Affinity marketing

Affinity marketing refers to an activity of collaborative brand marketing, comprising an exchange between two or several companies with the same ideas in order to acquire or retain customers. In such relationships, costs are reduced, new channels to the consumer are opened and complementary brands can attract consumer benefits that neither party could obtain independently (Greenyer, 2004).

Affinity marketing is the process of turning passive customer referrals into active ones. This is a point-by-point strategy for taking control of the conversation, helping your customers make the people they care about and serve them better (Cooper, 2021).

Affinity marketing tactic growing tendency

Marketers are under pressure to seek out alternative advertising channels that offer a better, or less more measurable, return on investment compared to traditional media. For larger companies that have regular communications with their customers, this has led to renewed interest in partnerships where companies share these existing channels with the customer in order to advertise their products and services. A crucial factor to brand partnership is to work with companies that provide appropriate services as well as products. They have to have an affinity with the primary brand that makes the association acceptable to the clients. But partnership marketing is not for everyone- if it is executed poorly, it can be inefficent and a harm the brand. Poor partner matching due to incompatibility, imbalance or control issues is a risk associated with affinity marketing, as is negative consumer perception of partnership. However, affinity partnerships as a marketing tactic have grown significantly in the past few years (Greenyer, 2004).

Features of affinity marketing

The ability to have the direct mail opened and read is greatly boosted, when a consumer receives genuine service or product endorsement in the form of a personalized letter from a group leader. The third-party endorsement is a major attribute of affinity marketing. It is a promotional technique that takes advantage of a group to capitalize on the pre-established relationship the group and thus, adds persuasion and credibility to the sales message. The use of opinion leaders, group leaders or important personalities as source of significant information engenders trust allows consumers to avoid an exhaustive search for additional information evaluation alternatives.

Another distinctive feature of affinity marketing is the concept of shared incentive. This is an incentive related to the mission of a group and motivates members to participate in the program. The concept of "shared incentive" pioneered by affinity marketers has been extended to a mass market orientation. Consumers are increasingly influenced by non-product attributes. Recently, the concept of shared incentives has been mainstreamed and adopted by marketers through the implementation of cause-related marketing programs.

A third differentiating characteristic of affinity marketing is the enhancement package. This is a series of incentives specially tailored to the needs of the group member. An understanding of the lifestyle and interests of group members is essential to this task. The improvement set is the most important for the nominal group because the members of these groups have minimal social and commitment to the mission (Macchiette & Roy, 1992), (Mekonnen & London, 2018).

Criteria for affinity marketing group selection

Major affinity marketing measurement criteria are (Macchiette & Roy, 1992):

• Level of participation within the group

Active: attendance and involvment at meetings and conferences, connections to other members, donations, participation in activities, official position held in within the group, responsive to solicitations of the group. Passive: payment of dues on time, compliance with the principles of group norms, internalization of group norms.

• Length of time as a member

Affinity tends to be stronger among members of the senior group. It happens like that due to their interaction and networking with other group members and improved status of group reached over years.

• Social disclosure

The level of willingness to openly reveal group membership to the public. An example would be the adoption of a private individual's " designer credit card". Members like to display bumper stickers or hats and other artifacts, thereby displaying their group affiliation.

• Level of socialization and personal interaction

The frequency with which individuals gather for social interactions such as vacation trips, informal gatherings, barbecues and other manifestations of of group cohesiveness.

References

• Cooper Ch., (2021). Affinity Marketing by Chris Cooper. Two Brain Business.
• Greenyer, A. (2004). Affinity marketing- A step in the right direction?. Henry Stewart Publications. Interactive Marketing, Vol. 6 No. 2, 141–150.
• Macchiette, B., & Roy, A. (1992). Affinity marketing: what is it and how does it work?. Journal of Services Marketing.
• Mekonnen, A., & London, G. S. M. (2018). Digital marketing strategy for affinity marketing. IGI Global, Hershey, PA, 87-104.

Author: Paulina Olszewska