Hamburger and soap
What would be the effect of recommending two or even more unmatched products to your customers, such as hamburgers and soaps? Today, with the continuous innovation of marketing methods, this is no longer a novel trick. In a McDonald's commercial, Safeguard Soap appeared as a prize for McDonald's prized sales to consumers of commercials. There are also many brands seeking this interactive cooperation.
For example, during the World Cup, TCL and McDonald's performed a win-win promotion strategy. All McDonald's restaurants in Mainland China open up the TCL McDonald's “World Cup Watch Club†area. McDonald's Restaurant also holds a large "World Cup quiz and awards game," and TCL offers prizes such as "29 Color TVs", "HiD One Button Flying," DVD Players, and Repeaters. In addition, at the TCL product sales point nationwide, TCL also distributed coupons for McDonald's 10 yuan (original price 15 yuan). With this coupon, consumers can go to McDonald's restaurant for consumption.
In the era of cooperative economy, more and more companies have formed alliances and cooperation agreements in order to seek the development of symbiotic interaction. This kind of strategically united thinking in the field of marketing communications, this article tentatively called the interactive communication between brands. It refers to a marketing method in which two or more brands start from their own interests, seek the same vision, and cooperate in marketing and communication.
The current situation faced by business owners is the current media diversity, information is full, and products tend to be homogenized. How to master the most effective and lowest cost communication tools is a competitive weapon that advertisers are currently seeking. Brand interactive communication can be used as such weapon.
It can be said that brand interactive communication strategies have reasons for existence at many contact points of the brand. Many marketing communications tools are implemented jointly by two or more brands:
Co-branding: Brands appear together in a CF television ad or print ad, sharing the cost of advertising. As mentioned above, a joint advertisement of McDonald's and Shu Fujia.
Co-promotion: Buying a branded product can receive another brand's product, or buying two branded products at the same time can get preferential treatment. This kind of strategy is widely used.
Cross POP: Customers can obtain promotional information for another brand on the access terminal of a brand.
Parasitic tactics: For example, the "INTEL INSIDE" strategy, attached to the PC brand, gradually made people accept the concept of INTEL as the industrial standard of the CPU, and the PC brand got the benefits of reduced advertising costs.
Joint Services: As an example, several major commercial banks in China have launched networking services on ATMs, one to facilitate customers and the other to increase the exposure of their respective brands.
Joint PR: A joint press conference such as a business; ... and so on.
It is in this alliance that the brand achieves the purpose of interaction and achieves the goal of mutual benefit.
Base: Not just swapping apples
The essence of interactive brand communication is the complementary of market resources between brands. Each brand has its own specific market and customer base, with its own access, marketing model, and so on. These are the unique resources of the brand. Through interactive communication between brands, they can use each other's channels to penetrate the brand's information to each other's customers. Through the complementarity of two kinds of market resources, it can expand the scope of the brand to be perceived, reduce the cost of marketing communications, strengthen the brand image and so on. Since brands participating in interactive communication are often not competitive brands, they will not have an impact on the brand's competitive position in the existing market; or even if they are competitive brands, the mutual benefits will offset the negative impact. There is such a famous saying: “Exchange an apple with others. I get an apple; exchange ideas with people and I will get two kinds of ideas.†So, exchange market resources? It should also be possible to achieve the "exchange of ideas" effect. It is precisely for the purpose of this resource sharing that the interactive communication between brands takes place. Take OpCorp Marketing Group as an example. In 1998, it brought Canadian Cabernet Beverage Company and Canada’s Twentieth Century Fox Film Company together to make a ticket sales promotion. Through the release of an animation, the two brands “Carberry Drink†and “Fox†were linked. The main participants in the project have obtained breakthrough sales channels. Fox made its debut at the grocery store, and Carberley won attention at video retailers and wholesalers.
(to be continued)