Dodgy VAR marketing can damage vendors' brands - analyst

Less than five per cent of vendors have active through-channel marketing programmes, Forrester claims

Vendors are risking brand damage by handing over marketing duties to the channel, according to Forrester.

The analyst said the changing role of the channel partner means marketing is now high on resellers' agendas – but that this could cause problems.

"For the past 30 years, most B2B channel professionals have thought of their channel as a sales channel," said principal Forrester analyst Tim Harmon. "Indeed, in the 'good old days', the standard operating procedure equated to the B2B manufacturer/vendor doing the marketing, the channel partner the selling.

"But times have changed. The five-person 'box-pusher' channel partner model of the past has, for the most part, gone the way of the dinosaurs. Today's channel is much more than a sales channel; it's a marketing, sales, delivery, and support channel."

Channel firms today are often charged with selling additional services, consulting, e-commerce and billing, Harmon said, adding that handing over marketing duties can be a risky business.

"The majority of channel partners now employ their own professional marketers and marketing programmes – which can be a good thing or a bad thing. Left unchecked, channel partners' marketing efforts can ignore, dilute, confuse – or worse – damage a tech vendor's brand."

Harmon recommended vendors use so-called through-channel marketing automation (TCMA) tools to ensure their messaging is consistent, but said such products are used by less than five per cent of vendors.

"The application and value realisation of through-channel marketing are gaining steam," Harmon added. "TCMA solutions enable a tech vendor to design and govern marketing assets and campaigns, to which channel partners subscribe and execute."

But Harmon did say that when done right, channel partners can offer a marketing boost.

"Leveraged, channel partners' relatively newfound marketing prowess represents a powerful amplifier for tech vendors to extend their marketing reach," he said. "At Cisco's Marketing Velocity event this spring, many Cisco channel partners evidenced a marketing aptitude for digital customer engagement which rivals that of many tech vendors."