As I was preparing to write this a few days ago, so many examples came to mind, actually flooded my mind that I am going to limit the focus and let you expound and apply it to your situation.

The Power of Partnering is a Human Relationship Principle.pexels-photo-104337

When two people find ways to work together, often it’s not a simple addition equation, there’s a multiplying effect.

Let’s look at this through a marketing lens.

A donut shop and a sandwich shop opened a couple years ago near me. You might think that they are competitors for my food money when I’m hungry.  Which is true.

But there’s another dynamic going on at the same time.

I know have twice as many reasons to pull into their shared parking lot.

Last time I was there I got a sandwich from the sandwich shop.  Without the bread, just wrapped in lettuce.  And coffee from the donut shop.  It was a low-carb lunch to go.

Sticking with the subject of food for a second, the power of partnering goes back to my childhood days of having peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  A PB&J is so much better than just a jelly sandwich or just a peanut butter sandwich.  Whoever created that food partnership was a marketing genius.

Marketing partnerships this summer that I’ve been involved with include the recent BBQ Ribfest.  My radio station, WOWO jumped in with both feet.  Ribfest is easily one of the top ten festivals in town, and with some folks it’s their favorite.  Ribfest spent advertising money with us and WOWO was the only radio station featured in their print advertising.

While most smart media outlets will at least mention Ribfest from a public relations and community involvement slant, for us it also involved a news story for 24 hours on opening day, social media posts including live broadcast on Twitter/Periscope of two of our radio personalities during the celebrity judging event on day two of Ribfest.  Then a 15 minute Facebook Live walk and talk tour of Rib Alley to talk with the vendors.  All of this was above and beyond any formal agreements.

Another marketing partnership I’ve been working the past year is with WOWO radio and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. They spend money with us to advertise some of their concerts, they also give us tickets for additional exposure.

This year they asked WOWO if we would like to be their radio marketing partner for a free outdoor Patriotic Pops concert they will be doing on July 3rd and we agreed it would be a great fit.  If you attend, you’ll see the WOWO logo on the big screen at Parkview Field that day.  And if you attend any of the upcoming Philharmonic Concerts in the 2016-17 season, you’ll see an ad for WOWO in the program book.

I’m working on some other marketing partnerships for this summer too, but this idea of Partnering goes beyond the advertising partnerships and food partnering I’ve mentioned.

The Power of Partnering applies when I ask a friend for a recommendation for a __________. It taps into our Human Relationship Principles of wanting to help others.  I was asked by an old friend of mine for some assistance in teaching a class on social media.  As we talked, I realized there was someone else I knew who would be better at doing what she needed and so I connected them.

There’s a biblical reinforcement about being the giver found in the book of Acts, and we know from our own personal experiences the positive feelings we get when we help someone.  It’s a powerful Human Relationship Principle, this Power of Partnering, isn’t it?