The Co‐Marketing Solution

Citation

Fortin, D.R. (2001), "The Co‐Marketing Solution", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 368-376. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.2001.18.4.368.3

Some of you may recall Shawn Clark from his columns on marketing strategy appearing regularly in Marketing News. Probably rightfully so, Clark defines himself as a “marketing man” (p. ix), having been involved with marketing strategy for Fortune 500‐type companies for over a quarter of a century. But more precisely, he could most likely argue to be a pioneer in coining the term “co‐marketing,” a new‐and‐improved version of the age‐old “co‐op” advertising and trade marketing mix. The distinction, so well laid out in the book, advocates employing co‐marketing or “partnership advertising” as an alternative to the popular and expensive practice of co‐operative “co‐op” advertising. In Part 1 “The manufacturer, the brand, and the retailer: a historical perspective”, Clark draws on examples of successful co‐marketing ventures such as the popular “Intel inside” campaign. In Part 2 “Implementing the co‐marketing plan”, he outlines an eight‐step plan for creating and then executing a successful co‐marketing campaign.

What I really enjoyed about the book is that it finds new ways creatively to use a huge portion of the marketing budget that virtually escaped the hands of most product managers for decades (believe or not, I was once one of those!). In the 1980s and 1990s , Procter & Gamble learned the hard way that messing around with trade allowances was not a good idea. The view proposed in the book tackles the problem from another perspective and tries to optimize trade spending in a win‐win situation for both sides. Clark suggests that co‐op advertising totals around $15 billion per year in the USA, which makes it a tremendously attractive source of income to tap into.

The book is packed with a range of case studies and uses entertaining examples to get the point across. The main thrust of the argument in favor of co‐marketing rests on the Intel case study in which they pioneered the creative use of co‐marketing in providing a very interesting financial proposition for their trade partners. Instead of being a “great cash give‐away” (p. 9) as trade advertising used to be, Intel transformed it into a partnership where both parties could benefit. With the “Intel inside” campaign, the company offered to pay for a portion of the advertising costs for the manufacturers using their microchips if they would feature the Intel Inside logo in their advertisments and on their computers. The program was so successful that “in just 18 months, Intel developed the same amount of brand awareness as NutraSweet did in 18 years!” (p. 56)

The idea of co‐marketing of this sort is not necessarily new, but the manner in which it was mass‐communicated probably was. As Clark explains, NutraSweet tried for years to promote its brand identity by going about it alone instead of with trade partners. Going back even further, the “Dolby stereo” approach was the hi‐fi precursor to the “Intel inside” campaign.

Although the reading is lively and easy to understand, I couldn’t find anything terribly new or conceptually innovative throughout the text. Clark relates cases and examples of U&A studies, blind taste tests and how research should feed into any marketing program. Well, sorry, Shawn, but a lot of us have been there, done that!OK, so the argument that we all know we should be doing it but many firms aren’t is perhaps what he is trying to convey here, but the book’s structure falls slightly into the “how to” trap with the eight‐step process to develop your own co‐marketing plan. But hey, at the end of the day, it is always refreshing to find someone who can package all these cases and ideas into an easy‐to‐read and lively format. Those familiar with the Ries and Trout series of wonderfully written books will know exactly what I mean here.

The book features a Web resource for additional information and for contacting the author at www.co‐marketingsolution.com but unfortunately the site was just an empty shell and still under construction at time of press. I found one positive review for the book at Amazon.com but without many further details. I could only find one other title on co‐marketing by David Scholes (ISBN 0812931467) but it was still forthcoming at time of press. In a similar vein, those interested by the area should probably check out Robert Houk’s Co‐op Advertising: Authoritative Guide to Promotional Allowance Marketing for Advertisers to get the other perspective from a more traditional “co‐op” point of view.

In summary, Clark was able to present a convincing epilogue on success stories in co‐marketing. The crescendo of the book occurs in Part 2 where the eight‐step process takes you by the hand to set up your own award‐winning co‐marketing program. With this in mind, it may not be the proverbial academic’s top‐of‐Christmas‐list choice but it is most likely a good read for top‐level executives, senior marketing and management professionals, and sales people who deal with and rely on distribution and channel partners to market their products and/or services.