For brands
Trade Marketing Analytics: How Brands Measure Promoters and Customers at Multi-Brand Counters
Trade marketing spends on promoters, displays and schemes at counters the brand does not own, and measures the spend with sell-out numbers and shift reports. Between the two is the conversation at the counter, where the customer names the rival, quotes the price and asks for the variant the range lacks. Trade marketing analytics that hears that conversation changes what the function can decide.
What is measured today
- Headcount and attendance.
- Sell-out by counter, shared late by the retailer or not at all.
- Promoter self-reports: a sentence per shift.
- Mystery audits: a scripted visit a quarter.
What the counter conversation adds
- Pitch quality on the brand's playbook, per promoter and counter.
- Rival mention rate and the argument behind it.
- Unmet demand: variants and features asked for and not carried.
- Launch mention rate and offer accuracy from day one.
- Objections in the customer's words, by city and week.
How to run it
Brands capture their own promoter counters with consent, using the promoter's phone, so no retailer data dependency exists. Customers stay anonymous; what travels is what was said about the product. Retailer agreements should be checked and most welcome the promoter pitch being measured. This is the Brand at the Counter use case.
The five counter metrics, defined
Coverage sits above all five: the share of the counter's conversations the promoter captured. A promoter who records three conversations a day is reporting on three conversations; the metrics are read only once coverage is stable, which is the first fortnight's job.
| Metric | Definition | Read by | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pitch quality | Share of consented counter conversations in which each step of the brand's pitch happened: the range opened, the need asked, the hero feature demonstrated, the offer quoted, the number taken | Trade marketing, training | Which promoters are coached, on which step |
| Rival mention rate | Conversations in which a competitor brand was named by the customer or the promoter, by city and week, with the argument that followed | Brand and product marketing | The competitor-defence line the brand issues this week rather than next quarter |
| Unmet demand | Variants, sizes, colours and features asked for and not carried at that counter | Category and range planning | What the next range includes; which counters get which variants |
| Launch mention rate | Share of conversations from launch day in which the new product was pitched, and whether the offer was quoted as published | Launch team | Whether the launch landed at the counter the same way in every city |
| Offer accuracy | The published scheme quoted correctly, with the right end date and conditions | Compliance, trade marketing | Mis-quoting caught in week one, not at the claim audit |
Where the shift report and the sell-out number go wrong
The shift report is written by the promoter at the end of the shift, in one sentence, with a reason to look good; it records 'customer will come back' far more often than 'I could not answer the question about the warranty'. The sell-out number arrives from the retailer late, aggregated, and silent on why the other brand sold. Neither can say what the customer was told, which competitor the customer quoted, or what the customer asked for that the range lacks. Those three are the trade marketing questions, and they live in the conversation and nowhere else.
The mystery audit samples one scripted visit per counter per quarter and promoters recognise the auditor. It remains the right tool for a scripted compliance check; it is not a measure of how the counter sells.
Consent and the retailer
The promoter is the brand's employee or the agency's, so the brand decides the capture: the promoter's phone, one tap, a spoken line to the customer, a visible recording state, audio deleted after transcription. The customer is not identified; what travels is what was said about the product. Under India's DPDP Act that is a stated purpose, notice and consent per conversation, with transcripts under access control; the position is set out at /learn/is-recording-customers-legal-in-india-retail/. Most retailers welcome the promoter pitch being measured because it is the brand's cost and the retailer's conversion; the agreement should still say so in writing, with the retailer's own staff excluded from capture.
On the floor
A small-appliance brand captures a month of promoter conversations at multi-brand counters in two cities. In one city the promoters open the range in most conversations; in the other the retailer's push brand comes up first in half of them and the promoters do not defend. The sell-out gap between the cities had been read as a demand difference. The fix is a two-line competitor defence in the local language and a conversation with the retailer; the mention rate of the push brand halves in the second month.
Frequently asked questions
Which categories fit?
Anything sold through promoters at multi-brand counters: electronics, mobiles, durables, beauty, small appliances, paints, tyres.
Can we benchmark promoters across retailers?
Yes, on the same metrics, which is usually the first practical use.
Does the retailer have to agree?
The brand captures its own promoters, so the dependency is on the brand's consent design, not the retailer's data. The agreement should still state that the promoter's conversations are captured for coaching and that the retailer's own staff are excluded.
What does trade marketing analytics from the counter conversation cost?
Vendors price per promoter or per counter per month; the promoter's phone is the device, so there is no hardware. Ask for the all-in price at your counter count and the year-two price in writing.
Related reading
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Where Borentis applies this
- Brand Voice-of-Customer: The focus group hiding in plain sight.
- Launch & Offer Execution: Know your launch landed, on day one.
- Competitor Defence: Hear the rival the moment your customer names them.
Borentis is the Agentic Operating System for Customer Interactions, built for Indian retail floors: consented one-tap capture on the advisor's phone, every conversation scored against your playbook with the evidence behind every number, leads created when a number is heard, and coaching from your own best conversations.