Lately there has been a lot of talk about rebranding the affiliate marketing industry to better reflect how it fits into the overall advertising and marketing industry.  Due to the increase in the number of major brand advertisers into the affiliate marketing world, many are saying that the industry has outgrown the term affiliate and prefer the term performance marketers.   In some ways it makes sense.   Most people that I talk to have little to no understanding of what an affiliate does.

According to blogger Scott Medlock,  “Performance marketing is where advertisers, working through an agency place creatives with publishers who accept payment as a result of consumer action on the advertising instead of an arbitrary payment based on possible reader/viewership”.  Interestingly enough, when defined in this way, those who are in the marketing and advertising industry “get it”.

TV stations regularly air infomercials on a performance basis.  So do radio and cable.  Most people understand that business model, but for some reason when it’s applied to the online world, it’s looked upon as a different animal.

Of course there are always two sides to a coin.  There are some who feel that it’s a bad idea to change the brand.  Affiliates have spent a number of years educating online marketers and the public about affiliate marketing, so many feel that changing the brand would result in a negative setback for the industry.

This debate isn’t over, and it will be interesting to see which side wins.  Personally, I like the term performance marketing.  Since the industry is evolving why not evolve the brand.

To your success,

Kim