According to iMedia Connection, it is estimated that manufacturers invest $50 to $520 billion dollars in co-op
marketing programs annually. In comparison to the estimated total U.S. advertising spend this year of $153 billion, reports iMedia, that translates to a lot of money available for co-op programs, but much of this funding is “left on the table.” According to the article:
A recent study by Borrell Associates estimates the online co-op market currently makes $1.7 billion available, with $450 million of that left on the table "for lack of participation." Couple this with the majority of co-op programs that limit or preclude allocating spend to digital channels, and the potential value of this market could very quickly exceed $5 to $10 billion per year. This is roughly double 2011's online retail spend of $7.1 billion (IAB/PwC).
The above statistics underscore a potentially significant opportunity for co-op marketing in the digital space. While some manufacturers have been reluctant to ‘go digital’ with their co-op marketing programs, marketing technology systems can help to streamline and simplify co-op marketing management, conserve staff time, and most importantly, make it easier for distributed sales representatives and sales channels to do business with your company, ultimately helping you to become the brand of choice.
Using Marketing Resource Management Systems for Co-op Marketing: 4 Benefits
Marketing resource management systems (MRM) simplify the process of managing marketing materials and campaigns – both online and offline – in coordination with a field sales force, agents, dealers, distributors, partners, etc. Specifically, MRM systems facilitate co-op marketing by enabling you to:
1. Create consistently polished brand impressions. Marketing assets and templates that adhere to your specific branding guidelines (logo, colors, brand imagery, tagline) can be made available to your distributed sales channels for personalization and immediate use through your MRM system.
2. Simplify management of co-op budgets and programs. MRM systems empower distributed sales representatives and channels to work within the budget you allocate to each party, while funds are automatically debited by campaign and partner and tracked within the MRM system.
3. Be agile. Distributed sales representatives, partners and agents can quickly localize and personalize marketing messages in real time through your MRM system, while workflow approvals can be specified to review and approve customizations, shortening the path from campaign to conversion.
4. Leverage integration. Full service marketing partners integrate seamlessly with your business to help ensure you’re using all of the features and tools available through your MRM system. Additionally, partnering with a full service marketing provider with integrated print capabilities can help free up your marketing team’s time: campaigns are managed end-to-end by the marketing partner rather than managed on an ad hoc basis by corporate marketing staff.
Conclusion
With a significant amount of online co-op marketing dollars remaining unclaimed, co-op marketing through digital channels is positioned for future growth. MRM systems can help to streamline and simplify co-op marketing management by empowering distributed sales channels with the resources they need to represent your brand according to the branding guidelines and specifications you set. Although we focused on manufacturers in this blog, MRM systems are also highly effective for any business with a distributed sales model such as insurance and financial services.
How will you streamline co-op marketing management with your MRM system?
