Brand partnerships: What you need to know

At The Gaggler, we believe there are many things to consider when developing a brand partnership, from the synergy in values and audiences, to cost and ROI.

Fundamentally, brand partnerships should be designed to bring success and deliver value to each party – something which can only be achieved where both brands are aligned in values and across channels, clear in both what they can bring to the table and what they hope to achieve.

Examples of brand partnerships

There are many shapes and forms a brand partnership can take, from content partnerships to affiliation, cause-marketing, and distribution.

You and a partner brand might work together on a co-branded project to create a limited-edition product, as did H&M and Simone Rocha, a collaboration that offered customers a slice of luxury at an affordable price.

Or you might work on a co-marketing project as did Uber and Spotify (pictured below). Both providers of a digital service, they partnered to enhance their customers’ experience by allowing them to play their music during their rides. Consumers were able to select from compatible cars to avail of the service.

Branded partnerships can also come in the form of content partnerships, with examples including a video documentary produced by Amazon in collaboration with Vice; and the GoPro and Red Bull brand partnership is another excellent example – they partnered to create co-branded marketing content on the first skydive from space, as Felix Baumgartner jumped to earth from the stratosphere with GoPro’s strapped to his body.

Keeping the customer front of mind

By partnering together, the above brands added value to one another, helping to build brand credibility, all the while splitting marketing costs. However, what’s most important to note is that each collaboration was designed with the consumer experience in mind.

Customers were provided with added value, beyond merely delivering a product or service. With one in three consumers willing to walk away from a brand they love after just one bad experience, a great brand experience is key to maintaining a loyal customer base.

With brand partnerships, businesses need to go the extra mile to stand out against their competitors. As part of the customer’s experience, brands need to consider what value they are adding to the customer by way of helping solve their problems. In the H&M/Simone Rocha and Uber/Spotify cases, both partnerships helped to solve a real customer problem – be that entertainment on your journey or the answer to affordable luxury.

Five key points to remember when forming a brand partnership

Whatever form your brand partnership takes, there are several things you need to consider before approaching a potential partner. First, you should consider how well you are matched, and next what the partnership should look like.

Here are five questions The Gaggler team asks before working with brands to create one-of-a-kind brand partnerships.

1. How aligned are your brands?

As is the case with Red Bull and GoPro’s partnership, their brand affinity is immediately apparent. Both extreme sports lifestyle brands, their synergies made them an ideal match. Red Bull was well known for its extreme sports athletes worldwide, and GoPro was the perfect equipment to help bring these experiences closer to consumers.

Targeting the same audience, pooling their resources, was a logical decision. Your partner brand needn’t necessarily be providing the same product or service as you, but there must be a match between the audiences you are looking to target.

2. How credible is the partner brand?

How credible is the brand that you are looking to partner with? Credible doesn’t mean that as an SME, you should only look to work with larger, more established companies. You can look to partner with fellow SMEs that have a good reputation in their local market.

From reading online reviews to asking around by word of mouth, one can quickly get a feel for brand credibility. As part of this exercise, look to find out what the brand is well known for and evaluate how this aligns with what you hope to offer your customers.

3. Is there synergy to be found between you operationally?

Aside from affinity, you should also consider how you and your potential partner’s business are matched to work together. From size to operational specialities, brands should ask themselves how they can leverage one another’s strengths and support each other across their respective areas of weakness, too.

For example, should a chocolatier and a florist combine their efforts to create a special Valentine’s offering? The former could provide their premises and staff to put the packages together. Meanwhile, the florists could use their delivery network to get the promotion to customers.

4. How will this improve the customer experience?

What will your unique partnership deliver that is of value to your target audience? And what unique problem will your solution help solve? Do your customers have issues finding products to purchase, which are genuinely ethical? Do your customers have problems maintaining their health routines?

Working together with another brand to create a genuine partnership should ultimately be focused on the consumers’ needs, and not an unnecessary exercise in co-branding for purely marketing purposes.

5. What can you offer?

This is an essential question to ask as an SME. With tighter budgets, monetary incentives may not be an option for you. Nonetheless, that does not mean you have nothing of value to offer. Can you offer up your social media channels for a partner brand to reach a niche audience? Can you provide a personalised service to a partner’s customers? Do you have human resources you can commit to a campaign to help behind the scenes?

Consider what you have that is unique to bring to the table so that any partnership will be attractive to others. Be sure, however, to check internally with your team first to ensure you do not promise something on which you cannot deliver.

Monica Malhotra, CEO and founder of The Gaggler.