Increasingly, you can see that various promotions are held with the active participation of partners. Companies boldly claim that prizes and gifts are provided by other brands, emphasizing their "friendship" with other businesses. Why is this needed? After all, this is how you can completely confuse buyers by piling up in their minds a complex scheme from advertising several products at once? But affiliate project specialists know that this is the only way to kill several birds with one stone. First, reduce the cost of promotional activities. Second, improve communication efficiency. And, thirdly, to increase the number of fans of your brand by attracting partner customers.
Different forms of brand interaction with each other, from sitting next to each other on a supermarket shelf to creating a joint product, can be grouped under the concept of co-marketing.
Co-marketing, or joint marketing, is a special type of marketing that involves a mutually beneficial partnership. Partnership can be organized in various ways: a joint advertising campaign, cross-distribution of promotional materials, sampling onevent or joint product development. Co-marketing projects are implemented both on equal terms and on the terms of unequal partnership, may or may not be legally formalized depending on the requirements of the project participants, but in any case they bring positive results.
According to experts of the Russian Co-Marketing Association, there are a number of benefits that can be obtained by using co-marketing in your practice. And if you take into account and pay attention to the features of cross-promotion, this will contribute to an even more effective strategy for the development and promotion of the brand.
So, how best to approach the choice of a partner and what to look for when preparing a cross-marketing project?
Best Partner - Related Products
This is the golden rule of successful co-marketing. Ideal partners are those companies whose products or services are designed for the same category of customers. Ideally, companies should complement each other, like shampoo and conditioner - it is impossible to imagine one without the other. When using this technique, you do not have to additionally explain to the consumer why he needs a second product. And so everything is clear.
This is how hundreds of coffee houses operate around the world, including the world-famous union of McDonald's and The Coca-Cola Company. In San Francisco, the Primo's chain of coffee shops has been cooperating with Sweet Charlottes Chocolates for many years. As part of a co-marketing partnership with exclusive rights in coffee shopspartner's chocolates are on sale. In addition, each purchased cup of coffee comes with a chocolate bar as a gift. In turn, confectionery shops sell coffee beans. When buying sweet products, all customers receive a coupon for a free espresso.
Mutually beneficial partnership with neighbors
Another option that makes it easy and quick to find a co-marketing partner is to partner with your neighbors. Nearby location allows businesses to redirect traffic from visitors who visit the same location but for different purposes.
In this case, companies may not offer related products, but the conditions of the promotion must be designed for the interests of both audiences. The audiences themselves should also be similar.
For example, the owners of neighboring establishments - a pizzeria and a jewelry store - somehow noticed that they have much more in common than it seems at first glance. These are their clients. The key customers of the pizzeria are not only families with children, but also young, still unmarried couples, who are also welcome customers for the jewelry store.
In the shortest possible time, a cross-marketing campaign was developed and prepared. All visitors to the pizzeria were invited to take part in the drawing of a diamond weighing one carat. It was proposed to find it among hundreds of similar stones; it was possible to confirm the authenticity of the stone only in a jewelry store, which was located nearby. In case of failure, the selected stone remained in the memory of the participant of the action, it became a kind of discount coupon, presenting which one could receive10% discount.
The pizzeria noted the unprecedented effectiveness of the action. Some visitors visited the institution several times a day in the hope of finding a diamond. As a result, the jewelry salon received a number of large orders for individual design of products. And the customers were exactly those customers who came from a nearby pizzeria.
The development strategy of the American hotel chain Ace Hotel is based on offering its customers the best services, including coffee. That is why the owners of one of the best coffee chains, Stumptow Coffee, were involved in the partnership. Coffee outlets are located in or adjacent to the hotel so that guests can easily find fresh and tasty coffee.
Co-branding as a way to overcome negativity
Sometimes only a joint promotion with a partner becomes the only option in the fight against negative rumors. Naturally, for such interaction, the partner must have the appropriate fame and reputation.
A classic example is the joint advertising of Lukoil and Porshe. When rumors spread about the low quality of fuel, a reliable partner came to the rescue - a symbol of quality, speed and reliability. After the co-branding project, the level of negative assessment decreased, while loy alty to the fuel brand, on the contrary, increased.
An equally interesting example is the collaboration between the well-known electric car manufacturer Tesla and the Australian airline Qantas. In this case, the companies did not have the task of overcoming the negative. But the airline wanted to inform the public about itsdevelopments in the use of biofuels as an alternative to jet fuel. As a result, the companies shot a breathtaking video in which an electric car and an airliner compete on the runway. The video has received millions of views, thousands of likes and hundreds of reposts. In addition, a number of influential media outlets posted the news about the brand collaboration, and it was completely free.
How to expand your customer base with cross-marketing?
Cross-marketing opens up great opportunities to expand your customer base in the shortest possible time. Attracting a partner's customers or opening a new audience are key benefits of a co-marketing partnership, so don't lose sight of it while preparing and running a promotion.
The easiest way to grow your customer base is to join or create your own coalition loy alty program. Each member of such a club comes with his own base, after which joint offers are created that are used for mailing. Two companies can do the same. For example, a manufacturer of baby diapers decides to conduct a cross-marketing campaign with a chain of children's clothing stores. You can attach a nice bonus to the letter - a promo code and, of course, a link to the partner's website.
Any marketing activity with a partner can be broadcast through the following channels:
- Social networks: VKontakte, Facebook or Odnoklassniki groups, Instagram and Telegram accounts, Twitter posts. All resources can be multiplied at least twice byattracting a partner.
- Joint press releases on news aggregators.
- Joint interview with local media.
- Joint advertising on the radio.
- Co-promotion on TV.
- Cross Email.
Co-marketing helps cut costs
Here and so everything is clear. The competition is getting tougher every day. Advertising is getting more and more expensive. Even large corporations find it increasingly difficult to increase their marketing budgets, let alone those who are not spoiled by a large advertising budget. But even without advertising it is impossible, because this way you can lose the necessary level of pressure on the consumer and lose your niche in the market. As a result, companies are forced to look for new ways to attract customers that are low-cost and at the same time effective.
Cross-marketing is just what you need. Joint advertising on TV for two brands appearing on the screen will cost much less than an individual advertising campaign. The same can be said about radio, and about media advertising, and about online promotion.
Use someone else's glory
Seeing opportunities where others don't is one of the most valuable qualities entrepreneurs and marketers have. It was this quality that allowed a marketer from a Canadian company of building materials and home improvement products to organize a fantastically simple and effective campaign with the world famous Apple brand.
The RONA promotion specialists had the task of creating an effective campaign in support of a new direction inrecycling of unused paints. Among the options for promotion was considered, including outdoor advertising. But how do you make a billboard work 100%?
On the way to work, a RONA marketer once saw a huge new billboard advertising new iPod models. On the poster, bright colors from the players flowed down in greasy drops. It was almost a ready-made advertisement for the collection and recycling of waste paint. Having agreed with the main advertiser - Apple - to place another advertising banner, RONA unfolded its poster below. It featured dripping paint dripping into carefully placed cans, with the slogan "We recycle leftover paint".
Using someone else's fame for your own purposes is the perfect way to make your company even more recognizable. Apple had no objection to the second ad because it did not feature a competing product, it did not cause any damage, or it did not compromise the perception of the main advertised product.
At the same time, RONA was given the opportunity to place its advertisement next to a product that has the attention of millions of people around the world. As a result, the company collected more than two million liters of waste paint. It wasn't just a success. Even in their wildest dreams, marketers could not imagine that the proximity to a popular brand would lead to such an incredible result.
To sum it up, co-marketing partnerships with other companies are what can make your business moreattractive to customers, your marketing is more effective and your results are higher. This approach combines all the most relevant requirements today: the ability to reduce the advertising budget, increase coverage and ease of evaluating results.
