BTL (Below the Line)
Targeted, non-mass-media marketing activities at the outlet or local level, including in-store promotions, sampling, and point-of-purchase displays.
Full definition
BTL (Below the Line) marketing refers to highly targeted, non-mass-media promotional activities executed at or near the point of sale. In Indian FMCG distribution, BTL is the workhorse of trade marketing: sampling drives at kirana counters, branded shelf strips, window stickers, retailer board branding, and local events at mandis or weekly haats. BTL is "below the line" because it sits below the mass-media advertising line item in the marketing budget.
For dairy and perishable FMCG brands, BTL is often more effective than ATL (TV, print) because purchase decisions for milk, curd, and bread happen at the shop counter, not from a sofa watching television. A well-executed tasting booth outside a busy kirana store in a residential colony can convert more trial purchases per rupee than a billboard. Typical BTL budgets for a regional dairy brand range from Rs 2-5 lakh per month per territory.
Tracking BTL execution and ROI requires field data. Salespersons capture BTL activity through photo evidence on the SFA app, and managers correlate activity dates with secondary sales spikes to measure effectiveness, moving BTL from a "spray and pray" exercise to a data-driven one.
Real-world example
Mother Dairy runs a BTL sampling activation across 500 kirana stores in Delhi during summer, offering free 50ml lassi shots to shoppers, resulting in a 22% lift in weekly lassi sales at activated outlets.
Where it applies
Applicable industries
This term is relevant across the following SpireStock-supported industries.
How SpireStock handles it
Related SpireStock features
The concepts described above are implemented end-to-end in these product modules.
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