Work together with y I
n this series we have covered how engaging a marketing mindset will drive your business, and looked at how to plan your marketing effectively. This final installment focuses
on marketing collaboration specifically, which is a vital but often overlooked area of marketing that savvy start-ups and SMEs can focus on to reach more people.
The biggest challenge for most new brands is lack of awareness – which is why more than 80% of businesses recognise ‘finding new customers’ as one of their biggest challenges to growth. Marketing collaboration is the best kept secret of this entrepreneurial world: Over 60% of start- ups and small businesses are working together to find new customers because it can be one of the most effective and cost efficient ways to grow a business. Now in austere times, we’re seeing businesses big and small develop brand partnerships or marketing activities together as a key part of their marketing strategy.
At one end of the scale, businesses are co-creating completely new products, or running whole marketing campaigns or on-pack promotions together. At the other end of the scale, savvy start-ups get together day-in-day-out with other brands to promote each other’s brands and share each other’s products to expand their own reach.
Be strategic about marketing collaboration
In earlier parts of this series, we have looked at how all effective marketing starts with a clear idea of what you want to achieve, and developing collaborative marketing activities is no different.
Firstly, identify what you want to achieve. Intrinsically linked to your business strategy you can identify whether you want to reach more people; whether you want to reach a very specific or niche group of people; perhaps you want to improve your brand reputation; or even reward your current loyal customers in some way. Knowing your objectives will enable you to be clear what activities you would like to do with another brand.
Through this series, we have championed the importance of having your consumer at the very heart of all your marketing decisions. When it comes to choosing a brand to collaborate with, your consumer is the best place to start.
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Go back to thinking where your consumer goes, where they shop, what brands they buy and interact with. If you are in fashion retail, then you could collaborate with a complimentary shoe outlet nearby to stock their shoes in your stores, or cross promote. If you are a service business, look for other non-competing services that your consumer also uses. Identify all the brands that your consumer interacts with and you will have a long list of brands that you can collaborate with to meet more people like the consumers you already have.
Be true to your brand
The final filter for selecting the best brands to collaborate with is brand-fit. The most effective marketing collaborations are when the very essence of the brands involved genuinely work well together: Whether it is having a common cause, matched brand values, or a similar tone of voice. Something must be complimentary to make a successful relationship, rather than a superficial one.
McDonalds being a brand partner of the London 2012 Olympics has come under some pretty heavy scrutiny, because the perceived brand values jar with each other. By contrast, Nike and Apple working together to create fitness accessories that talk to each other, makes perfect sense and gives added value to the consumer. Similarly, when innocent drinks wanted to teach kids about healthy food and drink we teamed them up with veg-garden-in-a- box company Rocket Gardens, and created an on-pack campaign. Get the brand fit right and the benefits spread three ways across the brands involved and the consumer.
Cash is not king when it comes to collaboration
There will always be a role for paid-for sponsorship deals (i.e. McDonalds), but we champion the relationships that are based on mutual benefit rather than cash exchanges. Once you know who you want to reach and what you want to achieve the trick is to identify what you have of value that you can offer potential brand partners.
You could give away products in return for free advertising; offer up competition prizes for editorial coverage; feature other peoples’ competitions in your marketing in return for feature in theirs – the opportunities are endless. Don’t get
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