What Are Push & Pull Strategies in Marketing?

Push strategy & Pull strategy are two strategies used in marketing consumer goods, where the product is either pushed to, or pulled by, the consumer. They are mainly used to expand the distribution of the product and get retail shelf space.

Using Promotional Strategies To Get Distribution

When a company comes up with a new product, it needs to get it into the hands of the targeted end consumer, by using different distribution channels.

The company can distribute it directly-to-consumers (DTC), for example by selling through its own brand.com website. But one of the most powerful distribution channels for consumer packaged goods is retail. The retail channel gets the product in front of millions of consumers, that the manufacturer might not be able to reach on their own by going DTC, at a reasonable cost.

But getting onto retail shelves is not easy, especially at major retail chains. After all, it’s a limited space that many manufacturers are competing on.

To get its products on retail shelves, a company has two promotional strategies to apply: Push Strategy & Pull Strategy

Push Strategy in Marketing

In push strategy, the manufacturer pushes the product to the wholesalers & retailers to get them to carry the product and, in turn, push it to their customers through their sales channels.

Activities done by manufacturers in push strategy include:

• Showcasing at trade shows
• Direct selling by reaching out to retail buyers
• Trade promotions and discounts to retailers
• Reaching out to distributors

The goal is to get the product onto the shelves at retail stores, by convincing retailers and making it attractive for them to carry the product.

Pull Strategy in Marketing

In pull strategy, the manufacturer aims to pull the product through the distribution channels to the end consumer, by creating demand for its products through direct promotions to the consumers. Here, the brand advertises directly to consumers, rather than retailers, and gets the end consumer to actively go to the retailers and ask them about the product and if it’s available.

This gets the retailer to actively go and seek the manufacturer to carry its products and get them on its shelves, because now the retailer knows that there is a demand for the product, and they could be missing out if they don’t carry it.

Activities done by manufacturers in pull strategy include:

• Advertising on TV, billboards, Super Bowl ..etc
• Social media marketing
• Viral marketing and buzz creation
• Sponsoring big events that are relevant to the target market
• Influencer marketing

The goal is to create brand awareness and demand for the product in the market, and also to show retailers that it’s in their best interest to carry the product.

The pull strategy is more expensive, as it requires spending a lot on big advertising campaigns, vs. just going to a retailer and talking them into carrying your products. But it’s sometimes the only way to get shelf space, especially for new brands that retailers are not too eager to give shelf space to, at the expense of more established ones.

Pull marketing also gives the brand a high bargaining power as a supplier, which could have a positive effect on their margins, as they don’t have to give promotions and discounts to retailers to carry their brand, like in push strategy.

Major CPG brands use a mixture of push and pull strategies in promoting their products. You will find big brands like Pepsi and Coca Cola running large ad campaigns on TV, to directly advertise to the end consumers and create demand in the market. At the same time, the same brands have their trade marketing teams, who deal with retailers and distributors, to push their product lines down to retail shelves.

Push & Pull Strategy Example

In this video, we show an example of a new health supplement brand that tried to use the push strategy to get its products on the shelves of major retailers, mainly Target and Walmart.

However; its attempts to get those major retailers excited about carrying their product line failed multiple times, so the brand decided to pursue the pull strategy, by creating brand awareness in the market, and pulling out a major advertising campaign on Amazon.

After advertising directly to the end consumer through a major campaign that cost the brand around $1.5 million, it finally was able to get the attention of major retailers to stock its products, because now they know that customers will come and ask about those products.

This effort paid back multiple times, according to the founder, as it expanded the distribution of the brand immensely, and thereby multiplied its revenue, and took the brand to a new level.

More Resources

• Brand Equity
• Brand Health
• Distribution Channels
• POP Display
• Category Management Courses