Channel Management: A Brand Is Merely as Strong as Its Weakest Link

The following questions related to channel management are some of the most important ones to address. How are the products being promoted by the channel? What are the main ones being focused on by advertisements? Which programs are most efficient and are these being properly used by the partners? How compliant are these programs with the legal system? What exactly is the return of investment? However, perhaps the most important question is: how strong is your Branding?

Most companies recognize the importance of creating a strong brand. It is not just the identity of the company but also the image of all the current and future products from the company. It is important for many companies to create clear objectives to advertise their services or products. The channel network of a company will have a major role in the creation of such branding. Basically, the company’s brand name relies on the network since these are the entities that help market, advertise, and sell the products on behalf of the parent manufacturing corporation. This is the process that happens day by day. In most if not all cases, these are the entities that represent and therefore make a first as well as final impression of the product or service to tfhe end customers. This is precisely the reason why giving one’s pipelines the necessary training and tools in order to help extend the name is an important step. Investing on proper management will help especially if the company’s programs require that pipeline created marketing and advertising need to be approved first before being funded or released.

A lot of manufacturers give the channel with pictures, images, text copy and other things that will guide them in the creation of customized marketing. These are usually disseminated through net based partner portal. It could also be given through CD’s or through printed templates that could easily be modified and could be used right away. Some of the problems start here since there are some troubles in the way these materials are delivered. The problems are the costs, delivery time, and the capability and reliability of the cloud that will co-brand such marketing objects.

There are however several online management solutions that are readily available for this problem. Some of this management software is able to help the parent company as well as its network to effectively coordinate sales as well as marketing materials. The effective co-branding will rely on the proper use of specification, content, usage, as well as setting parameters for the partner’s customization of such marketing materials. Such advertising threads that are managed by these software solutions may enable the partners to add their own image to the branding template of the parent manufacturing company thus ensuring that both brands would have a strong base and consistency. Branding will always be one of the biggest issues when it comes to channel management and the company must make sure that the weakest affiliate that also carries the brand must be developed if not culled.