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• MAP Policies and Holiday Sales: The Discount Dilemma

Major sales events like Mother's Day, Independence Day, Memorial Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas can make or break an online retailer’s profitability. 

With how critical these holidays are, brands are faced with a conundrum: should they allow their resellers to violate MAP during these sales extravaganzas, or should they uphold their MAP policies without exception? “MAP holidays” can be a useful tool in a brand’s toolbelt, but brands must tread carefully when allowing resellers to break MAP.  

In this article, we'll guide you through the decision-making process and provide the essential blueprint for implementation. 

  The holiday season presents both tremendous opportunity and high risk for brand integrity. This section provides an authoritative breakdown of the benefits and potential dangers of suspending your Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policy. By weighing the pros and cons of a temporary price reduction, you can confidently determine if a MAP holiday aligns with your long-term pricing strategy and business goals.

  During major sales events, consumers are more likely to make impulse purchases due to the perceived urgency and exclusivity of the deals. Allowing resellers to violate MAP during these time frames could lead to a significant increase in sales, which may be beneficial for both the brand and its resellers.

By implementing MAP holidays, brands can give their resellers the opportunity to capture a larger share of the market, which could translate to higher profits for all parties involved.

This can strengthen the relationships between resellers and brands, leading to better MAP compliance throughout the rest of the year. By granting temporary MAP waivers during these predetermined periods, brands can prevent unauthorized MAP violations from occurring at other times, ensuring that their pricing strategies remain consistent and competitive in the long run.
    On the other hand, allowing resellers to violate MAP policies, even on a temporary basis, can have several negative consequences. If brands choose to allow MAP holidays, they must tread carefully to mitigate these potential pitfalls.

First and foremost, allowing resellers to sell below MAP can undermine the brand's perceived value in the eyes of consumers. After all, that’s the point of MAP in the first place. Consistent pricing is essential to maintaining a brand's image and reputation, and frequent fluctuations in pricing can lead to a perception that the brand's products are of lower quality or less valuable than they actually are.

If brands choose to allow MAP holidays, they must do it for short, predictable timeframes. In other words, a limited-time price decrease around Black Friday is less likely to damage a brand’s value than price decreases throughout the year that aren’t tied to any specific date.

Brands must also be careful when granting MAP waivers, and they must do it fairly. Resellers who have access to exclusive MAP holidays may be able to outprice their competitors, leading to an uneven playing field and potentially driving smaller resellers out of business. This can ultimately result in a loss of valuable retail partnerships and reduced diversity in the brand's distribution network.

Another concern is the old slippery slope. Implementing MAP holidays may encourage resellers to push for additional exceptions or leniency in other aspects of their agreements with the brand. This can weaken the brand's overall bargaining power and make it more difficult to enforce other important aspects of their business relationships, such as marketing guidelines or product exclusivity agreements. If you give an inch, don’t let them take a mile.
  Ultimately, the decision to allow resellers to violate MAP during major sales events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday is not a simple yes or no. It requires a nuanced evaluation of the potential benefits and drawbacks against your brand’s long-term value.

If a brand is considering implementing MAP holidays, it should:
 
The core of a successful strategy is finding the balance: balancing the needs of your resellers with your long-term business objectives.
  If a brand decides a MAP holiday supports its growth strategy, the next step is making sure the plan is carried out smoothly. A temporary change in policy needs clear structure, steady communication, and careful oversight. This section walks through the practical steps that help you organize the promotion, keep expectations aligned, and maintain the strength of your pricing standards from start to finish. Your policy must explicitly define the terms of promotional flexibility. Brands typically choose one of two models, with clear parameters defined in advance:
 
You must also be specific about the nature of the price adjustment: