The power of partnerships and collaboration
“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress and working together is success.”
Henry Ford
Partnerships and collaborations for all size of business can be a great gateway to generate interest and awareness of your brand. They can reinforce your goals and purpose, amplify your brand DNA and positioning with new audiences, and add credibility in new categories.
I’ve worked with a number of organisations on developing such partnerships which have been for specific campaigns or events and been a brilliant opportunity to develop new relationships. For example, my client YAFTA wanted to create an industry event on Disability in the Media, so we sought partnership with the BBC as an organisation that was as committed as YAFTA in terms of diversity and inclusion.
The women’s networking group I am part of, we are radikl have just announced their partnership with Tide bank which is a brilliant alignment between two like minded brands.
From Puma and Ferrari, Balmain and H&M, Spotify and Starbucks, we’ve seen lots of co-branding partnerships that have worked out to be very lucrative and positive for the brands involved. The idea of partnerships and collaborations is to leverage each other’s credentials, expertise and positioning power to build an attractive, unique offer for your customers. This will give your brand new positive brand associations and hopefully attract new customers.
Sometimes on face of it, brand partnerships can seem a little odd, for example Cheetos and Forever 21 and Covergirl and Star Wars. However, these are huge brands, and the increased share of voice generated by these highly marketed partnerships lead to massive customer interest, PR coverage and increased revenues.
Co-branding allows you to be at a safe enough distance to not be hugely negatively affected if the partnership doesn’t work out as well as planned. For example, Lego had a long standing partnership with Shell to create petrol stations, lorries and racing cars. However, pressure from Greenpeace and the increasing negative associations with the oil industry and impact on the environment, lead to the partnership being dissolved. It is unlikely Lego will have suffered any real financial hit due to the partnership with such a ‘negative’ brand as their own brand values and offering are so well established with their markets.
When establishing a co-branding partnership it’s important to understand how that fits in with your brand architecture. Brand architecture is the structure of brands within an organisation and the way brands within a company’s portfolio are related or differentiated from each other. By having this clearly defined, it not only enables those within the organisation to understand the road map of the brands, their identities, opportunities and markets but also provides clarity in the eyes of the consumer with how the brands are marketed.
There are many pitfalls with brand partnerships and it can often lead to tears instead of cheers. When looking at developing a partnership with another brand it is important that they are some key fundamentals in place to give the greatest chance of it working for the companies involved:
Synergy – partner with like-minded brands that will help engage with new, on-target audiences. Do the brand’s personalities fit? Your customers have to buy into the relationship too. Authenticity and purpose can carry weight for some customers and their purchasing decision.
Know your opportunities – you do what you do best, by partnering with the right brand this will introduce you to new categories without diluting your core strength. What is your aim of the partnership? Don’t get too distracted by the shiny new opportunity that you neglect your primary offering.
Communication – poor communication and lack of shared objectives can mean one or both parties feel hard done by in the partnership. Ensure there are lines of communication and clear objectives set from the start.
Do you have a dream business partnership? As your outsourced marketing team we can work with you to help make it happen. Get in touch to discuss your marketing strategy.