It’s almost that time for Leprechauns and all things green…but what does that have to do with Co-op funding? Before we discuss the “requirements” of a good St. Patty’s Day celebration, let’s tie-in how distributors have anything to do with this holiday.

As discussed in previous blog posts, many of your customers do not buy the product(s); they resell directly from the manufacturer, and they may buy from a local distributor. In most cases, the reason why this is done is so your customer has plenty of options to offer their customers, yet may not have the room to warehouse all the items, or may not know how much of any given brand they may need. This is true in the HVAC world where an installer may run their business out of their home and do not have the physical space to store ten Trane units, fifteen Carrier units, five American Standard units, and so on. This can also apply to local tire stores where they want to carry as many brands as they can, as it seems like every car requires a different brand/size of tire, yet they just don’t have the room to hold thousands of tires from the fourteen or fifteen major tire brands. In these cases, the manufacturer does offer a co-op advertising program and makes it available to the distributors who are buying (and warehousing) huge amounts of products for local resellers (be it that HVAC installer, Tire Center, etc.). The distributor will then turn around and offer co-op funding to your customer based on their purchase. You will see many of these programs listed on the Co-Op Connect platform.

Now, we will discuss “Specially Arranged” co-op money, which is what we would call a non-traditional program, and how your customer can still get co-op funding.

The author of this post has a family member who owned a bowling alley, and we had several “after work” conversations regarding co-op, with us all trying to figure out how co-op fit into that picture. The bowling alley bought ALL their alcohol and beer products from a local Michigan distributor. Once we asked this distributor about promoting certain brands via Social Media and the local newspapers, they were more than happy to help with co-op funding due to the volume already being purchased for the bowling alley. Their mindset was that if you are already buying this much without advertising, we would gladly help, as we know you will be buying much more! The distributor became a great partner to this bowling alley and even brought over all types of posters, drink coasters, beads, hats, and all other forms of trinkets for celebrating the Super Bowl that year. Since we were on a roll (pun intended!), we also reached out to his bowling supply distributor (balls, shoes, and even the bowling pins themselves) and were successful with that request. He soon discovered that he got more pro-shop traffic by advertising their brands.

So, back to the original question: What does St. Patty’s Day have to do with co-op? Well, contact those alcohol distributors, food distributors (corned beef and cabbage), and even beauty supply distributors (oh yes, green hair is a “thing”!) and see how you can help your customer obtain co-op funds while promoting St. Patty’s Day!

Co-op Connect is a full-service customized co-op advertising solutions provider.

Are you looking for a top-notch provider of customized co-op advertising solutions? Look no further than Co-op Connect! The team is dedicated to helping clients increase sales through co-op advertising, and they pride themselves on their commitment to teamwork, reliability, excellence, and value. With a focus on expertise, technology, strong leadership, and great team members, Co-op Connect is the perfect partner for any business looking to take its co-op advertising to the next level. To learn more, you can reach out to us at [email protected]. Or call 866-323-5504 to schedule a 20-minute demo.

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