The most important asset of a business is its brand reputation. The performance of the business is directly proportional to the reputation of the brand. Every manufacturer faces challenges to safeguard the reputation they have built over years. With the advancement of technology people are more inclined to the online marketing hence MAP monitoring has become inevitable and important for every manufacture to keep an eye on the activities of each retailers.
Time saving technology
MAP (Minimum Advertise Price) is an well known term to all the manufacturers and retailers. Basically MAP is a standard price set by the manufacturer below which if any retailer sells the product he will be considered in violation of the MAP policy. To sustain in today’s competitive market retailers often sell the product below MAP and try to enhance sale and make profit. But from manufacturer’s point of view it is not ethical for the retailer to continue such practices as it has a harsh impact on the brand reputation.
Routine monitoring of the MAP policy by the manufacturer helps to identify the violators and take action accordingly. Monitoring the whole process manually is not a walk in the park. For big brand it is quite impossible to perform the research manually as they deal with large number of products compared to small brand. So using technology would be beneficial for saving time as the software checks the retailer’s website automatically and identify the violators within mere seconds and then send violation notification and email with the screenshot.
All the renowned companies provide MAP monitoring and MAP enforcement tools together as one package so that customers can sort out their MAP services effectively and smoothly.
Build good relationship
Enforcing Map policy will not only help you to build brand reputation it also helps to build relationship with the retailers. As you are setting common price for all the retailers it enhances the opportunity for healthy and fair competition among the retailers.
In this technological era most of the products are found online so before purchasing people generally compare the price of the same product in different websites and then take decision. Now while searching if a purchaser observes considerable price difference in different websites then the customer will definitely doubt the quality, reliability and authenticity of the product and consequently the brand name will be damaged.
Discount, special offer, etc. are parts of promotion and marketing strategy practice by all the retailers for enhancing sale growth and stock clearance but it has to be comply by MAP policy otherwise it devalues the product and put the brand name in danger.
MAP policies are beneficial for both manufacturers and retailers and obeying the policies helps to build long term relationship between the two. MAP policies provides common platform for the retailers for setting price and restrict them for involving in risky price war.
Evaluate the software
There are various online dashboards for MAP monitoring and enforcement of policy so once you decide to implement MAP monitoring software then make few considerations before choosing the right software for getting maximum worth for your money.
- Centralized software: All the important features such as retailer’s information, violation details, violation notification to the retailer, email templates, etc. has to be in single platform so that managing MAP monitoring and MAP enforcement work can be done conveniently at the same time.
- User friendly software: If you are not tech savvy it is good to choose simple to understand and easy to operate software that does not require vigorous training. The quality of the data has to be test beforehand. Also check whether there is an option for customization of the software as per the requirements.
- Credibility of the team: Check the experience and professionalism of the team behind the software and find out are they qualified enough for handling all the required processes. Confirm how easily you can contact the support team for your queries and concerns and how quickly they respond.
- Free trial of the software and email templates: Look for company who offers free trial of the software for certain period so that you can understand whether it is suitable for your business. Once you use free trail you can evaluate how much it is actionable. Read the guide and use free email templates and observe the impact of it on the seller.
- Read testimonials: Reading testimonial of the customers and reviews of the product will give you an idea about the performance of the software and you can take decision accordingly.
- Cost effective: Do online research and compare the prices of different software so that you can choose the software that suits your budget. Check carefully all the features and services provided by the company.
Use effective software and get rid of manual process
Proficiently managing and monitoring whole process of MAP enforcement policy is not a piece of cake. If you lack the resources and proper knowledge of MAP monitoring process choose performance -based software that will minimize the effort and time and provides outstanding result.
The objective of effective software is to provide you the name of all retailers, display the price of the product at which they are selling product, show the violator’s names who are not obeying your MAP policy, send automatic notification and email to the violators. With the software it is also possible to identify gray market seller, counterfeit products and other threats for the business.
Along with tracking the violators it is also possible to track the prices of the similar product offered by the competitor of the manufacturer. It also protects the margin of the sellers and encourages them to sell more product of same brand.
Every business has its own set of basic functions that has to be performed flawlessly daily. Along with these if one has to perform MAP monitoring manually it will definitely hamper the productivity of the business. Installing automatic software saves lot of time so that the client can concentrate on other important aspects of the business.
