No Bones About It, Promotional Partners Should Be A Priority

This column originally published on October 1, 2007 in The Appleton Post-Crescent.

One of the hallmarks of grassroots marketing for businesses operating on a shoestring is the tried-and-true concept of finding a promotional partner or partners. This can be done through joint-venture promotions, co-op advertising, cross promotion or any number of other tactics.

Bottom line, however, is that when it’s done right, this type of promotion can be worth its weight in gold. And, often times, it’s the simplest ideas that work best.

Allow me to illustrate by taking you on a Sunday evening drive as summer winds down, just a couple short weeks ago. As I drive out of the Family Video parking lot on Calumet Street after dropping off a couple of movies, my pooch Augie and I had a sudden urge for an ice cream cone. Okay, truth be told, I had the urge and he was just along for the ride.

Upon pulling up to the drive-thru, my thoughts turned to just how amenable Augie was going to be with this whole idea. It never dawned on me that McDonald’s was going to have a solution for me, thanks to an entrepreneurial-thinking small business located nearby. In other words, McDonald’s and The Dog Lounge were about to save me.

As I approached the payment window digging for my dollar bill, I was pleasantly greeted by a cashier who, before asking for any money, unleashed a friendly smile and a dog biscuit wrapped in a bow and sporting a message that read: The Dog Lounge, Dog Daycare & Boarding, Now Open! It also included the phone number and, on the flip side, the web site and store addresses. Now that’s grassroots marketing at its best.

Many of you, like me, have come to expect our pets to get top-notch snacks from the local credit union or bank upon drive-thru. Yup, the pooches love to do the drive-thrus. But I wasn’t expecting a similar treatment from the big franchise. Yet, thanks to the local store having the savvy to pursue such a simple, yet effective, giveaway with a big player, Augie and I both drove away as delighted customers.
Keep in mind that this is not an expensive proposition. Don’t get me wrong, this was a decent dog biscuit, but it wasn’t anything special. However, when tossed together by hand with the bow and “card,” it really was a neat surprise. All in all, the cost is almost negligible compared with the effectiveness.

Most importantly, this McBiscuit promotion provided valuable name awareness that could not have been more targeted. Oh sure, there ends up being a few biscuits given to dogs that are just passing through, but the vast majority are given to viable, pre-qualified customers – dogs from the neighborhood handled by customers of McDonald’s who just might become customers of The Dog Lounge. It’s a thing of beauty that just makes you want to spin around once or twice and lick a few chins.

This example should be something for all of us to chew on as we give thought to developing that next great joint promotion. It can be done. Working up a nifty promotional partnership has always been a success story in the marketing world, and it’s still a sure way to get this old dawg’s tail a-waggin’.