Ron Kunitzky’s Blog - Geyser Marketing

Google to offer Music Search

2009-11-02T17:35:00.000-05:00

According to PCMag.com - Google is going to offer Music Search to users of the popular search engines. Yet another move by Google to get in to a new vertical by partnering with Lala, Pandora and MySpace to name a few. It's supposed to be pretty easy to use. All one needs to do is type in the artists name or a name of a song. Google does it again!

Cross Promotion - Jackets & Indians

2009-09-11T17:42:00.000-04:00

Does it makes sense for Major League Baseball's Cleveland Indians to be in a cross-promotional marketing partnership with the National Hockey League's Columbus Blue-Jackets? Sure, both are Ohio based teams, yet why would a hockey team that only starts it's regular season in early October cross-promote a baseball team who's season will be over by then and is not in the October playoff race? Where is the value in that? I thought these partnerships were meant to drive traffic to games - how can you do that when the season is not even on?

The Beatles - Rock Band

2009-06-06T11:56:00.000-04:00

As if the Beatles have not sold enough records to music fans of the past four decades...they are now targeting a whole new generation of 'Rock N Rollers' with a partnership with the video game makers of the famous 'Rock Band' video game. "The Beatles: Rock Band" is going to be released in early September and will allow players to follow - and perform as - members of the legendary group. The game will include 45 Beatles songs from their extensive catalogue and they are predicting even better sales than the previous versions. Great Marketing Partnership leveraging a channel that clearly communicates to younger audiences.

Can Twitter help you sell more?

2009-05-20T17:17:00.000-04:00

Can Twitter help you sell more?

I was having a conversation with a friend over coffee earlier this week about Twitter and discussing whether or not the famous 'micro blogging' tool could actually help small and medium sized businesses sell more of their product. I'm often asked by members of the aforementioned group if Twitter can help them with their business and as I am not currently using Twitter, I can only speak from what I have learned about from others and give opinions based on my observations.

For those of you who don't know what Twitter is; it's an online 'micro blogging' tool that allows individuals to broadcast messages of 140 characters or fewer to others who choose to "follow them". Most people use Twitter to follow their favorite celebrities like Oprah Winfrey who recently adopted the technology. There are apparently over 10 million Twitter users, but it's yet to be determined now active they all are and what the true profile of a Twitter user is.

If you are looking to leverage Twitter to sell more of your products, you need to treat it like any other part of your Marketing Mix. It's basically another communications vehicle or Marketing Tool that enables you to build and foster relationships with customers and hopefully be able to sell them something should they like you as a result of actively "following you". By engaging in a dialogue with others and finding out about them as they look to find out more about you, then with any luck; you will be able to sell more to those who are interested.

If you are selling lots of a given product and doing well in your small or medium sized business, it's usually because you have done a good job of relationship-building. Twitter allows one to access millions of people who can eventually become "followers' on either a local, national and international bases. I heard recently that someone found their job on Twitter because they actively followed a Manager of a given Company that they were a "fan" of and was able to build a relationship with this person as a result which eventually led to a job offer. Not bad at all.

As a specialist in Partnership & Channel Marketing, I would advise on being cautious when introducing or discussing your products and services with people on Twitter. If you are selling through Channel Partners and using Discreet Vehicles to sell and market certain products; you need to be careful and ensure that you don't create any channel conflict with suppliers and vendors alike. That type of scenario could result in serious damage to your business. Twitter, like any social media based application, is available to the masses, so you need to really think through the strategy before opening your account and looking to acquire "followers".

Would love to hear more on how you use Twitter in your business. Maybe it will inspire me to get on it myself! Comments please!

Download this Song @ iTunes says YouTube

2009-04-10T09:14:00.002-04:00

I'm wondering if this new partnership between iTunes and YouTube is driving sales revenue for both parties?

When you pull up a song from your favorite band on YouTube a message pops up in the screen asking if you want to download this song at iTunes? It's a nice application and a great place to target music lovers, but I am not sure that visitors to free content sites like YouTube are interested in paying for music...

Your thoughts are welcome!

Transactional Selling versus Partnership Marketing

2009-03-23T10:12:00.002-04:00

Are you Transactional Selling with your Key Accounts or are you practicing Partnership Marketing?

Here is the difference:

TS does not necessarily leverage your key account partners' brand, their assets and provide opportunities to truly enhance their offering and build better products, as a result.
TS is usually shorter term and 'tactical' in nature as opposed to being 'strategic' and providing longer term value.
PM is a full-on commitment by at least two (2) parties who are helping each other to meet their sales and marketing objectives together.

Slide 6
What are you doing?

Partner Locally

2009-02-04T14:05:00.008-05:00

KFC is the leading American based Quick Service Restaurant in China with McDonald's on their tale. It's estimated that KFC has over 2,000 locations and McDonalds has just over 1,200. With so many choices in China for easy access 'take-away' food, including the local varieties, it's no wonder that McDonald's has set up a partnership with Sinopec, a gas or 'petrol' station company with over 30,000 locations across China.

It's a great move for McDonald's to Partner locally with a brand that is strong in that market and not just another American brand.

Will Big Mac's become China's favorite food much like Chicken Tikka Marsala is in the UK and Mexican is on the way to doing in the USA? If it does happen someday, the Chinese can thank Sinopec for hooking up with McDonald's.

Partnering with Media that has an Impact on Buying

2009-01-28T08:11:00.002-05:00

There is a lot of hype around social media and virtual networking sites, and marketers are diving in and keeping an eye on the emergence of these spaces, yet an interesting study from eMarketer illustrates that advertising in such media channels might be a waste of time if you are looking to influence Internet users to buy:

And the most influential media is

TV leads the way along with Magazines and Newspapers. With the 'print' side of it struggling, perhaps their is a better opportunity to partner efforts with leading publishers as opposed to paying for advertising. Leveraging a special offer for their customers and cross promoting their offering in return, could prove to be a valuable model given that advertising spend is harder to come by in this down-turn economy. Whatever the case, we need to get more creative and we need to leave the experimentation aside and focus our efforts on what produces results.

Sharing Customer Communications

2009-01-11T09:37:00.003-05:00

I'm often asked about how to communicate with end-customers once a Marketing Partnership is formed and how to deal with certain matters. Naturally, it depends on what the matter is and how the parties have agreed to divide the 'customer communication' responsibilities, yet what I often recommend is that the party that is best capable to deal with it based on resources, knowledge and expertise is the one that should take on that responsibility.

I'll reflect on a scenario that came up recently with one of our leading clients. The partner-brand that we had 'partnered' them with had a query from one of their end-customers regarding my clients' offering. It was a complicated matter so the partner-brand brought it to our attention. Upon hearing about it, my client did one better than provide 'wording' to the partner-brand for a response to the end-customer and their query - my client advised the partner-brand that they can have the end-customer contact them directly and gave email and phone number information for a qualified individual who could respond to their questions and concerns.

When you partner with another brand, you need to know about their business and what they are doing, but when it comes to specific details that surround questions about their industry where they are the 'experts' - let the 'experts' handle it. A good practice in advance of forming the Partnership is to run through potential 'customer service related scenarios' that could arise once the partner program is fully executed and to assign responsibility and develop a flow-chart for how the parties should effectively deal with each type of example. This will ensure that there is no confusion once all is in motion.

How Starbucks brought me back to Sears

2009-01-09T08:48:00.002-05:00

I have not been in a Sears department store in years. No particular reason - they just don't attract me as a retailer and like many have indicated - they don't have anything that I can't pick up anywhere else, especially at Wal-Mart.

Earlier this week, I made it back to Sears after many years of absenteeism, yet it was not Sears that got me there. It was Starbucks. A friend of mine wanted to meet up for coffee and suggested that we meet-up at the Starbucks in the bottom level of the downtown Sears store.

To sum it up - Sears lost me along the way, but managed to get me back (if only for a moment) because they have partnered with a category leader like Starbucks. By the way - the Starbucks was packed and had much more concentrated traffic than Sears did - hopefully Sears is benefiting from this relationship beyond charging them monthly rent. While making my way around the store - I did see some interesting sales. I may head back this weekend and check em' out.

In a downturn economy - consumers will likely choose simple 'comfort' purchases like coffee or a burger over anything that stretches their wallet. It's important that everyone review their offering and see where they can adjust their product mix to ensure that they are still giving people what they want and if you can't do it on your own, then you can partner with someone else who is really good at what you want to offer.

MasterCard can now partner with Banks in Canada

2008-11-19T11:26:00.002-05:00

The Federal Competition Bureau in Canada recently said that it will no longer enforce a provision in the Competition Act that prevented banks from dealing with multiple credit card companies.

Look for MasterCard to develop Marketing Partnerships with many banks beyond their relationship with BMO. Companies like Visa have held a nice market position in Canada for quite some time now - will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I'm certainly for more competition and choice.

For more, visit: Banks free to carry rival plastic

Partnering in a down economy

2008-11-14T17:07:00.004-05:00

Nortel, Circuit City, DHL, GM, Ford, etc..., are experiencing serious financial troubles to name a few. That being said, when considering who to partner with in these poor economic times, it's important to consider who they are, what their businesses are looking like and what trends are occurring in their industry or category. The last thing you want to do is affiliate to another brand that may be on a serious decline and ready to take you, your business and your customers with them in the wrong direction. It's more important than ever to not have all your eggs in one basket and select partners that will survive the uncertainty that will likely carry over through to 2010.

Some Tips....

Avoid longer term partnership agreements
Audit the prospective partners business and their industry (competitors)
Scrutinize their marketing channels, communications vehicles and plans for 2009
Ensure that their 'revised plans' can support and supplement your brand
Re-examine where the true opportunities for partnership exist

Partner with Notebooks, not just Desktops

2008-10-31T02:02:00.002-04:00

If you are going to partner with a computer OEM like HP, Dell, Sony, Apple or IBM (to name a few), be sure that you work it out so that your product is featured on their line of notebooks and not just their desktop. According to IDC, notebooks outsold desktops in the third quarter of this year and it looks like that will be the trend for a while...

You can read more here:

IDC: Notebooks Finally Outsell Desktops in U.S.

As a result, if you are looking to partner with an OEM and say bundle your software on their machines or provide an offer in their loyalty programs or create any kind of affiliation to the machines themselves, be sure to get on those notebooks!!!!

Amazon to be default shopping engine on new T-Mobile Phone

2008-09-24T09:58:00.002-04:00

Why is Amazon the number one shopping site in the world? Is it the vast number of products that they offer from a multitude of categories? Is it their procurement systems and customer service? Is it their brand that got them there? What is it? Likely, all those things, but what is most impressive about online brands like Amazon and Google and EBay and others who lead their category are that they make themselves available everywhere. They truly 'get' the fact that you need to be where your members or customers will want to use you. They get that they need to partner with mobile providers, handset manufacturers, computer manufacturers, other online properties and great suppliers of goods and services to be number one and stay number one. As the net goes more and more mobile, here is just another move on their part to own a channel and block competitors from entering...Read more here:

T-Mobile launches Google-based mobile phone with Amazon shopping built in

Google to provide Verizon with Mobile Search

2008-08-22T13:48:00.002-04:00

It was once the partnership strategy to get on to the homepage or the desktop and now, it's about getting on to the mobile devices. As Google looks to continue their premier position as a leader in providing search services, they are nearing a deal with Verizon that will feature Google as the default search engine on their mobile devices. You can read more here:

Verizon-Google Mobile Search Deal Nearly Done

Starbucks, Pepsi and Unilever Partner to Grow the Tazo Tea Ready-to-Drink Business

2008-08-21T07:32:00.003-04:00

Get you favorite 'Super Premium' Starbucks Tazo Tea at your local grocery store....Starbucks recently announced the closure of over 700 stores...Interesting move to generate revenue via other streams in a downward economy. Customers might still want their 'Tazo Tea', yet perhaps will prefer drinking it at home and spending less on it, as a result. Read more here:

Starbucks, Pepsi and Unilever Partner to Grow the Tazo Tea Ready-to-Drink Business

Manchester United Partners with Saudi Telecom

2008-08-21T07:29:00.001-04:00

Only Manchester United or the New York Yankees could pull this one off...

Manchester United could earn as much as £10m from a marketing partnership with Saudi Telecom. Read more here....

Manchester United signs up Saudi Telecom as sponsor

HMV Partners with Bell Mobility in Canada

2008-08-21T07:26:00.002-04:00

With in-store music purchases shrinking, HMV certainly needs something to fill that empty retail space...Interesting 'test pilot' in Canada's largest market, yet I'm wondering why they gave Bell Exclusivity?....You can read more here:

HMV Canada and Bell launch exclusive retail partnership

HP Partners with Style.com

2008-08-14T07:09:00.002-04:00

I picked this one up earlier today.....Interesting story on how HP has partnered to create a microsite that features content from Style.com to affiliate their brand to the fashion category. To some, this could appear like quite a stretch in terms of partnering, yet with Apple (one of their competitors) successfully associating their brand to fashion, perhaps it's not such a stretch afterward.

You can read more here:

How Media Partnerships Can Rock Your Brand

NFL partners with NBC to stream games online

2008-07-29T15:32:00.002-04:00

The NFL has announced that it will partner with NBC to stream games online during the upcoming season: NFL, NBC to Stream Complete Games Online

This is a first for the NFL starting with all Sunday and Thursday night NBC broadcasts. The segment is going to be called "Sunday Night Football Extra" and will feature additional camera angles of live game shots and multiple video streams as well. It's a good move and there is likely more to come of this with other networks that carry the traditional 'Sunday Lineup' of games. Question remains - who will host the stream? Should it be featured on the NFL website or NBC's website or both? It depends on how the partnership is cut out, yet one thing that I always like to point out in these types of situations is that when you engage in activities with another brand, it's important to be clear about 'which party will be responsible for what' and always take in to consideration how it affects other channel partner activities that you are currently running or plan on running in the future. You may be setting a precedence that doesn't bode well for your brand down the line.

Does the NFL want to run the stream from their website and do so in all cases or will the carriers be permitted to do so from their websites? Either way, it means that if only one route is available, that the owner of the channel controls the traffic or the 'viewer' in this case and as a result, many strategic and commercial advantages remain to be gained from being in that position - Be careful NFL...This is new territory.

Microsoft Live Search Partners with Facebook

2008-07-28T14:20:00.002-04:00

I've said this before and I will say it again...without Distribution Partnerships like the one that Microsoft Live Search has recently agreed to with Facebook, Microsoft will not increase their market share within the 'search category' all that significantly. Looks like they are starting to focus on their Partner strategy, which is good news for them. It's hard to say if Facebook members will use MSN Live Search or not, but it's a solid strategy on the part of Microsoft and I credit them for getting in with Facebook ahead of Google.

You can read more about this Partnership here:

Microsoft adds Windows Live Search to Facebook

The Basics of a Marketing Partnership

2008-07-17T10:12:00.001-04:00

Came across this article yesterday...Like what Kaye Z. Marks has to say about developing Marketing Partnerships....

The Basics of a Marketing Partnership

Toronto Maple Leafs Partner with Coca Cola to give away free tickets

2008-07-16T14:24:00.001-04:00

The Toronto Maple Leafs have added an extra game to their 2008 preseason schedule, and they're opening the doors free to all fans with a unique ticket giveaway opportunity in partnership with Coca-Cola Canada.....Read more here:

Leafs partner with Coca Cola

Bank of America, MLB & Bon Jovi Partner....

2008-07-06T16:24:00.002-04:00

Bank of America, MLB & Bon Jovi Partner....

With the 79th Major League Baseball All-Star Game fast approaching at Yankee Stadium, Bank of America is hoping its promotional activities leading up to the game will keep its brand top-of-mind among New York consumers.Among several initiatives, Bank of America will present a free MLB All-Star concert on the Great Lawn in Central Park. Local Jersey boy Jon Bon Jovi, whose current "Lost Highway World Tour" is the top-selling tour in the world, will be the one to perform at the concert on July 12.

Social Networking Sites don't target Boomers

2008-06-11T10:42:00.004-04:00

Came across this yesterday....According to e-marketer.com, only 22% of 'Boomers' (aged 40 and over) use Social Networking sites....

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006359&src=article1_newsltr

Marketers are using Social Networking sites more and more, likely because it's inexpensive, yet what needs to be considered here is who your are targeting and the time spent on developing such campaigns. If you are targeting the 'Boomer' demographic....you are likely better off partnering with a brand that is relevant to your proposition and will get you in front of your target audience, even if it does cost a more to do so. It's not about cost, it's about meeting your marketing objectives.