirit of your business. You’ve taken the time to design a great website, great print marketing, compelling video stories, superior advertising. If you don’t have distribution strategies, your product may fall flat. Great marketing depends on a strategic approach.
I’d like to cover two areas of distribution – product distribution and marketing channels.
- Product distribution: No matter how good your iPhone is, your sales will always go up if you are on the shelves of Wal Mart, the largest retailer in the world. Most of the items in the dollar store have no marketing, but they sure do sell a ton. There are indeed down sides to having a piss poor brand, but the fact is, when your product is easy to buy, more people buy it.
- Marketing Channels: Even if you create one of the most bland social networks in the world, if you create marketing channels like making it exclusive to college campuses, you will grow faster than if you announce it to the whole world. Similarly, AddressTwo the Small Business CRM knew that they were better off investing in the right marketing channels to build their customer base. While it’s a great product, it is not the best there is. It’s success is from being marketed to the right people, through third party channels. By creating reseller channels with marketing firms, they had their product being sold for them as a value add.
The case I am making here is to say that a successful product starts with a marketing strategy that covers these areas: the channels it will be marketed through, and the method of delivery. While very critical elements, it is a shortfall to only consider the branding, and advertising message.
