Cross Promotions

Contributed By VARUN VASUDEVAN

McDonalds turns Eeco-friendly

When you lift that burger from your plate to take a bite, your eyes fall on that paper mat which a McDonald’s vendor has slipped onto your tray. And what do you see?

A Maruti Suzuki Eeco advertisement! Eeco is targeting the middle class family man who loves to take his family out with him frequently – for shopping, to restaurants, picnics etc. Priced for this target audience, Eeco is positioned as being spacious and value for money. Of course, reliability and service are implicit in any new offering by Maruti India.

Hey, but isn’t that whom McDonalds is targeting too - the middle class family which loves spending time together over a value for money, hearty meal and wants quick service and reliability.

You may think they are strange bedfellows, but our ‘M&M’ have joined hands to do a classic ‘Cross Promotion’. Yes, that’s the marketing term for this alliance. Think about it – their target audience is similar and their positioning is on the same lines. So while Maruti reaches its target audience in a more focused manner, McDonalds gets some extra pocket money.   

ABG books Crossword

Crossword, of all the places, I thought! But then, why not? Actually, it’s a pretty good hunch that the person picking up a book from the baby care shelf may be buying baby-care products as well. So Aditya Birla Group’s baby care brand - Puretta has strategically placed its advertisements on these shelves so as to catch their target consumer’s eye.

Surely, there are many such cross-promotions running at your place. You just gotta keep your eyes open. At least the company targeting you will be hoping so.