Toll Free: 1-877-695-7388

GTA: (647) 699-2838

Search Engine People
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • CRO
  • Display
  • Blog
  • Why Us
  • Contact
  • Join Our Team
  • Get A Quote

Toll Free: 1-877-695-7388

GTA: (647) 699-2838

What is partnership marketing?

Ron Kunitzky | October 29th, 2009
Tweet3
Share17
Share
Pin
20 Shares

Partnership Marketing Defined

A smart collaboration of two or more organizations with the intent to develop a mid-term or long-term marketing program designed to meet each of their respective business goals.

The need for a Partnership Marketing program exists when one organization can accomplish their goals more effectively by leveraging the complimentary strengths of another organization pursuing a like customer base.

Partnership Marketing can contribute to increase brand awareness, product distribution, customer acquisition and program funding.

Partnership Marketing Isn't A One Man Show

If you look at some of the companies that have transformed the way we live, you will see that they've all had significant help from their marketing partners to get to where they are today.

eBay needs their auctioneers (the public) to provide products and services for auction to users or visitors to their site. They also need distribution (partners) to get people to visit their site and they need licensing opportunities with cause-related marketing programs to power their online auctions and allow them to leverage their platform in return.

What Partnership Marketing Does

As I am sitting at a table at my local Starbucks to write this post, a Marketing Partnership was communicated to me as soon as I opened my lap top computer.

The Retail Coffee Giant has partnered with Bell to offer two hours of Free Wireless Internet Service per day to anyone who opens a Starbucks-Bell Wireless Account at the Starbucks website.

Those that know me well know that I am not one to fuss over the brand of coffee that I drink so this type of added value offering from Starbucks just might be the thing that keeps me coming back here.

I am not all that particular about my coffee and I could just as easily go to McDonald's across the street and be just as content. But given that they are not offering Free Wireless Internet Service, they're not putting them in a better position to lure me over.

For the brand loyal coffee customers the Partnership can meet a different objective. Instead of acquiring new customers, the Partnership may be keeping existing customers in the store longer by having them use Free Wireless Internet Service during their stay and gaining more opportunities to increase the number of transactions that they make at the counter. As a result, they are increasing the transaction revenue per customer, per store visit.

Partnership Marketing: A Core Strategy

The reality is that if you look around you and take a deeper look at your favorite brands and what they are up to, you will see that for many of them, Partnership Marketing is at the core of their strategy.

Would Microsoft have become who they are today without a successful Marketing Partnership with IBM back in the day to power the operating system for the Personal Computer?

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that without the IBM Marketing Partnership, or Distribution Marketing Partnership to be more specific, Microsoft very likely wouldn't have become the brand that we know today.

Practical Example of Partnership Marketing

Although not a 'destination brand', MBNA are leaders in the Affinity Credit Card market and have built their business over years and years partnering with other brands to power their Credit Card offerings.

Through three-way Marketing Partnership with MasterCard and any one of their Partner brands in the Pro Sports, Auto, Education, Travel and Hospitality verticals, MBNA has developed hundreds if not thousands of Marketing Partnerships over the years.

With partner brands like Major League Baseball's New York Yankees MBNA encourages fans of the famous baseball team who sign up for the 'no fee' Yankees credit card an opportunity to obtain special offers on merchandise, memorabilia and other unique experiences for being a cardholder.

MBNA brings the full turn-key solution, along with their partner MasterCard, to the table as an added value offering in exchange for access to customers thru various customer communications vehicles like the Yankees websites, home games, and direct mail campaigns.

It's a powerful relationship that drives revenue for both parties and is much of the reason as to why traditional banks offering Credit Cards have recently jumped in to doing Affinity Credit Card partnerships of their own in an effort to claim their fair share of the available market.

That's Partnership Marketing. That's how brands collaborate together and work to leverage each others' assets to do more with less and provide a greater return on their marketing programs.

LET US HELP WRITE YOUR DIGITAL SUCCESS STORY

WE IMPLEMENT STRATEGIC SOLUTIONS THAT DELIVER REAL BUSINESS RESULTS

GET IN TOUCH
Tweet3
Share17
Share
Pin
20 Shares
Posted in Partnership Marketing

About the Author: Ron Kunitzky

Ron Kunitzky, an expert in strategic business affiliations and partnerships is the founder of Geyser Marketing Group, and has successfully brokered partnership marketing programs for companies as varied as Coastal Contacts, Dell Computer, NASDAQ, and 1-800-GOT-JUNK?

Geyser Marketing Group

3 thoughts on “What is partnership marketing?”

  1. Jill says:
    October 29, 2009 at 8:37 am

    Partnership marketing is just one more example of the fact that we can achieve better results by working together. As long as we and our partner agree on the objectives of the campaing, the target and the expected impact, by working together we can do all that more quickly and easily.
    .-= Jill recently posted: Lutron Dimmer =-.

    1. Ron Kunitzky says:
      October 29, 2009 at 9:58 am

      I agree Jill. Well said!

  2. Leon Henry says:
    April 1, 2013 at 10:02 am

    We’ve been promoting partnership marketing in a narrow field: Insert Media. If you go to our website, you will see that we find an advertiser that wants to have its message delivered by another advertiser in its outgoing shipments, catalogs or statements. Each partner has a benefit by the partnership: the mailer reaches a defined audience at a low price; the distributor receives revenue at very little cost as well as provinding its customers with added valeu.

    Let me know if you would like to discuss this. It would be my pleasure to do so. I really liked your article. Leon Henry

Comments are closed.

Recent Posts

  • Maximizing Your E-Commerce Sales:
    A CRO Audit Guide
  • Movin’ On Up! Why Migrating to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Should be a Priority
  • A Year in Review: The Digital Marketing Trends That Defined 2021
  • The Basics of Video Marketing
  • Just How Much Do Google Reviews Impact Your SEO Ranking?

Categories

  • Analytics & ROI Analysis
  • Company News
  • Content
  • Conversion Optimization
  • CRO
  • Display Advertising/RTB
  • Email Marketing
  • En Español
  • En Français
  • Inbound Marketing
  • Lead Nurture & Marketing Automation
  • Local Search
  • Marketing
  • Mobile
  • Partnership Marketing
  • PPC
  • PR
  • SEO
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Web Design

Additional Posts

A Process For Creating Processes

October 28th, 2009 | by Steven Bradley

Professionals Sharing Processes — Here

October 28th, 2009 | by Ruud Hein

Deja Vu#3: What Will The Future Be?

October 27th, 2009 | by Stockbridge Truslow

LET'S TALK

Need more information or want to get in touch?

Get in touch!
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Display
  • Blog
  • Why Us
  • Join Our Team
  • Contact Us
  • Local SEO
  • Small Business SEO
  • Enterprise SEO
  • International SEO

LOCATION

1305 Pickering Parkway,
5th Floor Pickering, L1V 3P2

PHONE

Toll Free: 1-877-695-7388
Greater Toronto Area: (647) 699-2838

Social

© Search Engine People Inc. 2023 – Canada’s Top Digital Agency
© SEP 2023 – A Search Engine People Company | Privacy Policy

Search Engine People