Know-How Exchange : Other

Pat,

Titles for positions are not universal. I've never worked for a company who called anything "trade marketing" nor have I ever read anything about "trade marketing" versus "corporate marketing" in texts, magazines. These titles could be company specific or industry specific. The best way to find out about them is to take a look at the job descriptions - duties, responsibilities, and measurements - and and compare. Also, talk to others in those positions today in the company. We're going to give you insight from our experience and based on limited information about the positions and your company description, but I would doubt the accuracy of what we can give you on this.

That being said, I would say that "corporate marketing" has to do with public relations, investor relations, managing the overall company brand, centralized and shared resource functions like marketing communications, graphics arts, manage the content of the corporate website, etc. These areas are end-product non-specific and/or serve all product lines.

Trade marketing is probably closer to what many consumer companies call "brand management." This organization sets strategy and tracks sales for a specific set of products under that brand category. You measure your results in sales and profits by region, make distribution decisions, manage pricing strategies, develop marketing plans and campaigns, analyze competition by region, conduct customer surveys, develop direct mail coupon campaigns, etc. While corporate marketing looks at the firm overall - the 10,000 foot view on a quarterly basis, trade marketing manages the details daily.

I hope this helps.

Wayde

Hi Pat,

When I worked in FMCG companies, trade marketing related to retailers e.g. supermarkets if the end user of the product was a consumer. A Trade Marketing Manager would liaise between marketing and sales and develop trade strategies and tactics that support the marketing plan for execution at retail level.

Depending on the size of the company, trade marketing would also support sales in terms of category reviews and be involved with category management within the retail environment. Often the position would sit in the sales area.

As a suggestion if you know a recruiter then they would certainly have an example of a job description for a Trade Marketing Manager.

Regards,

Susan