joint venture marketing
McDonald’s Happy Meals and Disney’s toys. Garmin’s GPS and Hertz’s rental cars. These are all tried-and-true joint venture marketing partnerships that have led to significant success – and increased revenues.
The underlying fundamentals of joint venture marketing are simple. You partner with a company and have them deliver your message to their customer base. In turn, your collaboration partner garners a percentage of your profits by expanding their asset offerings.
Whenever Disney has a new movie arriving in theaters, they utilize McDonald’s as a marketing partnership to generate additional excitement and exposure. In turn, McDonald’s capitalizes upon the popularity of the movie and makes additional Happy Meal sales.
With the relationship between Garmin and Hertz, the benefits are significantly twofold. Garmin’s legitimacy undergoes a significant boost, as Hertz is actively promoting the product. In addition, Garmin demonstrates to the end user how effective its GPS systems work, thus having essentially days to engage in first-hand marketing to the consumer. On the other hand, Hertz gains additional profits from renting out the Garmin units as an addition to their rental car fees.
Whether you own a multibillion dollar corporation or a one-person operation, any business can capitalize upon the powers of joint venture marketing. In fact, joint venture marketing is much more effective than your traditional advertising campaigns – where you toot your own horn to a critical audience.
For example, if you see a banner advertisement extolling the virtues of X Company’s software, you would review it with a weary eye. Consumers, both subconsciously and consciously, believe that they should be critical of any self-promoting advertisement. Therefore, not only do you have to overcome this initial skepticism, but you must compel them enough to click through to your website.
On the other hand, if their favorite blogger mentions the power of X Company’s software, the consumers are much more inclined to take a look at the product. In fact, they already have a good impression, and thus, chances are they will become a converted sale. You eliminate the barriers of skepticism, as well as the lack of motivation to view your website. The other company also enjoys increased revenues, typically through a commission on all leads or sales.
Thus, one of the most effective ways you can promote your website is through joint venture marketing. By capitalizing upon the relationships that other companies have already built with their customer base, your products can enjoy the benefit of a positive first impression.