Is Co-Marketing the Wave of the Future?

Hollywood film makers embraced cross-promotion when they determined that they could get financial backing for their movies by allowing consumer brands to be shown in the movie. If a famous star was depicted in the movie as wearing an obvious brand name, the fashion brand would see an increase in sales as a result of the popularity of the movie. Well, other companies are now getting into cross-promotion. Nike and Apple recently signed a long-term agreement to cross promote their products. They will create ads that show Nike clothing wearers listening to their iPods. For the cost of one ad, two products and the two companies that make them will benefit with increased sales as a result of each other’s brand recognition.



Maybe it’s time for other industries to embrace this concept? Why not have a candy manufacturer promote the machinery manufacturer whose machines fill, wrap, and/or box their products? Let’s face it, a production line contains numerous pieces of equipment from various manufacturers, why not join forces to split the cost of an advertisement? The potential downside is that if one of the manufacturers suffers from a serious quality issue that becomes public knowledge, the company that cross-promoted with them, will be ‘tainted’ by the association. But, in reality, how often does a packaging machinery company suffer from a serious quality issue that becomes public knowledge? So maybe it’s time the packaging machinery industry starts seriously cross-promoting. What do you think?


The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.