Manufacturing · HVAC components
Dealer co-op funds were subsidizing competitors’ leads.
This marketing & margin audit identified $69k in wasted annual spend in a Manufacturing business, evidenced, senior reviewed, and delivered in 7 days.
The business
An HVAC components maker funded dealer co-op marketing on loose, largely unmonitored terms, trusting its distributors to promote the brand in their local campaigns. Co-op support was a standard part of the channel relationship, and because the arrangements had grown up informally over years, what the co-op money was actually being spent on was rarely checked.
What triggered the audit
Co-op spend kept growing while the brand’s share of dealer campaigns visibly didn’t, a mismatch that suggests the money wasn’t buying what it was meant to. The audit reviewed what the co-op funds were genuinely being spent on across distributors, testing whether the brand was actually getting the promotion it was paying for.
What the audit found
The co-op program was, in a number of cases, funding the competition. Because the terms were loose and reimbursement required little proof of how the money was used, distributors were spending co-op funds on campaigns that promoted rival brands alongside, and sometimes more prominently than, the maker’s own products. The brand was effectively subsidizing marketing that drove leads and sales its competitors also benefited from, all under the banner of supporting its own channel. Because nobody audited the funded campaigns or tied reimbursement to brand presence, this had quietly become an accepted cost of doing business. Tightening the terms and requiring proof of performance stopped the leak, which across the distributor base amounted to roughly $69k a year of co-op spend working partly for the competition.
What we changed
Tightened co-op terms to require exclusive or clearly majority brand presence in any funded campaign, so the money can no longer promote rivals alongside the brand.
Required proof of performance before any co-op reimbursement, so funds only flow to campaigns that genuinely and demonstrably promote the brand paying for them.
Added spot audits of funded campaigns, keeping the tightened terms honest across a large and dispersed distributor base.
Preserved genuine co-op support for the distributors who promote the brand properly, protecting the channel relationship while cutting the waste.
The result
The outcomes were measured for three months after a 90 day implementation period. The published chart shows co-op budget promoting rival brands falling from 28% to 3%, a 25 percentage point decrease, after reimbursement required evidence of brand presence and performance. $69k a year recovered by ensuring co-op money promotes the brand paying for it, not its rivals, an annual figure equal to 12× the $5,950 Audit + Sprint fee. For any manufacturer, loose co-op terms felt like normal channel support, while funds quietly bankrolled campaigns pushing competitors alongside you. If your co-op spend isn’t tied to proof of brand presence, you may be subsidizing the very rivals you’re trying to beat. It takes reviewing what the money actually bought to see it. A fixed fee audit does that in days and ties every reimbursement to performance.
From kickoff to signed off findings: 7 days.
What the client said
$69k a year of wasted spend cut in 7 days
Co-op budget spent promoting rival brands: 28% → 3%
“Our co-op money was promoting our competitors. Cristian reviewed what distributors actually spent it on: campaigns featured rival brands next to ours, sometimes more prominently. Reimbursement now needs proof of brand presence.”
Cristian BragauSenior Auditor · signed this audit off