Joint Sales Promotion: An Emerging Marketing Tool P. Rajan Varadarajan 43 P. Rajan Varadarajan is an assistant pro- fessor of marketing in the College of Busi- ness Administration at Texas A&M University. Promoting your product jointly with another company's product may help your firm realize certain marketing goals. C onsider a few of the sales pro- motions in the U.S. consumer market in the last couple of years. • Cents-off manufacturers' cou- pons redeemable on purchase of Dannon yogurt and Post Grapenut cereals. • A four-dollar cash and coupon refund offer on purchase of Minute Maid frozen orange juice concen- trate, Ore Ida frozen hash brown po- tatoes, and Sara Lee frozen cake. • A free mail-in premium offer of Eveready lanterns on purchase of Good News disposable razors and En- ergizer batteries. • A free in-pack premium offer of Fisher dry roasted peanuts in cartons of Golden Grahams cereal. Although these promotions are marketing different products em- ploying different sales promotion tools, all four promotions have one common trait. The brands participat- ing in each of these promotions are manufactured by different compa- nies. This phenomenon, commonly referred to as intercompany cooperative sales promotion, joint sales promotion, or tie-hi sales promotion, has been gaining momentum in recent years. ~ 1. The terms intercompa~Lvcooperative sales promotion, joint sales promotion, and tie-in sales promotion are used interchangeablyin this ar- ticle. This article provides an overview of joint sales promotion. The first sec- tion outlines opportunities for sales and profit growth through joint sales promotion. The second section pre- sents the results of a small survey on current practices, procedures, and policies pertaining to joint sales pro- motion. The final section is a brief discussion on the future of joint sales promotion. Potential Opportunities for Joint Sales Promotion I n a joint sales promotion, two or more distinct brand entities from different companies pool their promotional resources to capitalize on joint opportunities for sales growth and profits, or to realize other objec- tives. What characteristics make joint sales promotion possible? 1. Natural use complementary re- lationships. Joint sales promotions have been used extensively by firms to capitalize on complementary rela- tionships in the natural use of certain products. For example, Reach tooth- brush, a product of Johnson & John- son, and Aqua-fresh toothpaste, a product of Beecham Inc., have been partners in numerous joint sales pro- motion programs in recent years. Warner-Lambert Company and S. C. Johnson and Son, Inc., have been in- Business Horizons / September-Oclol~er198.5