Sales personnel get commission for marketing a product and getting it sold to the customer. But can the customer also be asked to market it?Well I am not talking about word of mouth marketing.
What I am talking about is the customer being made to endorse the same product, a product of a sister company or perhaps even a third party product. Just imagine how much more it will be effective in comparison to celebrity endorsement. Well do you think the customer will do it for free? Of course not.
Neither am I asking him to do it for free. In return the customer will get a discount on the product he is buying and as a result he will sport an additional logo of the sponsor in the product that he buys.While it may not be much effective in small utilities, if we consider a product like a car it has wide scale potential. Just beside the car manufacturer’s logo, there will be a small visible logo (care must be taken that it doesn’t spoil the aesthetic value) endorsing a third party or another of its sister or sub-brands. The manufacturer can sign a contract with a third party for this endorsement for a certain time frame (say 2 years) and earn a certain sum which will increase the revenue and profitability and in turn will pass some of the benefit to the customer in the form of discounts. Of course the customer will have the privilege of opting whether to endorse and get a discount or to buy at full price without any ad logo. Apart from manufacturing, such a marketing strategy can also be a huge success in the service sector.
What it would essentially lead to is a win-win situation for all the three parties involved. The customer will benefit as he will get a discount on the marked price, the manufacturer will have higher profitability & the third party will have a greater audience to market a product. Whether it will be a form of marketing in future, only time can tell but one thing is for sure it definitely has a lot of potential.
Food for thought : Will you promote a third party logo for discount on your prized possession, which you had been vying to buy since a long time?
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