I was just reading another fascinating post from Jay MacBain: Subscription and Consumption Models Are Expandingand it made me ask: Why is the subscription model popularity increasing? Why is the number of partners actively selling increasing in this model? And what does it take to make it work for a company?

By this point, there probably aren’t many people left who don’t know what an “influencer” is. It seems like no matter where you look, there’s someone in your social media feed plugging a business or service. While at first glance this may seem like yet another simple social media trend, the truth is that influencers can serve a very important purpose in a brand’s greater marketing strategy.

Every company in the world operates as part of an ecosystem of interdependent entities...

Throughout history, channels have evolved in terms of composition, relationships, and partner engagement models. What started as transactional, arms-length engagement with traditional “middleman” partners became collaborative relationships with influencing parties.

What are the top three things brands want from a retail partner? The first two are obvious: more orders and the best possible shelf presence. The third is perhaps less obvious: data, information about consumers, and demand insights that can inform product development, planning, manufacturing, and promotions.

Some aspects of channel marketing programs are intuitive, while others require more thought or even intensive study. One of the less-intuitive channel marketing concepts is contra revenue, which actually means “against revenue.”