This is a continuation of our initial post, which can be found here.
Creating an incentive or rebate program involves several additional considerations, including understanding the key internal and external stakeholders, how this will fit into your overall retail growth strategy, and starting to budget accordingly.
Who are the typical stakeholders involved?
Any retail program will have many key stakeholders, including, but not limited to, the brand team, marketing team, sales team, finance team, and external stakeholders such as retail buyers and category managers.
Brand and marketing teams are generally focused on bringing awareness to the product(s) and influencing conversions and consumer behavior by improving brand-consumer relationships and helping executive full-funnel marketing activations to strengthen their reasons for buying.
Sales teams are focused on managing and growing retailer relationships and understanding available methods to drive product sales in-store. They typically align closely with the finance team, which is focused on budgeting across these departments and ensuring that money is allocated appropriately.
Externally, brands also work with retail buyers and category managers to find new brands to stock in their stores. They are most interested in brands with a strong track record and can prove an ongoing demand for their product(s). A rebate tool like Aisle, a platform designed to validate demand and support sales growth, can help validate these numbers and give you a strong case—through reporting and analytics—to grow your retail presence.
How do rebates fit along with other trial and retention levers?
There are many ways to improve retail sales, including manufacturer coupons as well as retailer-specific sales and promotions. However, these are historically seasonal and run over short periods – you might even be competing to get these offers with brands you share shelf space with. Rebate platforms like Aisle are designed to be “evergreen,” generally align nicely with your promotional schedules, and can help drive product trials and retention during and beyond these additional options.
Rebate platforms like Aisle are entirely retailer agnostic, meaning they are not specific to any particular retailer. This ensures that the customer experience and brand experience are consistent regardless of where their products are sold. Because of this, it’s easy to turn on a rebate and have it run year round, or create programs targeted at growing your sales with specific retailers or territories.
As with Aisle and some other incentive tools available, rebates are paid out after purchasing eligible item(s) and include any in-store discounts, which ultimately improve both the retailer and the consumer experience.
How do you build a budget for a program like this?
Be mindful of the teams that may or may not be impacted. Given the number of stakeholders involved, budgets for rebates may be stretched between teams or stakeholders, and a rebate program may change how your team manages the overall budget – if your brand is trying this for the first time.
Marketing teams often identify and onboard a rebate program into their technology stack only to realize that it influences their marketing and the trade spend budget, which is shared with the other teams (see: sales).
This means that different teams might draw from the same budget and could use up the budget quicker than anticipated, particularly if the rebate redemptions exceed expectations.
How do you solve this?
- Consider that rebate and incentive platforms impact marketing and sales/trade spend budgets.
- Maintain continuous communication between internal stakeholders to ensure the marketing and sales teams are aligned, understand the technology, and are aware of any planned promotions. Sales teams, in particular, can significantly benefit from Aisle, as it provides comprehensive reporting and retailer data for their ongoing buyer conversations.
- Consider creating or refreshing budgets every quarter rather than annually, as they are subject to change based on numerous factors throughout the year. This approach allows for greater flexibility and control over the budgeting process.
Budgeting for a platform like Aisle can be straightforward, depending on the marketing channels involved. Our team is ready to provide forecasting and benchmark data to help you understand the upfront costs involved in converting these retail shoppers, giving you the confidence you need to start your rebate and incentive programs.
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