Marketing Partnerships

Choosing Your Partners

When choosing a partner, you have to review the pros and cons of the future partnership, and you have to look at all of the brands rivals. Obviously, the product of your partner will be branded and will have competitors in the marketplace. Questions such as: “How will this partnership benefit the company?” and “What are the requirements of the partnership?” must be reviewed thoroughly. A partnership can benefit a company with sales and/or through image. Does this product generate enough sales to boost yours? Does your company want to be associated with the image of this particular brand? Requirements of a partnership may require a certain amount of promotional events a year, or a certain amount of promotional ads a year. Will the amount of your budget money spent on events and ads be worth it? Will these events and ads generate the sales boost you are looking for?

Creating Collaborative Promotions

Collaborative promotions are usually beneficial to both partners. These promotions may be an event to celebrate the new partnership and their product or an in store sales promotion including the partners product as an incentive. For example, the event may have a theme describing the product and promoting its brand. You may want to invite public figures who have used or are in support of the product and have them speak or do a signing. An in store sales promotion may consist of a coupon for the promo product, or as an incentive for purchase the product may be a free gift with the purchase of a certain dollar amount to increase sales. The event and/or sales promotion can benefit both partners. Through the event, media circulation will build image and awareness of the product and company, and through the sales promotions, the company will obviously have an increase in sales and the product will gain awareness through the users who received a “free sample” and a certain percentage of the consumers will in turn come back to purchase the product upon their satisfaction.