Thursday, December 10, 2009

Co-marketing is the future

With an increasing number of brands shouting out for the customers "wallet" it is critical that brands seek out complementary brand partners to work with and reach out the the customer in unison.

With budgets - limited, media options - abound and the customers span of attention so fleeting, brands have to reach out and engage customers when and where they least expect. Pure Consumer Electronics brands like Sony should seek out opportunities to tie-up with stand alone White Goods brands like Whirlpool. The core to this partnership should be an unselfish drive of their customers to the other thru CRM, Co-marketing and co-sale promotion exercises.

What makes this tie-up logical is that there are few households out there that have or would like to have their entire Consumer Electronics & White Goods from the same brand. More over with Sony and Whirlpool being established brands recommending the other, the tie-up from the customers perspective is impartial. These tie-ups can also help in competing against other brands present in both these business verticals namely Samsung / LG.

Marketing managers at the Consumer Electronics should be vying to tie-up on a worldwide basis with IKEA to showcase their line of TV's and home electronics as part of IKEA's home / room display. For the simple reason that home electronics is ingrained in the consumers as part of a room / house layout. Tie-ups such as these can span industries. eg. Courier companies tying up with car manufacturers in the quest for a greener form of transport or Airline brands partnering with Hotel chains (not thru loyalty points) but a direct tie-up proposition. The tie-up between Apple and Nike ... is a great example of co-branding and partnering that has to be emulated by a host of other brands out there, for the future will belong to brands that show the customer value beyond itself.

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