Co-operative advertising is one of the advertising tools that have received much recognition from many industries in the contemporary society. It involves the sharing of the advertisement costs among different parties. There are two main types of cooperative advertising (Trehan, and Trehan 15):
Vertical cooperative advertising: just as the name suggests, different channel members share the cost of advertising (vertically). For instance, this may involve a manufacturer, wholesaler and a retailer whereby the wholesaler provides for over 50% of the advertising expenditure.
Horizontal cooperative advertising: This involves the pulling of resources by different members of a certain industry (e.g. manufacturers) to cater for the advertising expenses. The goal of such an arrangement is to increase the primary demand of the industry’s products.
There are several benefits/values of co-operative advertising, which I have grouped in four main categories:
Financial: This is one of the main advantages of cooperative advertising as the company is able to cut on the advertising costs since the cost is shared between several companies/business entities. For instance, the company can team up with a known retailer to make an advertisement on any media, which could be more costly if done individually.
Ability to learn new methods of advertising: Large and well-established business organizations spent many resources in building outstanding advertising methods. When one teams up with such an organization in advertising their products, they will be able to learn the effective methods applied by such organizations. The company in question can apply the learnt methods of advertising in its own local adverts to boost its sales.
Exposure: There are two main ways in which a company can gain exposure through cooperate advertising. The financial benefit that one gets in the process gives the company more funds to invest in other advertisement outlets increasing the company’s ability to capture a wider market (Anderson 3).
On the other hand, if the company teams up with a larger business organization in a cooperative advertising plan, it not only increases the company’s public visibility but also enables the company to benefit from the other’s marketing strength.
IV) Growth: Collaborating with companies in a different geographical location enables the company to get a new market thus increases its sales (Batra 107). This plays a pivotal role in the growth of the business entity in question.
Co-operative marketing can take a number of forms. One of the forms is the ability of the company to tap into the social networking sites such as Facebook and twitter. This may include the creation of pages that also incorporate other reputable stakeholders in the industry in question.
A company can further study the lifestyle of a certain target group. Such information is necessary in identifying some of the key areas that its products might fit and remain acceptable within the given setting. This motivates the recipients of the products to get to know more about the product thus a perfect strategy of stirring up an increase in sales in the future.
Furthermore, by understanding the consumer needs of the target market, GGI will be capable of knowing the other business organizations that provide for the needs of that particular market.
Owing to this, it can proceed to choose its partners for the joint marketing depending on their reputation and compatibility with the marketing needs of GGI. Another creative way of cooperative marketing is identifying and supporting certain charity events sponsored by other organizations. It aids in brand promotion as well.
In the determination of the type of a company to partner with in joint marketing efforts, the company in question should make several considerations.
These include the overall reputation of the company, its advertising/marketing strengths, ability to complement with each other as well as its financial position. According to Pisierra, McKinney and Chawla, the company should consider the target market especially the consumer needs (3). It requires the company in question to make some important considerations and be open to the cooperate world.
Works Cited
Anderson, Arnold. “The advantages of cooperative advertising”. 2012. Web.
Batra, Amita. Advertising Management. Delhi: Pearson Education India, 2007. Print.
Pisierra, Valery, McKinney, William, and Chawla, Sudhir. “Benefits of cooperative Advertising.” 2004. Web.
Trehan, Mukesh, and Trehan Ranju. Advertising and Sales Management. NY: FK Publications, 2012. Print.