What Is Co-Op Advertising?

Cooperative advertising refers to an advertising arrangement between manufacturers and middlemen. The manufacturers share a part of the media cost of the advertising activities launched by the middlemen for the manufacturers' products. The amount allocated by the manufacturer is usually determined by the purchase quantity. ^[1]

Cooperative advertising

Right!

Cooperative advertising refers to an advertising arrangement between manufacturers and middlemen. The manufacturers share a part of the media cost of the advertising activities launched by the middlemen for the manufacturers' products. The amount allocated by the manufacturer is usually determined by the purchase quantity. ^[1]

First, can cooperate with other brands or products under the same company

In the same advertisement, two products or two brands of a company are displayed at the same time. On the basis of saving advertising costs and appealing for product selling points, it is also conducive to forming an overall image and showing the company's strength. In most cases, the products of the same company will have the same customer group, and at the same time, it is more convenient for the same company to cooperate, which provides favorable conditions for cooperative advertising.

Wahaha company once put two products of pure water and fruit juice into one advertisement to promote it. The storyline of Wang Lihong drinking pure water and the beautiful girl drinking fruit juice was the storyline, with "each has its own taste and is born a pair." It is a slogan that attracts the attention of the audience and forms a better advertising effect.

Second, we can cooperate with user brands

Relying on user comments to show that a product is excellent is a common strategy in advertising. For example, common celebrity ads are the products of this strategy. Extending this thinking, many production-type enterprises can form linkages with their customer brands and show their excellence through user excellence. This breaks through the common mode of Wang Po selling melons and self-confidence, allowing users to act as corroborating evidence, enhancing the credibility of the testimony, making people feel more authentic and reliable. And most customer brands are also happy to enjoy free lunch, proving themselves while proving others.

There is such a print advertisement. The picture shows two Uighur girls holding a bowl of instant noodles from Master Kong. The corresponding text is "The 5,999,999,999 packets of instant noodles from Master Kong are sold today in Altay, Xinjiang". At a glance, it seems that it is Master Kong s advertisement. In fact, these are all for the purpose of explaining Microsoft's information system. Microsoft is the real advertiser. Microsoft borrows a specific client, Master Kong, to express itself. The whole advertisement reflects a demanding style of speaking with facts, reflecting Microsoft's strong, stable and professional brand image. This advertisement is for Microsoft and Master Kong to use their strengths and win-win interaction, which is worth learning from.

Third, you can work with brands with the same user base

Many brands have the same user group, then they can use cooperative advertising to allow specific consumers to reach two brands at the same time and space, reduce advertising costs, improve the cost-effectiveness of communication, and form a linkage and resonance in the image to achieve " 1 + 1> 2 "effect, the above-mentioned Bilang and Haier washing machines are such examples. Most of the few cooperative advertisements in the Chinese market currently fall into this category. Coca-Cola and the Aion Games, McDonald's and Dynamic Zone have all done similar cooperation.

It should be noted that the two parties of such cooperation need to be door to door and have similar positions in terms of market share, brand image, product level, consumer awareness, etc. Otherwise, it may have a negative impact on the image of a strong party.

Fourth, we can cooperate with brands in the same industry

Peer brands are direct competitors, but they have to form a cooperation with an ad at the same time. This cooperation method seems difficult to understand. But in fact, there is a lot of space for such cooperation. There are two main situations.

In the first case, certain types of products are always impacted by substitutable products. All brands in this category are on the same front in a certain sense. While competing with similar brands, they must also be unified and unified in a timely manner. Competition for alternatives must not only fight civil war, but also defend against foreign enemies. For example, the "foreign enemy" of solar water heaters is gas water heaters and electric water heaters. Solar energy leading brands such as Huang Ming, Siji Mu Ge, Linuo Ruite can co-invest in cooperative advertising, promote the advantages of solar water heaters as a whole and inform consumers They are leaders in this market.

In the second case, in a market, there are always some brands in the same or similar situation. These brands in similar situations can also cooperate to improve the overall image. For example, in the MP3 market, there are many brands, including foreign brands such as ipod, Samsung, and innovation, local brands with a certain strength represented by Onda, Taipower, and Meizu, as well as countless copycat machines, workshop machines, and miscellaneous brands. machine. Onda and other brands have the same situation. On the one hand, their quality is similar to that of international brands, but the price is only 1/3 to 1/2. At the same time, the price is not much different from the cottage, but the quality is not at all a level. In this case, Onda, Taipower, Meizu, etc. can run cooperative advertising, highlight the positioning of "excellent local brands with high cost performance", and give consumers guidance on their own lineup.

First, image resonance

Resonance is a concept in physics, which refers to the situation where a physical system vibrates at the maximum amplitude at a specific frequency. In the resonance system, since the vibration frequency is basically the same, the amplitude superposition will produce the largest effect. Many reasons are common between nature and society, and resonance can be used to explain the effectiveness of cooperative advertising.

In the traditional advertising model, there is only one isolated brand in the advertisement, and it is difficult to form a coordination within the advertisement. And in cooperative advertising, two or more brands facing common consumers can make them compare and contact, leaving a deeper impression on the brand. If used properly, cooperative advertising can superimpose the image of two brands, easily form a joint force, and affect consumers, so as to achieve the resonance of the brand image and maximize the impact on consumers.

Cognitive psychology believes that human memory is like a web with many nodes and connected by related connections. When a person processes information between two nodes in a meaningful way, the connection between the two nodes is established. When a connection is formed, the connection and nodes can be activated. Activation is the process by which a node or connection is stimulated to express its content to other nodes. The activation of one node can quickly propagate to other nodes that are connected. The essence of cooperative advertising is that two brands increase their nodes and connections through association. When one brand's information is stimulated, it will quickly activate the relevant information of the other brand, thereby increasing the chance of being thought or bought.

Second, cost reduction

From the perspective of cost commitment, cooperative advertising can be divided into two forms. One is that the two brands in advertising have equal status and balanced roles, and the two parties jointly fund the advertising operation. The other is that there is a distinction between primary and secondary. One brand is a secondary party and does not bear the advertising costs. Its emergence is only as a background, a prop, and an evidence to show the excellence of another brand. Advertisers assume.

In the first method, the two parties jointly bear the costs of planning, production, and broadcasting. Because of the resonance of the image, it produces better advertising results. For any party, it is equivalent to achieving advertising purposes at half the cost. The second method, although the "main brand" in the advertisement bears the entire cost, but because of the "testimony" of the cooperation brand, it is easier to be convinced by the audience, and it should have beyond the conventional advertising effect. In order to explain themselves, the "primary brand" must first demonstrate the excellence of the partner. In this way, the "secondary brand" has completed a free journey in it, increasing the opportunity to meet consumers. It is not difficult to see that no matter which cooperative advertising method is cost-effective for both parties.