Client Successes

Acquiring the Right Customers - Targeting Strategic Channels

Internet and Media Company

Challenge

Can a channel marketing program with thousands of partners truly work and be cost-effective? As part of its strategy to develop new channels of member acquisition, this Internet and Media Company looked into the feasibility of a new initiative called the Partner Opportunity Program. Before the company began engaging partners it had to determine two things: what the program would look like, and under what conditions, if any, it would be profitable. The Partner Marketing group asked CVP to design the program and model the marketing, operations, support, and technology costs necessary to implement the program. The key challenge was addressing the system stress in adding tens of thousands of small to mid-sized partners to the current handful of large channel partners.

Approach and Results

CVP developed a concept of operations, functional and technical requirements, use cases, and a systems architecture logical design. CVP further analyzed and recommended alternative solution designs based on several software solutions. Based on these proposed solution alternatives, CVP built a cost-benefit analysis to determine if the business case for best recommended solution was sufficient to justify going forward. Our market analysis determined that member acquisition rates could not justify the expense in people, process, and technology required to launch the program. To be sure of this outcome, we recommended conducting a pilot test with a few distributors to better calibrate expected returns from the program. The pilot test confirmed what our modeling had indicated - the benefits of the proposed program did not justify the expense. The decision not to move forward led to the savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars and allowed the Partner Marketing department to focus on another new initiative that did yield significant benefits.