A marketing co-operation or marketing cooperation is a partnership of at least two companies on the value chain level of marketing with the objective to tap the full potential of a market by bundling specific competences or resources. Other terms for marketing co-operation are marketing alliance, marketing partnership, co-marketing, and cross-marketing.

Marketing co-operations are sensible when the marketing goals of two companies can be combined with a concrete performance measure for the end consumer. Successful marketing co-operations generate “win-win-win” situations that offer value not only to both partnering companies but also to their customers.

Marketing co-operations extend the perspective of marketing. While marketing measures deal with the optimal organization of the relationship between a company and its existing and potential customers, marketing co-operations audit to what extent the integration of a partner can contribute to improving the relationship between companies and customers.

Contents 1 Importance 2 Objectives 3 Shapes 4 Examples 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links

[edit] Importance

The importance of marketing co-operations has significantly increased over the last few years: Companies recognize partnerships as an effective means for untapping growth potentials they cannot realize on their own. In the big merger and acquisition wave at the end of the nineties it became apparent, that co-operations (especially on the value chain level of marketing) often present a much more flexible approach with a more immediate growth impact than merging or acquiring entire business entities.

Studies show, that companies recognise the increasing relevance and potential of co-operations.^[1]

[edit] Objectives

There are four main objectives of marketing co-operations:^{[citation needed]}

• Build-up and/or strengthening of brand/image/traffic by implementing joint or exchange communication measures
• Access to new markets/customers by directly addressing the co-operation partner’s customers or by using its distribution points
• Increase of customer loyalty by addressing own customers with value added offerings from the partner - often useful for community building
• Reduction of marketing costs by bundling or exchanging marketing measures

In some cases, co-operations are set up to address one of these objectives. In most cases, it is a combination of these.

[edit] Shapes

Marketing co-operations can take on many different shapes, for instance:^{[citation needed]}

• Joint product development or Co-branding
• Joint communication or “Co-advertising“
• Joint sales measures or Co-promotion
• Co-marketing
• Cross media
• Product bundling
• Sponsoring
• Branded Entertainment
• Product placement
• Sales partnerships
• Licensing

[edit] Examples

Examples of marketing co-operations include:^[2]

• Apple Inc. and Nike Inc. have formed a long term partnership to jointly develop and sell “Nike+iPod” products. The "Nike + iPod Sport Kit" links Nike+ products with Apples MP3-Player iPod nano, so that performance data such as distance, pace or burned calories can be displayed on the MP3-Player’s interface.^[3]
• The South Korean manufacturer of electronics products LG Electronics has teamed up with the luxury brand Prada in order to better tap the potential of the growing mobile phone high-end market by creating a Prada branded phone, the “Prada phone by LG”.^[4]
• Opel and Mango have established a pan-European marketing co-operation around the Tigra TwinTop campagne "Every street is a catwalk" with a focus on communication. This co-operation includes joint marketing communication, events/PR and promotional activities.^[5]
• YouTube and NBA have joined forces up to develop a special NBA Channel on the video platform, which basically is an individualised micro site providing primarily NBA material and offering user recordings of NBA games/players.^[6]
• Banner and link exchanges ^[7]

[edit] References

1. ^ Sempora Consulting, Noshokaty, Döring & Thun: Two of three marketing co-operations fail, Handelsblatt, 14 June 2007 (German)
2. ^ "Mesh-box". http://www.mesh-box.com. Retrieved 2007-07-26. 
3. ^ Apple Website, Nike+iPod, 2007
4. ^ LG Electronics Press release, Mobile Innovation Meets Avant-Garde Design, 18 January 2007
5. ^ Opel Website, Tiagracouture & Mango, 2007
6. ^ NBA Channel on YouTube, 2007
7. ^ Linkexchange

[edit] Further reading

• Conlon, J. K.; Giovagnoli, M. K. (1998), The power of two: how companies of all sizes can build alliance networks that generate business opportunities, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass 

[edit] External links

• Bucklin Louis P., Sengupta Sanjit.: Organizing Successful Co-Marketing Alliances, Journal of Marketing v57, n2 (Apr 1993):32-46