How Do You Launch a New Product Through Dealers and Distributors?

Why do product launches stall in the channel?

Because the launch happens at the brand and the sale happens at the dealer, and the two are rarely in step. The common breaks:

• Dealers hear about the product late, sometimes from a customer.
• Point-of-sale materials and samples arrive after launch day.
• National advertising sends customers to dealers who don't stock the product or can't explain it.
• Distributors don't pass the launch on to the dealers they serve.
• Dealers don't know which funds cover launch marketing, or how to claim them.
• Nobody can see which dealers have done anything, so follow-up is guesswork.

What should a dealer launch kit include?

• A short briefing: what the product is, who it's for, why it matters, and how it fits the range.
• Sales training and a talk track, including answers to the objections customers will raise.
• Product data: images, specs, descriptions and the approved claims.
• A co-branded campaign for every channel dealers use: email, social, search, a landing page, direct mail.
• Point-of-sale materials to order: signage, displays, brochures, shelf talkers.
• Samples, demo units or swatches, where the product needs to be seen or touched.
• The launch offer and its terms, if there is one.
• The fund program that pays for launch marketing, and what's pre-approved.
• The dates: when dealers can order, when campaigns go live, and when the offer ends.

Build it once, as a package, and reuse the shape for every launch. Dealers learn where to look, and your team stops reinventing the kit.

How do you launch when distributors sit between you and dealers?

Give distributors a kit of their own, for selling the product in to dealers: catalog pages and sell sheets, dealer-facing emails, counter displays for their branches, and training for their reps. Co-brand it so the distributor can put its name on it.

Then decide how the consumer campaign reaches dealers: from you directly, through the distributor, or both. Either way, you need to know which dealers have the product, so campaigns go to dealers who can sell it, and you need a view of activation below the distributor. Without that, the distributor is a wall your launch can't see past. How the tiers share roles, funds and data beyond a launch is in how marketing works in two-tier distribution.

Which dealers should get the launch?

Only the ones who can sell it: dealers authorized for the product line, in the right regions, at the right tier or certification. Giving every dealer a campaign for a product half of them don't stock wastes their time and confuses customers. Many brands give their top tier early access to the kit, and open it to the rest as stock arrives.

What does a launch timeline through dealers look like?

1. Plan: build the kit, set the fund rules and the launch offer, and decide which dealers get it.
2. Brief distributors, so they can sell the product in and stock it.
3. Brief dealers and open ordering for point-of-sale materials and samples, early enough for print to be produced and shipped before launch day.
4. Schedule dealer campaigns to go live with the launch.
5. Launch: national advertising and dealer campaigns go live together, with a dealer locator that points to dealers who have the product.
6. Follow up in the first weeks: who has activated, who hasn't, and what the active dealers are seeing.
7. Run a second wave: a follow-on campaign, results shared with dealers, and help for the dealers who haven't started.

Print is almost always the long pole. Work back from launch day to the date dealers must order displays and signage, and brief them before that.

How do you coordinate national advertising with dealer marketing?

Make them one campaign. National advertising builds demand; dealer marketing captures it locally. Use the same creative, offer and dates, so a customer who sees your national ad recognizes the dealer's version. Point national ads to a dealer locator, or route the leads they generate to the nearest dealer who has the product. And go live together: national demand that arrives before dealers are ready is demand you pay for and lose.

How should launch marketing be funded?

Commonly with launch-specific MDF, a co-op bonus on launch activities, or a starter set of point-of-sale materials for qualifying dealers. Whatever the mix, pre-approve the launch campaigns for funds so dealers know they qualify, show each dealer what's available to them, and keep the claim simple. More in MDF vs. co-op advertising and how co-op claims and reimbursement work.

How do you get dealers to activate the launch?

• Make it ready to go: the campaign with their details filled in, and the launch materials orderable in one place.
• Put a date on it, so "later" doesn't become "never".
• Give reps a list of dealers who haven't activated, and a reason to call.
• For dealers who won't do it themselves, run the campaign on their behalf, with their approval.
• Share early results from active dealers with the rest.

The reasons dealers sit out, and what fixes each, are in why don't partners use the marketing you give them?

How do you measure a launch through the channel?

• Activation: how many dealers launched the campaign or ordered launch materials, and how quickly.
• Coverage: activated dealers by region and tier, against where you expected demand.
• Sell-in and sell-through by distributor and dealer.
• Leads and sales from launch campaigns, by dealer.
• Fund use on launch activities.
• The difference between dealers who activated and those who didn't.

That last comparison is the case for the next launch kit. More in how to measure the ROI of partner marketing.

Where does OnBrandify fit?

OnBrandify is the Marketing Hub for brands that sell through partner networks, including manufacturers launching through distributors and dealers. You publish the launch once, as a campaign and a set of materials, to the dealers who carry the product. Dealers launch the co-branded campaign with their details filled in, order displays, signage and samples in the same place, and use their funds; you see who has activated and who hasn't. See manufacturer and dealer marketing, or request a demo.