Collaborating with another brand to create a product or service that combines elements of both partners, often featuring both logos.
When both brands have complementary products.
Enhances brand visibility and trust.
Expanded product offerings.
Conflicting brand image.
Joint Promotions
Running joint marketing campaigns or promotions that promote both brands, typically through shared advertising or events.
During seasonal events or special occasions.
Increased exposure and customer engagement.
Shared marketing costs.
Dependence on partner’s success.
Affiliate Marketing
Partnering with affiliates or influencers to promote each other’s products or services, often through affiliate programs.
When seeking a wider online reach.
Generates leads and drives sales.
Cost-effective marketing.
Loss of control over messaging.
Content Collaboration
Collaborating on content creation, such as blog posts, videos, or webinars, to reach a wider audience and share expertise.
When aiming to showcase industry knowledge.
Establishes thought leadership.
Fresh and diverse content.
Time and resource-intensive.
Loyalty Programs
Combining or cross-promoting loyalty programs to reward customers for engaging with both brands.
For long-term customer retention.
Fosters customer loyalty.
Mutual benefits for loyal customers.
Complex program integration.
Exclusive Offers
Providing exclusive discounts or offers to each other’s customers, encouraging cross-purchases and loyalty.
During special sales events or promotions.
Increases conversion rates.
Encourages cross-brand purchases.
Potential cannibalization of sales.
Sponsorships and Events
Sponsoring or co-hosting events, conferences, or trade shows to increase brand visibility and reach a targeted audience.
For industry-specific exposure.
Enhances brand reputation.
Access to a focused audience.
High event costs and logistics.
Social Media Cross-Promotion
Promoting each other’s content or products on social media platforms, leveraging each partner’s followers and engagement.
To expand social media presence.
Boosts social media engagement.
Increased reach and engagement.
Content alignment challenges.
Product Bundling
Offering bundled packages that include products or services from both partners, providing added value to customers.
When products or services complement each other.
Attracts price-sensitive customers.
Mutual value proposition.
Pricing and inventory coordination.
Referral Programs
Implementing referral programs where customers are encouraged to refer friends or colleagues to both partner brands.
When aiming for customer acquisition.
Generates new leads and customers.
Incentivizes word-of-mouth marketing.
Requires tracking and rewards management.
Data Sharing and Insights
Sharing customer data or market insights to improve targeting and personalization in marketing efforts.
When seeking data-driven marketing strategies.
Enhances personalization and targeting.
Improved campaign effectiveness.
Data privacy and security concerns.
Cross-Channel Marketing
Coordinating marketing efforts across various channels, such as email, social media, and paid advertising, to create a unified campaign.
When aiming for a consistent brand message.
Creates a seamless customer experience.
Broadens reach and exposure.
Requires strong communication and coordination.
Co-hosted Webinars and Workshops
Collaborating to host online seminars, workshops, or educational sessions to showcase expertise and engage audiences.
For thought leadership and knowledge sharing.
Demonstrates industry expertise.
Engages target audiences effectively.
Planning and scheduling challenges.
Cause Marketing
Partnering for a common cause or charity, demonstrating corporate social responsibility and appealing to socially conscious consumers.
When both brands share a commitment to a cause.
Enhances brand reputation and goodwill.
Positive public relations.
Authenticity concerns if not genuine.
Cross-Promotion in Packaging
Featuring each other’s branding or promotional materials on packaging or within product shipments to reach customers directly.
For physical products and retail environments.
Increases visibility at the point of purchase.
Direct exposure to customers.
Limited to physical product collaborations.
With partnership marketing, two or more companies team up to create marketing campaigns that help them grow organically with a mutual agreement, thus making it possible to reach shared business goals. Partnership marketing leverages the time and resources of partners that help them expand their market.
Partnership marketing can be a great way to grow a business in several circumstances. As financial resources might be scarce and a company wants to grow more organically, partnership marketing can help in forming long-term relationships to expand overnight the market of your company.
In short, partnership marketing can be the most effective organic growth strategy as an alternative to other paid channels.
The Pinterest Shopify’s app case study
Announcing our new channel partnership with our friends at @Pinterest! Get @Shopify products in front of 350m+ Pinners for free with shoppable Pins and shop profile tabs, plus buy shopping ads all from one app. 📍 https://t.co/IHmw7xN8yi
The Pinterest app on Shopify is a great example of how partnerships can be used as a win-win-win.
Both companies (Shopify and Pinterest) can gain from the partnership. And as effect also its main partners (e-commerce websites on Shopify, users on Pinterest).
Indeed, Shopify makes it even easier for its e-commerce websites to directly post their product listing on Pinterest, thus expanding each of its products.
At the same time, Pinterest benefits by gaining more active users and by enabling more curated images on the platform, which makes it more valuable for Pinterest users. And in turn, the company would be able to sell more advertising.
As specified on the Pinterest blog:
The Pinterest app on Shopify includes a suite of shopping features like tag installation, catalog ingestion, automatic daily updating of products, and an ads buying interface.
The Shopify’s Pinterest App
As further explained on the Pinterest blog:
By uploading their catalog feed, merchants make it possible for people to discover and save their products and buy directly from their website. People come to Pinterest with an intent to plan and purchase.
How the Pinterest App on Shopify, born as a partnership between the two brands, will help e-commerce platforms on Shopify to sell more. While adding value to Pinterest’s users and further growing the market for both platforms. This is a win-win-win.
In a well-executed Partnership Marketing agreement, everyone wins
As we saw, partnership marketing can be a great way to organically growt a business while simultaneously expanding its boundaries, as partners can draw from each other’s markets to add more value to their existing audience.
A well-executed partnership marketing plan then adds value for everyone!
The Pinterest-Shopify Partnership Two Years Later
It’s always interesting to look at how partnerships evolve.
Building effective partnerships is not a simple task.
So how did eventually go the partnership between Pinterest and Shopify?
After two years after its launch, the partnership expanded across many other countries.
As of June 2022, Pinterest and Shopify expanded the discoverability feature to 29 markets and 450+ million users!
Key Highlights
Partnership Marketing Overview: Partnership marketing involves collaboration between two or more companies to create marketing campaigns that leverage each other’s resources and reach to achieve shared business goals. It’s a strategy for organic growth and expanding markets.
Benefits and Scenarios: Partnership marketing is effective in situations where a company wants to grow organically with limited financial resources. It forms long-term relationships and allows businesses to tap into each other’s markets, providing an alternative to paid advertising channels.
Pinterest Shopify App Case Study: The partnership between Pinterest and Shopify is highlighted as an example of successful partnership marketing. Both companies benefit, as do their primary users (e-commerce websites on Shopify and users on Pinterest). The app allows Shopify sellers to easily showcase products on Pinterest, expanding their reach, while Pinterest gains more active users and valuable content.
Shopify’s Pinterest App: The Pinterest app on Shopify facilitates shopping features, including product tagging, catalog integration, daily updates of products, and an ad buying interface. Merchants uploading their catalog feed can benefit from Pinterest’s user intent to plan and purchase.
Win-Win-Win Situation: Partnership marketing, when executed well, benefits all parties involved. Partners can tap into each other’s markets, adding value to their audiences and expanding their boundaries, resulting in mutual growth.
Pinterest-Shopify Partnership’s Progress: The partnership between Pinterest and Shopify evolved positively. After two years, it expanded to many other countries and markets, reaching over 450 million users in 29 markets by June 2022.
Other Case Studies
Tech Company
Partnership Description
Strategic Impact
Advantages
Drawbacks
Apple & Nike
Apple partnered with Nike to create the Apple Watch Nike+, combining fitness tracking with a stylish smartwatch.
Enhanced product appeal, fitness tracking, and brand association.
Expanded customer base, fitness enthusiasts, and cross-promotion.
Limited to Apple Watch users, potential brand dilution.
Google & Uber
Google integrated Uber into Google Maps, allowing users to book Uber rides directly from the app.
Improved user experience and convenience.
Increased user engagement and seamless transportation options.
Potential data privacy and competition concerns.
Microsoft & LinkedIn
Microsoft acquired LinkedIn, integrating it into Office 365, allowing users to connect their professional networks.
Enhanced business productivity and networking capabilities.
Seamless integration of professional and productivity tools.
Data privacy concerns, potential for misuse.
Amazon & Whole Foods
Amazon acquired Whole Foods, offering Amazon Prime discounts to Whole Foods shoppers and expanding online grocery delivery.
Increased customer loyalty and access to a new market.
Synergy between e-commerce and physical retail, convenience.
Regulatory scrutiny, potential local backlash.
IBM & Salesforce
IBM partnered with Salesforce to integrate Watson AI with Salesforce’s CRM platform, enhancing customer insights.
Improved data-driven decision-making and customer engagement.
Enhanced CRM functionality and predictive analytics.
Integration challenges and potential data concerns.
Facebook & Oculus
Facebook acquired Oculus VR, leveraging virtual reality technology for social interactions and gaming.
Expanded virtual reality ecosystem and social VR experiences.
Access to Oculus technology and growing VR user base.
Privacy concerns, limited initial adoption.
Google & Nest
Google acquired Nest Labs, integrating Nest’s smart home products with Google Assistant and Home.
Enhanced smart home ecosystem and voice-controlled devices.
Seamless smart home control and improved product innovation.
Privacy concerns and data sharing implications.
Microsoft & GitHub
Microsoft acquired GitHub, integrating it into its developer ecosystem, offering code hosting, and collaboration tools.
Strengthened developer community and collaboration capabilities.
Access to GitHub’s developer network and code repositories.
Concerns about Microsoft’s influence and platform lock-in.
Shopify is an e-commerce platform that enabled over 2 million merchants in 2021 to commercialize their products. While Shopify works with a subscription-based business model, it makes most of its money via merchant services, which are additional services provided to merchants. The company generated over $5.6 billion in revenue, of which $1.5 billion (almost 27% of total revenue) was from subscriptions and $4.1 billion (more than 73% of total revenue) from merchant solutions.
While Merchant services drive most of the revenue for Shopify, in reality, subscriptions have a much larger contribution margin. Indeed, in 2022, on $5.6 billion in revenue, merchants’ services generated $1.6 billion in gross profits. On $1.49 billion in revenues, subscriptions generated over a billion dollars in gross profits. In short, subscriptions have a low cost of revenue compared to merchant services. Thus subscriptions carry a gross profit margin of over 77%, vs. a gross margin of almost 39% for merchant services.
Shopify was not profitable in 2022, generating over $3.4 billion in net losses. Shopify’s profitability deteriorated in 2022. Indeed, in 2021, driven by the massive wave of e-commerce throughout the COVID-19 pandemic; Shopify had turned to profitability in 2021, generating over $2.9 billion in net income, while it became unprofitable again in 2022.
In just fifteen short years, Shopify has grown from humble beginnings to become one of the fastest-growing eCommerce platforms online. The Shopify eCommerce solution is perhaps best suited to users who desire an easy, flexible and affordable starter solution for their online store. The provider now has upwards of 820,000 stores accounting for 20% of the total market share. However, the continued success of any company in the dynamic digital market is never guaranteed.
Account-based marketing (ABM) is a strategy where the marketing and sales departments come together to create personalized buying experiences for high-value accounts. Account-based marketing is a business-to-business (B2B) approach in which marketing and sales teams work together to target high-value accounts and turn them into customers.
Ad Ops – also known as Digital Ad Operations – refers to systems and processes that support digital advertisements’ delivery and management. The concept describes any process that helps a marketing team manage, run, or optimize ad campaigns, making them an integrating part of the business operations.
Venture capitalist, Dave McClure, coined the acronym AARRR which is a simplified model that enables to understand what metrics and channels to look at, at each stage for the users’ path toward becoming customers and referrers of a brand.
Affinity marketing involves a partnership between two or more businesses to sell more products. Note that this is a mutually beneficial arrangement where one brand can extend its reach and enhance its credibility in association with the other.
As the name suggests, ambush marketing raises awareness for brands at events in a covert and unexpected fashion. Ambush marketing takes many forms, one common element, the brand advertising their products or services has not paid for the right to do so. Thus, the business doing the ambushing attempts to capitalize on the efforts made by the business sponsoring the event.
Affiliate marketing describes the process whereby an affiliate earns a commission for selling the products of another person or company. Here, the affiliate is simply an individual who is motivated to promote a particular product through incentivization. The business whose product is being promoted will gain in terms of sales and marketing from affiliates.
The bullseye framework is a simple method that enables you to prioritize the marketing channels that will make your company gain traction. The main logic of the bullseye framework is to find the marketing channels that work and prioritize them.
Brand building is the set of activities that help companies to build an identity that can be recognized by its audience. Thus, it works as a mechanism of identification through core values that signal trust and that help build long-term relationships between the brand and its key stakeholders.
According to inbound marketing platform HubSpot, brand dilution occurs “when a company’s brand equity diminishes due to an unsuccessful brand extension, which is a new product the company develops in an industry that they don’t have any market share in.” Brand dilution, therefore, occurs when a brand decreases in value after the company releases a product that does not align with its vision, mission, or skillset.
The brand essence wheel is a templated approach businesses can use to better understand their brand. The brand essence wheel has obvious implications for external brand strategy. However, it is equally important in simplifying brand strategy for employees without a strong marketing background. Although many variations of the brand essence wheel exist, a comprehensive wheel incorporates information from five categories: attributes, benefits, values, personality, brand essence.
The brand equity is the premium that a customer is willing to pay for a product that has all the objective characteristics of existing alternatives, thus, making it different in terms of perception. The premium on seemingly equal products and quality is attributable to its brand equity.
Brand positioning is about creating a mental real estate in the mind of the target market. If successful, brand positioning allows a business to gain a competitive advantage. And it also works as a switching cost in favor of the brand. Consumers recognizing a brand might be less prone to switch to another brand.
Business storytelling is a critical part of developing a business model. Indeed, the way you frame the story of your organization will influence its brand in the long-term. That’s because your brand story is tied to your brand identity, and it enables people to identify with a company.
Content marketing is one of the most powerful commercial activities which focuses on leveraging content production (text, audio, video, or other formats) to attract a targeted audience. Content marketing focuses on building a strong brand, but also to convert part of that targeted audience into potential customers.
One of the first mentions of customer lifetime value was in the 1988 book Database Marketing: Strategy and Implementation written by Robert Shaw and Merlin Stone. Customer lifetime value (CLV) represents the value of a customer to a company over a period of time. It represents a critical business metric, especially for SaaS or recurring revenue-based businesses.
Customer segmentation is a marketing method that divides the customers in sub-groups, that share similar characteristics. Thus, product, marketing and engineering teams can center the strategy from go-to-market to product development and communication around each sub-group. Customer segments can be broken down is several ways, such as demographics, geography, psychographics and more.
Developer marketing encompasses tactics designed to grow awareness and adopt software tools, solutions, and SaaS platforms. Developer marketing has become the standard among software companies with a platform component, where developers can build applications on top of the core software or open software. Therefore, engaging developer communities has become a key element of marketing for many digital businesses.
A digital channel is a marketing channel, part of a distribution strategy, helping an organization to reach its potential customers via electronic means. There are several digital marketing channels, usually divided into organic and paid channels. Some organic channels are SEO, SMO, email marketing. And some paid channels comprise SEM, SMM, and display advertising.
Field marketing is a general term that encompasses face-to-face marketing activities carried out in the field. These activities may include street promotions, conferences, sales, and various forms of experiential marketing. Field marketing, therefore, refers to any marketing activity that is performed in the field.
interaction with a brand until they become a paid customer and beyond.
Funnel marketing is modeled after the marketing funnel, a concept that tells the company how it should market to consumers based on their position in the funnel itself. The notion of a customer embarking on a journey when interacting with a brand was first proposed by Elias St. Elmo Lewis in 1898.
Funnel marketing typically considers three stages of a non-linear marketing funnel. These are top of the funnel (TOFU), middle of the funnel (MOFU), and bottom of the funnel (BOFU). Particular marketing strategies at each stage are adapted to the level of familiarity the consumer has with a brand.
A go-to-market strategy represents how companies market their new products to reach target customers in a scalable and repeatable way. It starts with how new products/services get developed to how these organizations target potential customers (via sales and marketing models) to enable their value proposition to be delivered to create a competitive advantage.
The term “greenwashing” was first coined by environmentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986 at a time when most consumers received their news from television, radio, and print media. Some companies took advantage of limited public access to information by portraying themselves as environmental stewards – even when their actions proved otherwise. Greenwashing is a deceptive marketing practice where a company makes unsubstantiated claims about an environmentally-friendly product or service.
Grassroots marketing involves a brand creating highly targeted content for a particular niche or audience. When an organization engages in grassroots marketing, it focuses on a small group of people with the hope that its marketing message is shared with a progressively larger audience.
Growth marketing is a process of rapid experimentation, which in a way has to be “scientific” by keeping in mind that it is used by startups to grow, quickly. Thus, the “scientific” here is not meant in the academic sense. Growth marketing is expected to unlock growth, quickly and with an often limited budget.
Guerrilla marketing is an advertising strategy that seeks to utilize low-cost and sometimes unconventional tactics that are high impact. First coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his 1984 book of the same title, guerrilla marketing works best on existing customers who are familiar with a brand or product and its particular characteristics.
Hunger marketing is a marketing strategy focused on manipulating consumer emotions. By bringing products to market with an attractive price point and restricted supply, consumers have a stronger desire to make a purchase.
Integrated marketing communication (IMC) is an approach used by businesses to coordinate and brand their communication strategies. Integrated marketing communication takes separate marketing functions and combines them into one, interconnected approach with a core brand message that is consistent across various channels. These encompass owned, earned, and paid media. Integrated marketing communication has been used to great effect by companies such as Snapchat, Snickers, and Domino’s.
Inbound marketing is a marketing strategy designed to attract customers to a brand with content and experiences that they derive value from. Inbound marketing utilizes blogs, events, SEO, and social media to create brand awareness and attract targeted consumers. By attracting or “drawing in” a targeted audience, inbound marketing differs from outbound marketing which actively pushes a brand onto consumers who may have no interest in what is being offered.
Integrated marketing describes the process of delivering consistent and relevant content to a target audience across all marketing channels. It is a cohesive, unified, and immersive marketing strategy that is cost-effective and relies on brand identity and storytelling to amplify the brand to a wider and wider audience.
The marketing mix is a term to describe the multi-faceted approach to a complete and effective marketing plan. Traditionally, this plan included the four Ps of marketing: price, product, promotion, and place. But the exact makeup of a marketing mix has undergone various changes in response to new technologies and ways of thinking. Additions to the four Ps include physical evidence, people, process, and even politics.
Marketing myopia is the nearsighted focus on selling goods and services at the expense of consumer needs. Marketing myopia was coined by Harvard Business School professor Theodore Levitt in 1960. Originally, Levitt described the concept in the context of organizations in high-growth industries that become complacent in their belief that such industries never fail.
Marketing personas give businesses a general overview of key segments of their target audience and how these segments interact with their brand. Marketing personas are based on the data of an ideal, fictional customer whose characteristics, needs, and motivations are representative of a broader market segment.
Meme marketing is any marketing strategy that uses memes to promote a brand. The term “meme” itself was popularized by author Richard Dawkins over 50 years later in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. In the book, Dawkins described how ideas evolved and were shared across different cultures. The internet has enabled this exchange to occur at an exponential rate, with the first modern memes emerging in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Microtargeting is a marketing strategy that utilizes consumer demographic data to identify the interests of a very specific group of individuals. Like most marketing strategies, the goal of microtargeting is to positively influence consumer behavior.
Multichannel marketing executes a marketing strategy across multiple platforms to reach as many consumers as possible. Here, a platform may refer to product packaging, word-of-mouth advertising, mobile apps, email, websites, or promotional events, and all the other channels that can help amplify the brand to reach as many consumers as possible.
Multi-level marketing (MLM), otherwise known as network or referral marketing, is a strategy in which businesses sell their products through person-to-person sales. When consumers join MLM programs, they act as distributors. Distributors make money by selling the product directly to other consumers. They earn a small percentage of sales from those that they recruit to do the same – often referred to as their “downline”.
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a measure of the ability of a product or service to attract word-of-mouth advertising. NPS is a crucial part of any marketing strategy since attracting and then retaining customers means they are more likely to recommend a business to others.
Neuromarketing information is collected by measuring brain activity related to specific brain functions using sophisticated and expensive technology such as MRI machines. Some businesses also choose to make inferences of neurological responses by analyzing biometric and heart-rate data.
Neuromarketing is the domain of large companies with similarly large budgets or subsidies. These include Frito-Lay, Google, and The Weather Channel.
Newsjacking as a marketing strategy was popularised by David Meerman Scott in his book Newsjacking: How to Inject Your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage. Newsjacking describes the practice of aligning a brand with a current event to generate media attention and increase brand exposure.
A microniche is a subset of potential customers within a niche. In the era of dominating digital super-platforms, identifying a microniche can kick off the strategy of digital businesses to prevent competition against large platforms. As the microniche becomes a niche, then a market, scale becomes an option.
We can define pull and push marketing from the perspective of the target audience or customers. In push marketing, as the name suggests, you’re promoting a product so that consumers can see it. In a pull strategy, consumers might look for your product or service drawn by its brand.
Real-time marketing is as exactly as it sounds. It involves in-the-moment marketing to customers across any channel based on how that customer is interacting with the brand.
Relationship marketing involves businesses and their brands forming long-term relationships with customers. The focus of relationship marketing is to increase customer loyalty and engagement through high-quality products and services. It differs from short-term processes focused solely on customer acquisition and individual sales.
Reverse marketing describes any marketing strategy that encourages consumers to seek out a product or company on their own. This approach differs from a traditional marketing strategy where marketers seek out the consumer.
Remarketing involves the creation of personalized and targeted ads for consumers who have already visited a company’s website. The process works in this way: as users visit a brand’s website, they are tagged with cookies that follow the users, and as they land on advertising platforms where retargeting is an option (like social media platforms) they get served ads based on their navigation.
Sensory marketing describes any marketing campaign designed to appeal to the five human senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are enabling marketers to design fun, interactive, and immersive sensory marketing brand experiences. Long term, businesses must develop sensory marketing campaigns that are relevant and effective in eCommerce.
Services marketing originated as a separate field of study during the 1980s. Researchers realized that the unique characteristics of services required different marketing strategies to those used in the promotion of physical goods. Services marketing is a specialized branch of marketing that promotes the intangible benefits delivered by a company to create customer value.
Sustainable marketing describes how a business will invest in social and environmental initiatives as part of its marketing strategy. Also known as green marketing, it is often used to counteract public criticism around wastage, misleading advertising, and poor quality or unsafe products.
Word-of-mouth marketing is a marketing strategy skewed toward offering a great experience to existing customers and incentivizing them to share it with other potential customers. That is one of the most effective forms of marketing as it enables a company to gain traction based on existing customers’ referrals. When repeat customers become a key enabler for the brand this is one of the best organic and sustainable growth marketing strategies.
360 marketing is a marketing campaign that utilizes all available mediums, channels, and consumer touchpoints. 360 marketing requires the business to maintain a consistent presence across multiple online and offline channels. This ensures it does not miss potentially lucrative customer segments. By its very nature, 360 marketing describes any number of different marketing strategies. However, a broad and holistic marketing strategy should incorporate a website, SEO, PPC, email marketing, social media, public relations, in-store relations, and traditional forms of advertising such as television.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
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