Written for us by
Cristóbal Pérez
Senior business leader with more than 30 years across cycling, mobility and retail.
In the first article, we looked at the importance of fresh, reliable information across the relationship between distributor and retailer, and of allowing that information to move in both directions. Done properly, that flow can improve stock, sales, planning, availability and the use of capital.
But not everything moving through that chain is measurable.
This time, we need to add another actor: the brand.
Every product is designed with a certain user in mind. Decisions are made about what it should do, how it should look, what it should cost, where it should sit in the market and why someone might choose it — ideally with the benefit and satisfaction of that user at the centre.
Communication should follow the same logic.
The brand surrounds the product with imagery, language, video, campaigns and product stories intended to connect three things: the message being sent, the person receiving it and the product that person eventually sees.
That connection has to work across many formats and channels. The same product may appear in a shop window, on a retailer website, in specialist media, on social media, in a short video, in an email campaign or in a conversation with a salesperson. Each environment needs a different execution, but the customer should still recognise the same product, positioning and brand, and come away with a consistent overall impression.
Depending on the distribution model, the brand may pass its communication to a distributor, directly to a retailer, through several intermediate steps, or communicate directly with the customer while the product reaches them through another route. At every handoff, somebody has to understand the message, prioritise it, adapt it when necessary and execute it while preserving enough alignment for the original identity to survive.
That alignment is not always easy to maintain, and not necessarily because of a lack of interest or professionalism.
Many distributors and retailers operate with relatively small structures. They may represent numerous brands while managing sales, purchasing, stock, customer service, staff, logistics, finance and marketing.
Every new brand also brings more than products: imagery, training, campaign calendars, displays, furniture, videos, digital assets and expectations about how they should appear in the market. A retailer may genuinely value a brand and still struggle to execute every campaign. A distributor may receive excellent material while several launches compete for the same people, space and time.
Commercial instability adds another layer. Retailers may change suppliers or brands, distributors may reconsider the brands they represent, and brands may decide that another distribution structure will give them better access to the market.
Any of those decisions may be entirely reasonable, but frequent change leaves traces. Old stock remains. Displays survive longer than the relationship that created them. Furniture designed for one product ends up holding another. Campaign material stays in a warehouse because nobody had the time, space or reason to install it.
Walk into enough shops and sooner or later you will find a helmet from one brand sitting in a competitor’s display. Browse enough retailer websites and you will find discontinued models, old images, outdated prices or content that should have disappeared months earlier.
The customer does not see the explanation. They do not know that a distribution agreement changed, that a campaign arrived at the wrong moment or that the person responsible for marketing has several other responsibilities. They only see the result.
Consciously or not, they also notice when the different expressions of a brand do not fit together. The advertising says one thing, the website another, the product is presented differently in the shop, or the information changes depending on where they encounter it. The customer may not identify exactly what is wrong, but inconsistency can create hesitation, weaken confidence and make rejection more likely.
This is why the choice of who works with whom matters beyond reach, margin or volume.
When there is a genuine fit between brand, distributor and retailer — in product range, customer profile, positioning, service and way of working — there is less pressure to keep replacing relationships simply to maintain sales.
Over time, the relationship can deepen. The brand understands the realities of the distributor and the point of sale. The distributor becomes better able to interpret the brand for its market. The retailer has more reason to invest time, space and attention in presenting it properly.
At that level, distributor and retailer become more than commercial links. They become trusted partners in each other’s eyes. Communication then stops being a package passed from one actor to the next and becomes part of the relationship itself.
This does not mean every retailer should look identical or repeat the brand’s language word for word. A good retailer has its own identity and knows its customers; a good distributor understands its market. Part of their value lies in interpreting what they receive without losing what made it distinctive in the first place.
Consistency does not require cloning. It requires the essential identity to survive the journey.
That level of understanding also requires the right tools. Brand, distributor and retailer need practical ways to make communication easy to access, update, share and execute without adding unnecessary complexity.
Among those tools, good software can play an important role because, when it is simple, effective and widely accessible, it can become a natural vehicle for communication. Imagery, product information, campaign materials, videos and other assets can remain current and accessible, while obsolete content and pending actions become easier to identify.
For smaller or saturated structures, the value is not in giving them another system to manage, but in reducing the effort required to execute well and making the right material easier to use at the right moment.
Technology will not replace judgement, commitment or trust, but it can remove unnecessary friction between what the brand creates and what the customer finally experiences.
A brand can spend heavily defining how its products should be seen, understood and desired. That work is not complete when the campaign is approved, the files are sent or the display leaves the warehouse. It is complete when the customer receives a coherent version of what the brand intended to say.
And that depends not only on the strength of the original idea, but on the quality of every relationship carrying it forward.
About the author
Cristóbal Pérez
Cristóbal Pérez is a senior business leader with more than 30 years of experience across cycling, mobility and retail.
His career has included market development, distribution, retail management, customer experience and business transformation, working with companies including Shimano, Accell and Aprilia.
He brings a practical industry perspective shaped by experience across brands, together with an ongoing curiosity about technology, new knowledge and the forces reshaping what comes next.
His strength lies in improving businesses by managing better, boosting teams, building trust and using data effectively.
This is a guest post. The views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Citrus-Lime. Interested in writing for us? Get in touch.
