Disruption doesn’t only come from new technology or start-up competitors. The pandemic showed how quickly the basics of business can come under pressure: working supply chains, open sales channels, and healthy staff and customers. Since then, many leaders have rewritten their playbooks with a sharper focus on risk and continuity. One lesson stands out. New threats call for new approaches.
Two sides of the same problem
When demand outstrips supply, the priorities are fairly clear. Businesses diversify suppliers, secure raw materials, invest in labour and production, and adjust how they talk to customers.
When product isn’t selling, the challenge is harder. Businesses turn to scenario planning, cash preservation, cost-cutting and right-sizing production. Even so, many are left with unsold stock that ties up cash and warehouse space.
The usual fixes are deep discounts, bundling or disposal, and each one comes at a cost. All of them erode margin. Disposal also sits uncomfortably with customers and stakeholders who expect businesses to act responsibly.
The marketing budget trap
Marketing is often the first budget cut when leaders need quick savings. That helps in the short term. However, research by effectiveness expert Peter Field suggests that brands that go quiet during a downturn tend to lose ground in the recovery.
This leaves many businesses with two problems at once: stock they can’t sell, and a marketing budget they can’t afford to lose.
A different approach: Corporate Trade
Corporate Trade connects those two problems. Instead of discounting or writing off excess inventory, a business trades it for media credits. The credits are typically worth more than the business would recover through liquidation, and they fund advertising it would have bought anyway.
It is the commercial version of barter, but more complex than a simple swap. That’s why businesses work with specialists who understand both product remarketing and media planning and buying.
Companies around the world already use it:
- Henkel Australia managed excess stock in a heavily promotional market while continuing long-term brand support through trade credits.
- Rocky Mountaineer (Canada) received full retail value for assets it might otherwise have sold below cost. It then used the credits for media it had planned to buy.
- O2 Telefónica (UK) has won more than £10 million in new business by letting corporate clients pay for part of its services in product.
- Jacobs Douwe Egberts Australia imports short shelf-life product from Europe. Through Corporate Trade it avoided write-off costs and gained extra budget to reinvest in its brands.
What it delivers
Value from unsold stock. Reduce write-downs and receive up to three times market value for inventory when demand is uncertain.
More predictable sales. A reliable buyer for surplus product helps you hit targets. It also frees sales teams to focus on high-margin lines and key customers.
Warehouse space. Clear room for newer, faster-moving product.
An outlet for seasonal and stranded stock. Move inventory affected by closures, delays or missed seasons.
Protected marketing investment. Top up reduced budgets with media credits and keep your brand visible.
Flexibility. Use it as a short-term fix for stock and cash-flow pressure, or build it into a longer-term strategy.
Breaking down the silos
The pandemic won’t be the last major disruption. Often the most useful response isn’t a new technology but a new way of working together. When marketing and supply chain plan jointly, excess stock stops being a write-off and becomes a way to fund growth.
For any business managing cash flow and risk, it’s a conversation worth having.
