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The future of partnerships
TextBlack 2nd Proof Title: The Fundament of Branding : AVA
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Collaboration among brands has developed significantly in the past decade, as brands have joined forces to offer consumers more choice, extend their portfolios or seek to differentiate their own brand in a new way. Partnering among brands offers opportunities to diversify and leverage the credibility of one brand against the other. It also enables the companies behind the brands to share knowledge and technologies. In doing so, the alliance or partnership may create a new product or market for the customer, by giving them something that was never there before.
Collaboration can also be used by a brand to enter new sectors outside of that brand’s core competency.
Techniques to diversify the brand
Cigarette rolling-paper brand, Rizla, teams up with car manufacturer, Suzuki, for the MotoGP (above).
The partnership adds a new dimension to both brands, through joint credibility and by offering new products and services to the public, such as a range of biker clothing.
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Collaborative benefi ts
For companies, collaboration can also offer a brand a vehicle to test new markets and audiences, with limited damage to the brand if things don’t work out. A collaboration may be viewed as experimental by consumers and the brands involved taking a risk – thus failure to make it work may be seen more as a short-term hiccup rather than leaving a long-term negative impression of a given brand.
For the customer, collaborations between brands that work have the potential to deepen the brand experience. For example, the Apple iPod and Nike association offers a new convenient product for runners (with an iPod designed for running) and also introduces the Apple brand to an audience that may not have previously considered buying an iPod.
Unusual partnerships
The best collaborations will delight the consumer through unusual partnerships.
For example, Rizla (which makes cigarette rolling paper) and automobile and motorbike manufacturer, Suzuki, joined forces to create a range of clothes for motorbike riders. On the one hand, this is a natural extension of the two brands’ co-sponsorship of the British Superbike team – the key players in UK motorbike racing. On the other hand, it is an unusual joint product association – moving Rizla away from the stereotypical association of old men smoking roll-ups into a world of speed, leathers and superbikes instead; while also shifting the image of Suzuki bikes into a ‘cool’ status when combined with the clothes.
These kinds of collaborations indicate that the brands involved in such product alliances are effectively mutually endorsing each other’s status and value as a brand – much like a partnership within a couple.
It also reinforces the promotion of each partner’s own product or service, with the goal of ensuring a profitable outcome for both parties.
Forms of collaboration Techniques to diversify
the brand Employee audiences
TextBlack 2nd Proof Title: The Fundament of Branding : AVA
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Case study
Apple and Nike iPod
In 2006, Apple and Nike teamed up to produce the Nike + iPod Sport Kit.
The partnership has been clever from a marketing collaboration stance: the companies took two technologies with a common audience – that of runners – and used their skills to combine shoe design with a mobile music experience. The Nike + iPod is a sensor that is promoted as a personal trainer, tracking statistics such as distance, pace and calories from a Nike+
running shoe and onto an iPod nano screen via wireless technology and through the iPod’s computational abilities.
The product is a simple but brilliant idea for runners and gym-goers who were already using the two products – and for others who may be encouraged to buy the product for its technological capabilities.
For Apple, it shows that the iPod is more than a music machine; for Nike, it enhances the running experience and therefore their brand. One of the strengths of the product has been the NikePlus social networking community which connects Nike + iPod runners. The aim is to better the individual’s performance by setting goals and creating an international network of runners who challenge and compete with each other. For Nike, the product can also be developed based on their own customer input.
The partnership represents a mutual endorsement of each other’s brands; the premier brand position of each partner ensured instant profile and credibility for the product. However, from a reputational standpoint, Nike seems to have had a head start. Some of Apple’s loyal fanbase questioned the partnership in terms of the values that each company is commonly associated with. While both are innovative leading brands, Nike’s image is still tarnished by its child labour scandals in the mid-1990s (although the company now leads its sector in supply chain standards).
This could potentially have had a negative impact on Apple’s brand, which represents creative expression.
The partnership succeeded where others have failed (for example, Nike’s former collaboration with Philips Electronics was not generally considered a success). It also emphasises each individual brand proposition – of ease of use as well as of technical and design leadership. And sales have been high: within months, Nike had reported an increase in its profits due to sales of the joint product as well as converting runners from other shoe brands.
The product can easily be replicated across other areas of sport – a fairly easy step for both companies.
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The Nike + iPod Sport Kit is a product developed by both Apple and Nike to fulfil the role of a personal trainer (above). It is a wireless sensor and receiver that fits in a Nike+ shoe to connect to an iPod nano or iPod touch to track the runner's performance. Runners can also connect and compete around the world through the community on the NikePlus website (left).
Forms of collaboration Techniques to diversify
the brand Employee audiences
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Sponsorship
Sponsorship is perhaps the most traditional approach of collaboration (for example, sponsoring festivals) where a brand will pay a sum for the presence of its logo and wares. It is closely related to co-branding, as elements of the experience are similar.
However, sponsorship tends to be an extension of advertising space rather than the joint venturing aspect of most co-branding activities. Therefore, the benefits of the relationship can be harder to measure – much depends on the level of visibility that the sponsor will receive, combined with the reputation of the event, person or product (such as a TV show) that is sponsored.
Sponsorship is an area of branding that has undergone huge growth in recent years and appears to know no boundaries. It is now common on television shows, at music festivals and most noticeably in sport, where brands battle to discover the up-and-coming athletes of the future. Sponsorship is also entering more traditional institutions such as academia and schools. This raises ethical concerns for many people, particularly if partnerships are chosen on the basis of cash contributions rather than brand association.
There are many techniques that can be used to diversify a brand and extend its reach.
Some, such as sponsorship or co-branding, are common techniques that have become more innovative in recent years. Others, such as online collaboration, are more recent developments.
The past decade has seen a huge increase in celebrity endorsement and brand collaboration – including celebrities introducing their ‘own brand’ ranges.
Celebrity endorsement will often aim to make the product or service more visible or credible – and lead to increased sales by enhancing its reputation and image. It can also offer shoppers a new range of goods while extending the brand affiliation between the company and its consumers. In other cases, the joining of two strong brands can boost a new product or service – if the idea is good enough. Alternatively, the presence of an ‘endorser’ brand can be used to create new product ranges.
This section outlines some basic forms of collaboration.