Why do we ever choose marketing partners?
Why did Mars ink a deal with Nascar?
Why would SkiDoo partner with Burton snowboards?
Why did Duracell partner with the Children's Hospital at UCLA last winter?
Why did Kellogs partner with Feeding America?
Partners are either willing to fund marketing efforts or, more often, extend marketing reach via a new channel, affinity group or customer base. There are also the partnerships driven by endorsement. Celebrities and non-profits come quickly to mind here. The marketer needs the celebrity endorsement ususally to drive earned media attention. They need the non-profit to lend credibility to their drive to give $100K to charity (tied to selling more of their core product or driving up relevant awareness, of course)
Today, you should always choose a partner with strong social media marketing muscle. This is particularly true in the case of the non-profit endorsement partnership. Many brand marketers form partnerships with non-profits to earn some good will with customers or prospects for aligning their product with a 'social good.' Certainly, many brands have a deep commitment to social causes that are organic to their brand. Starbucks and fair trade coffee come to mind. Many more have a more transitory, campaign-long commitment.
Too many brand marketers select a non profit partner based upon simple relevancy to an issue - are they supporting clean drinking water in parts of the globe; are they supporting breast cancer research?
Beyond the relevancy and responsibility of a non profit partner, brands should look for non profits who understand social media marketing and have built an advocacy network that they will activate on behlf of the partner initiative. They shoudl think of these partners as the most modern of marketing partners.
Look for a partner with:
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A strong email list with whom they connect regularly
- A Facebook presence with a clear sense of mission and growing fanbase
- Experience activating their members to action via digital channels
- Growing use of Twitter to keep followers up to date and driven to deeper engagement
- A "social Web" site: one that is designed for action and sharing not self-aggrandizing Flash movies or simple brochureware
Brands partner with non-profits to support those causes and introduce their supporters to the brand. Brands want to market products on the backs of causes. That's a bit of a cold way to put it but still true. Beyond their authentic interest in supporting a cause, brands are using the partnership as a marketing hook. They are using the "borrowed interest" of the cause to generate interest in their product.
To be as successful as possible, brands needs to leverage the grassroots marketing infrastructure of the non-profit. Many non profits are savvy advocacy organizations. Brands need that social media muscle to connect with people who will care about their partnership and drive them to some meaningful action.
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