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Le thème des relations entre fabricants et distributeurs a fait l’objet de nombreux travaux académiques (2, 15, 26) et professionnels, notamment autour de l’analyse des rapports de force, conflits et partage des pouvoirs dans la filière; sans nier l’existence de conflits, le présent article explore les voies de collaboration entre fabricants et distributeurs autour du thème du “Trade Marketing”. Le but de cet article est en effet d’identifier l’origine, le champ et les limites du concept de “Trade Marketing”, axé sur la recherche de stratégies “gagnant /gagnant” entre les acteurs de la filière distributive.

How to deal with conflicts is without any doubt one of the most studied subject matters in the era of channel management. A new concept wich is more concerned with solving than with winning conflicts has emerged : that of trade marketing. It deals with ways of cooperation between producers and distributors, seeming to apply the “if you can beat them, join them” maxim. This article identifies the origin, scope and limits of trade marketing. In France, the very philosophy of trade marketing is opposed to the typical and usually conflict-oriented culture of relationships between producers and distributors. Ajoint willingness to cooperate appears to be the most reasonable solution. As such, trade marketing is a promising approach for the 1990’s.