Marketing collateral, in marketing

Marketing

Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...

 and sales

Sales

A sale is the act of selling a product or service in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity....

, is the collection of media

Media (communication)

In communications, media are the storage and transmission channels or tools used to store and deliver information or data...

 used to support the sales of a product

Product (business)

In general, the product is defined as a "thing produced by labor or effort" or the "result of an act or a process", and stems from the verb produce, from the Latin prōdūce ' lead or bring forth'. Since 1575, the word "product" has referred to anything produced...

 or service. These sales aids are intended to make the sales effort easier and more effective. The brand of the company usually presents itself by way of its collateral to enhance its brand.

The production of marketing collateral is important in any business' marketing communication plan.

Common examples include:

• Sales brochure
  Brochure
  A brochure is a type of leaflet. Brochures are most commonly found at places that tourists frequently visit, such as museums, major shops, and tourist information. Brochure racks or stands may suggest visits to amusement parks and other points of interest...
  
  s and other printed product information (e.g. Z-CARD
  Z-CARD
  The Z-CARD® is the registered trademark for the foldable guide invented by George McDonald when he was a travel writer and consultant for British Airways. McDonald found that traditional fold-out maps were too bulky to carry with him on travel research trips and wanted a more convenient solution...
  
  )
• Visual aids used in sales presentations
• Web content
  Web content
  Web content is the textual, visual or aural content that is encountered as part of the user experience on websites. It may include, among other things: text, images, sounds, videos and animations....
  
  
• Sales scripts
• Demonstration scripts
• Product data sheets
• Product white paper
  White paper
  A white paper is an authoritative report or guide that helps solve a problem. White papers are used to educate readers and help people make decisions, and are often requested and used in politics, policy, business, and technical fields. In commercial use, the term has also come to refer to...
  
  s

Marketing collateral differs from advertising in that it is used later in the sales cycle, usually when a prospective purchaser has been identified and sales staff are making contact with them.

Typically these are made to follow the same corporate identity

Corporate identity

In Corporate Communications, a corporate identity is the "persona" of a corporation which is designed to accord with and facilitate the attainment of business objectives...

 as other corporate publications including:

• Complimentary packing slip
  Packing slip
  A shipping list, packing list, waybill, packing slip , is a shipping document that accompanies delivery packages, usually inside an attached shipping pouch or inside the package itself...
  
  s
• Business card
  Business card
  Business cards are cards bearing business information about a company or individual. They are shared during formal introductions as a convenience and a memory aid. A business card typically includes the giver's name, company affiliation and contact information such as street addresses, telephone...
  
  s
• Letterhead
  Letterhead
  A letterhead is the heading at the top of a sheet of letter paper . That heading usually consists of a name and an address, and a logo or corporate design, and sometimes a background pattern...
  
  

Physical system for store and manage Marketing media is typically Enterprise content management

Enterprise content management

Enterprise Content Management is a formalized means of organizing and storing an organization's documents, and other content, that relate to the organization's processes...

 (ECM). For special application of digital media is using the Digital Asset Management (DAM). Marketing collateral is content type for ECM.

See also

• E-Marketing Collateral
  E-Marketing Collateral
  Similar to marketing collateral definition, e-marketing collateral is the collection of basic internet tactical activities that supports the marketing of a product or a service on the internet...
  
  
• Marketing Resource Management
  Marketing Resource Management
  Marketing Resource Management provides the software infrastructure to support Marketing Operations Management. Marketing Operations Management is the alignment of people, process and technology to support marketing activities and improve marketing effectiveness...
  
  
• Marketing Operations Management
  Marketing Operations Management
  Marketing Operations Management is a version of end to end marketing optimization, from planning and budgeting, through marketing content management, to global marketing execution and analysis....
  
  
• Enterprise Marketing Management
  Enterprise marketing management
  Enterprise Marketing Management defines a category of software used by marketing operations to manage their end-to-end internal processes. EMM is subset of Marketing Technologies which consists of a total of 3 key technology types that allow for corporations and customers to participate in a...
  
  
• Commercial Operations Management
• Enterprise content management
  Enterprise content management
  Enterprise Content Management is a formalized means of organizing and storing an organization's documents, and other content, that relate to the organization's processes...