Co-branding and Why "....I Get Off on Screamin' Guitar....."
I have just recentley left the real estate sales field to go back into mortgage banking. I have started co branding with agents and they are shocked that I would be willing to do this with them. I have done it in the past with builders and title companys and the agents are the last ones to embrace it. A curve in the road is not a stop but a different direction to the same end place. We need to look ate many different marketing methods in this new and trying economy
“I get off on ’57 Chevys…I get off on screamin’ guitar…”
There are just some songs that whenever I hear them will get my attention. This happens to be one of them. I mean, it’s the kind of song where you just have to stop, close your eyes, and give a good sway (yeah, fellas, I said sway) or two. It transports me to summertime barbeques and makes me feel like I should find the nearest convertible and go cruisin’.
So imagine my surprise when, strolling through my living room the other day, it began to play over my TV. I stopped, gave a little sway (just a little one) and watched Eric Clapton, without saying a word, show me what instantly became the most ridiculously cool phone I had ever seen: the Fender edition myTouch 3G being hocked by TMobile. It was the full package—the wood-looking case with the Fender logo, the app that lets you strum (STRUM!) on your phone, Buddy Guy on the other end…Hey—I’m not ashamed to admit that I was pretty much ready to beg, borrow or steal to get out the door and buy that phone.
And that, my friends, is the sheer, unadulterated power of co-branding when it’s done right. Combine a rock ‘n roll classic name (Fender) with an already strong company (TMobile) and you’re headed the right direction. Get a guitar god on board to pitch it, and suddenly you have the ability to take your typical, average, basic cell phone (yawn) and make it into something that makes a grown man want to go to the mall (the mall!) to pick one up.
Co-branding, which is far from a new concept (how many Eddie Bauer editions of the Ford Explorer have there been over the last couple of decades, for heavens sake?), maximizes investment in R&D and/or marketing for companies, optimally giving twice the impact for the same dollar. From time to time, a weaker company (like Nutrasweet back in the day) gets the one-in-a-lifetime chance to co-brand with a power house (Pepsi or Coke), exploding it into the market in a way that anyone would envy. Perhaps more common is when two major players (Nike and Apple) come together to create and promote a product that will go further, faster in the market that either could do alone.
Most companies opt to co-brand to either strengthen their market position or to expand into a new product/service line. While not always successful if one or both brands is at risk (Martha Stewart and Kmart—one went to jail, one declared bankruptcy), co-branding usually brings with it shared risk and exponentially higher financial benefit to both companies—and might even result in a future, formal merger (ebay and PayPal).
Before I sit back, channel my inner Clapton and maybe do a little phone sway, I’m going to ask you to give this some thought: Is there one company (or two or three) that you could partner with in a co-branding effort? What would you bring to the table and what would you need them to bring? How much faster or more effectively could you get your message and service offerings out if you used their advertising channels, and how could helping them get their message out in turn benefit you? Oh yeah—and what are you waiting for?
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got little swaying to do.
“...I’ve got a rock ‘n roll, I’ve got a rock ‘n roll heart…”
This post was written by Mark Warner (ActivRain Profile) of RateWindow.com. Get a hold of Mark for information on how you can take your branding to the next level by incorporating your loan officers into your marketing efforts.
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