MAP Policy: What Exactly is It?

From the perspective of a value-added reseller, a minimum advertising price or MAP policy must be a great thing. Although it doesn’t command selling prices, it does, however, control how low a product’s price could be displayed. This essentially means that consumers don’t actually see a visible discount, which in turn could translate to potentially higher margins for supporting enhanced client satisfaction.

Defining MAP

The minimum advertised or advertising price is basically the lowest price on a product that manufacturers allow their resellers to advertise. Plenty of manufacturers now have MAP policies in place for ensuring the integrity of pricing their products, most especially online, to provide authorized resellers the ability to compete with similar businesses. Among the prime justifications of enacting a MAP policy indicates the exclusive manner to correctly represent the manufacturer’s brand is to enable a reasonable margin so that resellers could earn enough in support and representation of the brand to the specific level that the manufacturer expects, says an expert from PriceManager. 

Manufacturers enacting MAP policies normally require their resellers to implement some kind of agreement that authorizes them to represent, advertise, and sell their brand. The majority of these manufacturers likewise uses a system for MAP policy monitoring to determine which resellers are violating their MAP agreements. Some even use independent services that will perform online shopping and purchasing of their products in order to track serial numbers to whoever violates the MAP policies. Resellers found in violation of the MAP policy risk losing authorization for selling the manufacturer’s products.

An Important Note to Resellers

While the main point of MAP policies is essentially the same, they still vary from one manufacturer to another. Resellers should be aware of the specific policies that apply to their businesses because even a five-cent error could mean losing the right to sell a manufacturer’s product line. Lastly and most importantly, take note that some manufacturers even enact HARD MAP policies, which are basically MAP policies with no leeway or flexibility regarding MAP rules as opposed to typical MAP policies that allow for exceptions and some level of flexibility in the agreement.