As 2024 comes to a close, we’d like to express gratitude to our readers and those who have helped shape our content over 2024. With the new year nearly upon us, it’s the perfect time to reflect on your 2024 efforts and evaluate your MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) program to set the stage for a successful new year. Reflecting on what worked – and what didn’t – allows your team to refine strategies and address gaps before the new (and recurring?) challenges of 2025 arise.
This week, we’d like to offer five actionable best practices that your enforcement teams can use to close out the year strong and prepare for a more effective MAP program in the months ahead.
1. Review 2024’s MAP Performance Metrics
Before you can plan for the future, it’s essential to understand where your MAP program stands. How much do you know about what happened last year at both the macro and micro level? Understanding trends and leveraging the data you’ve been compiling for the last 12-16 months will help you better prepare for the coming year.
What to Review:
- Frequency and patterns of MAP violations: Look at month/month, days of the week, and time of day to shape not only your policy but monitoring and enforcement efforts. What were the products most violated and how does that compare to the category overall?
- Top violators and their impact on revenue: Who was the biggest offender? What was the best/worst channel? How do violations affect account revenue, operating expenses, and your P&L?
- Success rates of enforcement actions (e.g., warnings, penalties, or legal follow-ups): How many violations were sent to each retailer? What was the reply rate and sentiment of those replies? How long, on average, did it take for retailers to come back into compliance?
Why It Matters: Analyzing this data helps identify trends, such as specific products or retailers prone to violations, and informs targeted improvements for 2025. It can also help you better determine which products should/shouldn’t be on MAP and whether your MAP duration needs to be adjusted.
Quick Tip: Rather than compiling all of this data yourself, make use of your provider’s year-end dashboards or summaries to highlight key metrics for stakeholders, ensuring alignment on goals for the new year.
2. Strengthen Retailer Relationships
The holiday season can strain relationships with retailers, particularly when enforcement actions occur during high-pressure periods. Use this time to reset and rebuild trust.
How:
- Build Up Good Partners: Remember that MAP enforcement should not always be punitive. Some approaches you can take are reaching out with a positive note, sending a personalized e-card, providing a shout-out to your contact’s boss (we call this the “I wanted to let you know that Linda is a rockstar” email), or anything else that you can do to underscore how much you appreciate them. These gestures go a long way.
- Share “A Year in Review” Updates: Accompanying qualitative/emotional notes like the above with objective data outlining where your partners are is not only helpful but can go far in strengthening your compliance. Nobody likes to see that they are in the bottom 20% of retailers when it comes to compliance. Conversely, seeing that they are in the top 20% could boost their sense of competition and benefit everyone.
Why It Matters: Retailers who feel supported are more likely to view MAP enforcement as a collaborative effort, reducing friction and fostering stronger relationships in 2025. Additionally, helping your partners know where they stand in the rankings is a great way to position yourself as a source of data and insights, potentially differentiating yourself from other brands that they work with.
3. Audit Your Monitoring Coverage
New sales channels and unauthorized sellers emerge constantly. The end of the year is a great time to assess whether your monitoring capabilities are keeping pace.
What to Check:
- Are all relevant websites, marketplaces, and social platforms included? Are there emerging sites or marketplaces that are not currently in your monitoring plan? Is your business somehow being impacted from another online source? Are you seeing more resellers pop up on marketplaces?
- Beware of false positives or assumptions: Have you noticed a decline in violations from certain sites? If so, that may not mean that your compliance has necessarily improved. Be cautious of assuming that things are better just because you’re not seeing the violations you once did. As retailers embrace new AI blocking technologies, your provider may not be keeping up and you could be misinterpreting what’s behind the drop in violations.
Why It Matters: Comprehensive monitoring ensures you’re not leaving violations undetected, especially as consumer behaviors shift and new channels gain traction.
Quick Tip: If you realize that you’re missing channels or new platforms, work with your provider to augment your program accordingly. If you realize that you’re unable to get the coverage you need, it may be time to look for a provider that better suits your needs.
4. Update Your MAP Policies for 2025
MAP policies should be “living, breathing documents” and should evolve to reflect real changes in the market, technology, and consumer behavior.
What to Update:
- Adjust policies to account for market and consumer trends: Are you considering all potential violation types? Are your actions for non-compliance taking into account the changes in e-Commerce? How should your policy change to account for consumer late-night shopping, retailer flash sales, and the dynamic pricing adopted by savvy retailers?
- Simplify language: Take the time to make the policy easier for retailers to understand and implement. Many brands have told us that the days of intimidation through legalese are behind us. What’s more valuable today is having clear, easily understood policies that leave no room for guessing. It’s more valuable that your partners understand the policy’s intent and borders than to walkway intimidated by threats.
Why It Matters: Clear, updated policies reduce ambiguity, making enforcement more consistent and helping retailers stay compliant.
Quick Tip: Some brands have assembled an advisory board that consists of key retail contacts to help identify confusing language, and ensure that their policy is clear, transparent, and fair. By doing so, they are increasing the likelihood that it will be followed without much pushback.
5. Align Cross-Departmental Goals
MAP compliance isn’t just the responsibility of one team; it requires collaboration across sales, marketing, legal, operations, and compliance departments.
How to Align:
- Host an end-of-year huddle: Meeting with stakeholders to review 2024 performance and discuss goals for 2025 is a great way to update your policy and processes. Keep it open and honest. Look for team members who either disagree, don’t understand or who can offer opportunities to better collaborate in MAP enforcement efforts. The more you can build a consensus around the enforcement process, the easier it will be to execute and the better your overall compliance will be.
- Set shared KPIs to ensure alignment on MAP compliance objectives: Gone are the days when one team dictates the metrics and all others follow suit. How do compliance rates affect marketing’s ability to build awareness? How is your Net Promoter Score affected by pricing noise or poor retailer reviews? How is the company’s ability to stay on track for revenue goals affected by compliance rates of key products or categories?
Why It Matters: Collaboration throughout your organization ensures a unified approach to MAP enforcement, reducing inconsistencies, boosting productivity, and improving overall effectiveness.
Looking Ahead: Building on These Practices in 2025
When completed in earnest, a year-end reflection like this sets the stage for a year where your MAP enforcement efforts are significant By taking these steps now, you’ll not only close out 2024 on a strong note but also create a foundation for adapting to the evolving e-commerce landscape in 2025.
At Pervasive Mind, we’re here to help you navigate these transitions with tailored solutions and expert insights. Let’s make 2025 your most successful year yet.
