Sally Haydock from Wynne Business explains how understanding and deploying key marketing principles can help scaleup businesses seek to gain a route into retail.

Retail space on the shelf is hard to come by, so when you eventually succeed in achieving a much sought-after retail listing, make sure you have a clear marketing plan in place that will drive awareness and ultimately lead to sales of your product.

We work with business owners to launch and grow food and drink products in retail, so we know that launching a product is only the beginning. It is really important to recognise that it’s the marketing plan behind the launch that lets consumers know your product is out there and to encourage them to try it!

It’s one of the topics that I will be covering during Two Zero’s new Route into Retail programme, which is designed to help Lancashire’s thriving food and drink businesses to launch onto supermarket shelves. The Marketing Your Product session provides delegates with practical tips and advice on all aspects of creating a marketing plan.

Marketing your product

We have a pragmatic approach to marketing. If consumers understand a brand or product, and it is relevant to their lives, the chances are they will remember it. If you’re lucky, they may even share it with friends. So, there are two things we always focus on first:

1. Understanding a brand: It might sound simple but keeping the brand message concise is often more difficult that it looks. Creating a clear brand proposition is vital to keeping your marketing message consistent and on track.

2. Keeping it relevant: Whilst it can be tempting to keep your target audience wide open in the hope you will reach more consumers, in reality, it can have the opposite effect. The goal is to know exactly who your potential consumers are, and what they care about. This helps you to work out why your product or service appeals to them and allows you to communicate your marketing plan to the right people, in the right way.

With a clear view of what the brand stands for, and who the target consumer is, the next step is to work out the marketing objective and create a carefully budgeted plan that will help you to achieve your business goals.

A concise marketing plan covers how you plan to nail your brand proposition, target consumers through to developing the marketing tactics behind your strategy. You will learn more in our next blog post that covers pitching to retailers.