A marketing co-operation or marketing cooperation is a

partnership A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments ...

of at least two companies on the

value chain A value chain is a progression of activities that a firm operating in a specific industry performs in order to deliver a valuable product (i.e., good and/or service) to the end customer. The concept comes through business management and was f ...

level of

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

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. Sometimes, called as Consortium as well. 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. In recent years, marketing co-operations have been increasingly popular between brands and entertainment properties. This usually involves a minimum exchange of name and image rights on behalf of a film studio for a specified advertising commitment from the partnering brand.

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 Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspec ...

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.

Objectives

There are five main objectives of marketing co-operations: * Build-up and/or strengthening of

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

image An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensio ...

/traffic by implementing joint or exchange

communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inqui ...

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 Loyalty, in general use, is a devotion and faithfulness to a nation, cause, philosophy, country, group, or person. Philosophers disagree on what can be an object of loyalty, as some argue that loyalty is strictly interpersonal and only another ...

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 * Measure the potential value of an

intangible asset An intangible asset is an asset that lacks physical substance. Examples are patents, copyright, franchises, goodwill, trademarks, and trade names, as well as software. This is in contrast to physical assets (machinery, buildings, etc.) and fin ...

through how much consumers are willing to pay the premium 3M'
corporate site describes the value they see in Joint Marketing
:Joint marketing refers to any situation where a product is manufactured by one company and distributed by another company. Both parties invest in commercialization dollars. Joint marketing differs from a joint venture in that it deals with commercialization and marketing dollars, rather than equity. The prominence of each logo generally is relative to its use as a primary or secondary contributor. Joint marketing differs from third-party relationships because both brands are present on the product itself. Normally, third-party relationships have both brands on literature and sales materials, but only the manufacturer is present on the product.

Forms

Marketing co-operations can take on many different forms, for instance: * Joint

product development In business and engineering, new product development (NPD) covers the complete process of bringing a new product to market, renewing an existing product or introducing a product in a new market. A central aspect of NPD is product design, along w ...

Co-branding Co-branding is a marketing strategy that involves strategic alliance of multiple brand names jointly used on a single product or service. Co-branding is an arrangement that associates a single product or service with more than one brand name, o ...

* Joint

or “Co-

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

“ * Joint sales measures or

Co-promotion Co-promotion is a marketing practice that allows two or more companies to combine their sales force in order to promote a product under the same brand name and price with a single marketing strategy.Currentpartnering.com, (2015). ''Co-promotion''. ...

Co-marketing Co-marketing (Collaborate marketing) is a marketing practice where two companies cooperate with separate distribution channels, sometimes including profit sharing. It is frequently confused with co-promotion. Commensal (symbiotic) marketing Comme ...

* Cross media *

Product bundling In marketing, product bundling is offering several products or services for sale as one combined product or service package. It is a common feature in many imperfectly competitive product and service markets. Industries engaged in the practice ...

* Sponsoring *

Branded entertainment In marketing, branded content (also known as branded entertainment) is content produced by an advertiser or content whose creation was funded by an advertiser. In contrast to content marketing (in which content is presented first and foremost as a m ...

Product placement Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent. Much of th ...

* Music-brand partnerships * Sales partnerships *

Licensing A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

Examples

Examples of marketing co-operations include: * Apple Inc. and

Nike Inc. Nike, Inc. (stylized as NIKE) is an American multinational corporation that is engaged in the design, development, manufacturing, and worldwide marketing and sales of footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories, and services. The company is head ...

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. * The South Korean manufacturer of electronics products

LG Electronics LG Electronics Inc. () is a South Korean multinational electronics company headquartered in Yeouido-dong, Seoul, South Korea. LG Electronics is a part of LG Corporation, the fourth largest '' chaebol'' in South Korea, and often considered ...

has teamed up with the luxury brand

Prada Prada S.p.A. (, ; ) is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in 1913 in Milan by Mario Prada. It specializes in leather handbags, travel accessories, shoes, ready-to-wear, and other fashion accessories. Prada licenses its name and branding t ...

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”. *

Opel Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Grou ...

and Mango have established a pan-European marketing co-operation around the Tigra TwinTop campaign "Every street is a catwalk" with a focus on communication. This co-operation includes joint marketing communication, events/PR, and promotional activities. *

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

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. *

NAPA Auto Parts The National Automotive Parts Association (NAPA), also known as NAPA Auto Parts, founded in 1925, is an American retailers' cooperative distributing automotive replacement parts, accessories and service items throughout North America. Operat ...

sponsors th
Napa Parts 200
Through this sponsorship, Napa Auto Parts validates to

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...

fans that Napa Auto Parts is the place to go for quality auto parts
NASCAR gets promoted by Napa Auto Parts.
Napa's competitor, Kragen also sponsors NASCAR in the form of th
Winternationals
* Banner and link exchanges Linkexchange Examples of entertainment based marketing co-operations include: *

Omega Omega (; capital: Ω, lowercase: ω; Ancient Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the twenty-fourth and final letter in the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numeric system/ isopsephy ( gematria), it has a value of 800. The ...

partnered with the James Bond franchise to help promote their watches; Daniel Craig appeared in advertisements. * The SMC Group worked with Alexandra Burke and

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy dri ...

on the company's Sure Deodorant Campaign. This was done during her album cycle, helping to promote album sales as well as Unilever's product.

References

External links