Alliance Marketing – The Collaboration Between Brands Towards Mutual Success

Let’s say that you go into a coffee store and you want to buy coffee for personal use at home. While you are there, you see an ad for a nearby pastry shop that has a great deal for certain products. At the same time, if you go in to the pastry shop, you can come across a coffee advertisement from the shop you just visited. The two businesses are not in a direct competition, given the fact that they sell different products, so by referring customers between them, they can actually increase sales.

What’s Alliance Marketing?

Given the example above, alliance marketing occurs when at least two companies work together in promoting their business in order to sell an idea, a product, a service or an item. There are brands that take this combo to the highest scale – the international one. The only thing that is mandatory when it comes to this type of collaboration is to be mutual beneficial for all the stakeholders that are involved in the process.

Is This Effective?

When it comes to the target audience that best reacts to alliance marketing, the loyal customers are the ones that are best reachable with this particular method. The trust in a certain brand is the sole thing that convinces people to try the allied brand. In the example illustrated above, the clients that buy coffee every time from that particular shop will be more likely to trust the recommendations of the place and try out the referred company. The very same goes for the other side as well. Basically, the brands are exchanging their “customer database”, making it possible for companies to reach certain target groups that were previously unreachable.

Development

The very first thing that companies should understand is that this type of marketing doesn’t happen by night and it won’t work for any one. Basically, an effective alliance marketing method between two brands need to involve a certain strategy based on the strong points of each company. This takes time, energy and a real effort to create and maintain a business relationship with the other company.

A first step in conducting an alliance marketing strategy is to find potential business opportunity that complement your business model. This means that you need to link the products, services and even know-how with a brand from a different field, but connected with yours in a way. Once a company is identified, the stakeholders need to express their expectations and desires upfront. They need to speak out their mind and understand the needs of the other party In order for this particular system to work. Additionally, the fees and the costs need to be discussed upfront as well, in order for the business owners to have a full perspective of what this joint action really is.

Conclusion

In order for an effective alliance strategy to take place, both sides need to take into consideration long term goals. This means that they have to invest time, energy and costs into this particular investment. Additionally, there is the common belief that stakeholders need to keep their end of the promise and deliver as such. In this way, it’s extremely effective for both sides.