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In the drinks or automotive industries, it's standard practice for brands to incentivise bar staff and dealership personnel with cash or vouchers. It's a traditional standby of marketing strategies in these sectors, and it continues to be vital in achieving sales uplift and buy-in. But the move to motivate the middleman - the person selling the brand to the consumer - is now becoming more widespread in other sectors.

According to The Grass Roots Group (GRG), it's a growing trend, supported by evidence from its own books: the motivation house reports a 27 per cent year-on-year increase in the number of companies targeting what it calls third- party sales channels - the retail sales assistant to you and I.

Shop-floor incentives

Richard Lee, GRG's awards services business development manager, says the main reason for growth comes from manufacturers' obvious awareness of the value of targeting the end user at the final decision-making point - on the shop floor. He argues that the personal touch offered by sales assistants who are being incentivised by brands has just as much value in converting prospects to sales, as other techniques such as pack promotions, direct mail and advertising.

Additionally, changes in the trade motivation landscape are being forced by companies shifting their strategies away from tactical, one-off hits, and aiming for more sustained, long-term relationships with trade staff to maintain uplift for a longer period of time. With longer-term strategies in mind, marketers and their promotional marketing agencies are also starting to integrate trade marketing dimensions to their consumer-facing promotional campaigns.

But to get to that integrated level, marketers are having to revisit the basics and address the objectives of trade marketing. These are pretty simple - to increase sales and share by using "ambassadors" who communicate the brand to consumers. The idea of the ambassador is especially valuable in environments where competition, limited space and regulation limit marketing opportunities. In this sort of environment, the consumer often relies on the advice of the seller, whether that's a bartender or an assistant at an electrical goods retailer. As Elizabeth Ryan, promotions director at agency SP Partnerships, notes, retail trade incentives can "ensure that there's something in it for the staff to help the campaign run smoothly".

Sarah Francis, director of Grasshopper, an agency that's evangelical on the value of trade marketing, adds: "All marketplaces now are cluttered, so you need to create brand standout. If you're in the forefront of the minds of the people selling the products, that benefit will be passed on to the consumer."

Sectors sign up

As Sam Ellis, head of sales promotion at Poulter Partners, points out: "For brands with a fairly big trade audience, targeting staff is normally implicit within most marketing briefs." Clearly, the drinks and automotive categories fit this definition well, but what of the other sectors that have started to follow suit?

It's not surprising that the electronic, IT and mobile phone industries have adopted this route. What's driving these sectors, explains Grasshopper's managing director, Hugh Taylor, is the constantly developing technology, new features and new models that are coming to market. Such rapid change requires detailed knowledge, and, more often than not, consumers rely on advice. "It gives the store staff incredible influence, and in this environment trade incentives can be more important than consumer activity," says Taylor. "If staff don't like the product, or they perceive that it has a drawback, they're not going to sell it."

The same thinking can be applied to other sectors. Denise Porter, sales director at The High Street Gift Voucher, has found that it is lesser known brands that are doing more on the trade front to tackle the fact that "well-known brands are going out of the door with very little effort".

She says that she has seen this across all retail sectors, from sparkplugs to pharmaceuticals.

Poulters' Ellis also notes the increasing number of FMCG brands - which traditionally rely on targeting the consumer direct - adopting trade marketing strategies as they face stringent regulation. "Increasingly, brand managers are realising there's a job to do before they even get round to talking to the consumer." Marketers need to get the salespeople on board to create a single and effective brand message before going out to the consumer.

Getting that message across to trade can be simpler than communicating with consumers. Caroline Meechan, director of sals and marketing at Marriott Incentive Vouchers, claims: "There's no need to dress it up, or describe how the product is better for you. It's a case of sell more of this, and we'll give you that. For the seller, it boils down to 'what's in it for me'." Which could be why cash is still a popular incentive. "The trade is a broad category, covering 18- to 35-year-olds, but generally they are less well paid and their key motivation is money," reasons Grasshopper's Francis.

But as with straightforward staff motivation, firms are increasingly looking for rewards that will stand apart from the salary cheque. Thomas Cook, for example, has seen an increase in demand for its travel vouchers for use as rewards to workers on the shop floors of the major retailers.

The use of gift cards is on the up too, adds Graham Povey, managing director of Capital Incentives & Motivation, which runs the Incentive Award Card (see Giftcards feature, pps 45-46)

Povey also points out: "Creativity in incentive programmes plays a big part. These campaigns run for a long time, year after year, so they need to grab people's imagination. Just giving a reward of £10 every time they sell a product will get boring, whereas if it was a scratchcard they received, with the chance of winning £5 or £500, it's going to keep their interest going."

Sophisticated options

Other examples of this increasing sophistication include a campaign run by Grasshopper for Moat House Hotels, targeting booking agents with the offer of a chance to be an extra in the film Born to Bingo, released later this year. It was essentially a goodwill exercise, using something different and attention-grabbing. Entrants were simply required to fill in a leaflet describing their best Moat House experience.

Grasshopper has also included staff incentives as part of its promotion for Sol beer (P&I, April 04). Bar staff can win cash for a staff party, hi-fi equipment or Pornstar clothing.

And mobile phone manufacturer Siemens underlines the point with its Champion's League consumer promotion with O2 last year. The push saw 26 O2 staff taken to Madrid for a Champion's League game. Siemens' channel marketing manager John Bernard says: "It's an example of how successfully trade marketing can work, since we sold out of the product by early November 2003, on our Christmas forecasts. In consumer campaigns, products might not sell as quickly as you would expect, but with a trade campaign you're making sure there are extra levers to pull in getting the product to the customer."

Other promotional campaigns reward staff for proper implementation of the brand and promotional material, where retailers are marked for their efforts and offered prizes for the best displays (see Ann Summers case study, p40).

Advantage of targeting trade

Grass Roots' Lee is not surprised that trade incentives are on the increase: he sees targeting trade as a far more cost-effective approach to boosting sales. "It's not exactly a costly thing to set up, compared with the expense of direct marketing. It can also be an ongoing activity to lift sales, while consumer activity tends to be a big push to meet quotas at certain points of the year."

Siemens' Bernard also comments on the advantage of being able to measure results quickly and easily. And Grasshopper's Francis recognises the "higher return of trade activity. It results in a direct lift in sales, compared with consumer activity that may provide an increased awareness of the brand, but does not necessarily see the same level of direct results."

Of course, trade incentives cannot replace activity targeting consumers directly. But its worth noting that if either avenue is neglected, a massive potential is being overlooked. Agencies have tuned into the importance of motivating salespeople as part of their campaigns, and those brand managers who hadn't thought of it before are becoming more receptive to the idea.

Whether the approach is a simple one or more creative, what's unquestionable is that saturated marketplaces have put the demand for trade incentives on the map.

CASE STUDY - ANN SUMMERS

This February, SP Partnerships launched a targeted retail partnership promotion for lastminute.com in 110 Ann Summers stores nationwide. The lingerie chain's customers were offered free entry into a prize draw to win one of three luxury holidays in Barbados, Cairo or Dubai. In return, Ann Summers delivered intensive presence for lastminute.com in-store and on its website.

For the first time an SP Partnerships' campaign also included a staff incentive. Lastminute.com provided a trip to Tenerife, including four nights five-star bed and breakfast accommodation and return flights, for retail staff to win. The winner was judged on a number of factors - sales figures, the number of leaflets returned and footfall in-store.

An Ann Summers spokesman says the chain had insisted that the staff deal was part of the overall campaign. "Staff incentives are extremely successful.

The staff know they are going to get benefits and it generates good feeling, so the promotion is more likely to work." The retailer includes staff incentives whenever it runs promotions.

SP Partnerships' promotions director Elizabeth Ryan agrees: "There are many stores, so it's difficult to manage all the marketing material. Incentives ensure there's something in it for staff, and help the campaign run smoothly. It's a plus for all parties, without much extra cost for the campaign." The agency is now raising the tactic with its other clients.

INCENTIVES TOP TIPS

- Never underestimate the importance of getting trade on-side

- Don't forget the trade is often your brand's face for the customer

- Make sure the rewards are relevant and achievable

- As with consumer campaigns, understand what will motivate your target audience

- Make sure you deliver what you promise

- Make sure you understand the structure of the trade so you are incentivising the person on the frontline rather than their manager

- Make sure that any sales targets you set are fair to all staff, including those in smaller outlets

- Take advantage of the opportunity to educate the trade and communicate key brand messages so the benefits of the scheme last long after the programme has finished

- Make sure you communicate any winners across the trade so others know that the incentive was delivered

- Make sure that when the incentive is awarded, it is delivered in a package that thanks, compliments and incentivises the staff - there's nothing worse than falling at the last hurdle

Sarah Francis, director, Grasshopper.