Comments on: Affiliate Marketing is NOT a form of branding! http://www.stephenpratley.com/affiliate-marketing-is-not-a-form-of-branding/ by Stephen Pratley Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:07:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Stephen Pratley http://www.stephenpratley.com/affiliate-marketing-is-not-a-form-of-branding/comment-page-1/#comment-996 Stephen Pratley Mon, 07 Jan 2008 10:56:52 +0000 http://www.stephenpratley.com/affiliate-marketing-is-not-a-form-of-branding/#comment-996 Good point Hero, and nice to see someone point out the merchant's own responsibility for keeping their banners up to date. I spent a good 3 hours yesterday rooting through banners that pointed to the wrong place or were still showing Xmas promotions! Certainly there is a branding benefit of affiliate marketing, but my concern is that a fringe benefit is being sold to merchants as a main objective. This will only lead to disappointment on both sides in the long term and more merchants leaving the channel, for the wrong reasons. If affiliate marketing is being sold with brand benefits, why is noone offering CPM budgets, and why is noone offering research tools to measure those brand benefits? Good point Hero, and nice to see someone point out the merchant’s own responsibility for keeping their banners up to date. I spent a good 3 hours yesterday rooting through banners that pointed to the wrong place or were still showing Xmas promotions!

Certainly there is a branding benefit of affiliate marketing, but my concern is that a fringe benefit is being sold to merchants as a main objective. This will only lead to disappointment on both sides in the long term and more merchants leaving the channel, for the wrong reasons.

If affiliate marketing is being sold with brand benefits, why is noone offering CPM budgets, and why is noone offering research tools to measure those brand benefits?

]]> By: hero http://www.stephenpratley.com/affiliate-marketing-is-not-a-form-of-branding/comment-page-1/#comment-986 hero Sat, 05 Jan 2008 17:18:49 +0000 http://www.stephenpratley.com/affiliate-marketing-is-not-a-form-of-branding/#comment-986 although a by-product, branding is indeed a benefit of affiliate marketing, albeit not the end target, I agree. That does not however mean that it should be overlooked by merchants - it's amazing how many merchants fail to update their banners, even on an annual basis. This is damaging to their brand and merchants need to be aware of it. Furthermore, with all the restrictions merchants impose to affiliates on how they are to promote them so as to conform with the overall branding, are we still to say that affiliates are not helping merchants put their name out there, even on a secondary level? although a by-product, branding is indeed a benefit of affiliate marketing, albeit not the end target, I agree. That does not however mean that it should be overlooked by merchants - it’s amazing how many merchants fail to update their banners, even on an annual basis. This is damaging to their brand and merchants need to be aware of it. Furthermore, with all the restrictions merchants impose to affiliates on how they are to promote them so as to conform with the overall branding, are we still to say that affiliates are not helping merchants put their name out there, even on a secondary level?

]]>