Partnership Marketing Tools for Small and Medium Business

Abstract

The article presents the research results of partnership marketing tools. The relevance of the work is related to the annual increase in the level of competition and the need for companies to unite with other brands to achieve common goals, which ensures the further development of the enterprise. The work aims to systematize the main tools of partnership marketing. The tasks of the work are to identify the main partnership tools, categorize them, and choose those that can be used in small and medium-sized businesses. The benefits of partnership marketing include increased reach, load sharing, word of mouth, and increased value for consumers. Partnership marketing tools used by most companies were singled out: affiliate marketing, content partnership, sponsorship, joint products, distribution partnership, shared stores, product placement, loyalty programs, licensing, outsourcing, and joint ventures. Varieties and formats were defined for each of them. Benefits for the leading brand were identified: increased brand awareness, improved reputation, increased sales, activity, awareness of products and services, access to resources, increased visibility in search engines, increased customer retention, increased visit duration, saving time, money, resources, and avoiding system failures. Benefits for the secondary brand: increased sales, additional income, increased awareness of the company, access to the resources and audience of the primary brand, attracting new customers, and compensation for the cost of purchasing goods. Indicators for tracking the effectiveness of cooperation for each tool were determined: return on investment, coverage, stock turnover rate, number of new and potential customers, and conversion rate. The usual advantages of partnership marketing include increasing market coverage among existing and potential customers; workload distribution for the duration of the project and the opportunity to work with fantastic talent without having to deal with the hiring process; spreading information through word-of-mouth about a product or service; increasing value for your audience. It has been found that small and medium businesses can use all of the above as a partner, except for product placement, and only affiliative marketing, content partnership, partnership distribution, shared stores, and licensing as an initiator.