Category: Brand development

5 Brand Collaboration Examples That Will Inspire Your Next Marketing Partnership

By Alok Chakraborty

Brand collaboration is a mutual coming together of brands for a specific campaign, promotion, or advertisement aimed at creating a buzz around a product or service that mutually benefits all the participating entities. When carefully planned, brand collaboration strategies can solidify the positioning of the brands, present a unique selling proposition to the consumers, and above all, provide a unique opportunity for brands to experience a crossover between audience groups.

The defining objective of any such collaboration is to reach out to a broader audience other than a company’s niche or regular audience, and to create a long-lasting impression in the minds of consumers.

In addition, a brand collaboration offers unique advantages that traditional forms of marketing usually don’t, such as:

  • It facilitates a crossover between the audiences of the participating brands. Audiences usually stick to brands they are comfortable with. But when brands collaborate, audiences are inadvertently exposed to new brands.
  • It can give birth to a unique selling proposition as it expands the usability of the product or service. By partnering with another brand, you can find ways to pitch and position your brand that you hadn’t thought of before.
  • Launching a specific product line or a seasonal sale when paired with a complementary brand increases the marketing campaign’s overall effect on consumers. Many brands have successfully leveraged this strategy to launch and release products.

Learning from successful brand collaborations

No matter the size or type of your business, you can likely find a method of brand collaboration that benefits your own company as well as your collaborator. To find the right partnership, you’ll want to become familiar with some of the most common types of brand collaboration.

1. Joint marketing campaign: McDonald’s and Coca-Cola

Approach: Imagine a McDonald’s burger and fries without a Coke. Unimaginable, right? In a joint-marketing campaign, two brands pair up in order to augment or complement the usability of their products.

Dating back to 1955, the brand collaboration between McDonald’s and Coca-Cola is considered one of the best collaborations in marketing history. Today McDonald’s is Coca-Cola’s largest restaurant customer, and over the years the two companies have collaborated in product promotions, market expansion, and product development, including when Coke helped McDonald’s develop a line of smoothies.

Outcome: Coca-Cola is the leading carbonated soft drink company in the United States with a market share of 46.3%; last year McDonald’s was the “most valuable fast-food brand in the world” with an estimated brand value of $196.5 billion. Former McDonald’s executive Dick Starmann said, “Those two companies helped each other grow and expand around the globe. Neither one would be what they are today without the other.”

2. Influencer campaign: Michael Jordan and Nike

Approach: Typical among fashion and sports brands, influencer campaigns and collaborations are based on leveraging the social presence and fan-following of an A-star influencer or celebrity. Celebrities cater to a massive audience because of their mega fan bases—and brands simply love this. The coming together of Michael Jordan and Nike is easily regarded as the best influencer campaign and collaboration in the history of sports and fashion.

This collaboration, however, involved a massive risk. In 1984 when Jordan signed a $2.5 million deal with Nike over five years, he was a relatively unknown basketball player and not a household name. The following year, Nike launched the famous Air Jordan shoe. The shoes were marketed as a symbol of Jordan’s athleticism and style and quickly became a sensation, bringing in over $100 million in the first year and establishing Nike as a major player in the basketball shoe market. Jordan’s on-court success and magnetic personality further fueled the brand’s popularity.

Outcome: The Jordan Brand, initially focused on creating basketball footwear and apparel, has expanded into other sports, as well as lifestyle apparel and footwear, and has generated billions of dollars in revenue for both Nike and Jordan. Jordan and Nike have also worked together on philanthropic initiatives. In 2020, they pledged to contribute $100 million over 10 years to organizations “dedicated to ensuring racial equality, social justice and greater access to education.”

It is important to note that influencer campaigns with celebrities can be a costly affair and worth the entire annual marketing budget of a company. However, the rise of micro-influencers offers a good alternative for small businesses.

3. Event partnerships: Red Bull and extreme sports

Approach: Event partnerships rely on promoting a specific event where a brand serves as a major sponsor. Red Bull’s collaboration with extreme sports has been a significant part of the energy drink’s marketing strategy since the early 2000s. The Austrian beverage company sponsors and creates events across a wide range of sports, from motor racing to surfing, snowboarding, skateboarding, and more. The company’s commitment to pushing the limits of human performance and creating unique consumer experiences remains a central part of its brand identity.

Outcome: Today, Red Bull owns several soccer teams around the world as well as two Formula One racing teams. At the end 2022, the company employed nearly 16,000 people in 175 countries; revenue was nearly $11 billion U.S. dollars.

4. Co-creating and co-branding: Adidas and Parley for the Oceans

Approach: Co-creating or co-branding is a form of brand collaboration where the collaborating brands come together to create a product or service, each contributing its own USP or feature to the final merchandise. Adidas and Parley for the Oceans is an iconic co-creating brand collaboration.

Adidas is a global sportswear brand known for its apparel, footwear, and accessories. Parley is a nonprofit environmental organization focused on protecting the oceans. In the co-creation process, Parley collects plastic waste from the ocean and Adidas turns the plastic into footwear and apparel. The resulting product line, Adidas Parley, is environmentally friendly, socially responsible, and has raised awareness of the issue of ocean plastic waste.

Outcome: Apart from building a positive brand narrative, the collaboration has provided an ingenious way to use recycled ocean plastics, a tangible solution promoting a circular economy. The success of the Adidas and Parley collaboration has shown that when companies co-create with nonprofit organizations, it can lead to innovative and sustainable solutions that benefit both the environment and business.

5. Licensing and patenting: Disney and Star Wars

Approach: Licensing collaboration is a partnership between two or more companies that allows one company (the licensee) to use the intellectual property, trademarks, or other assets of another company (the licensor) in exchange for a fee or royalty payment.

The collaboration between Disney and Star Wars is a licensing collaboration that began in 2012 when Disney acquired Lucasfilm, the company that created the Star Wars franchise. Since then, Disney has licensed the Star Wars brand and characters to expand Disney’s content and merchandise offerings, as well as provide new experiences, while Star Wars has continued to grow its fan base.

Outcome: Disney has produced several new Star Wars films and TV shows, which have expanded the Star Wars universe. Disney has licensed the Star Wars brand to create a wide range of merchandise, including toys, clothing, books, and video games, which is sold in Disney stores and other retailers around the world. Disney also has also added Star Wars-themed attractions at its theme parks. Overall, the collaboration between Disney and Star Wars has been successful, with both companies benefiting from the partnership.

Special mention: The Cola Wars—an unwilling collaboration

The long-standing marketing and advertising battle between Coca-Cola and PepsiCo in which the two brands fight for market dominance can be termed an “unwilling collaboration.” The Cola Wars began in the 1970s with PepsiCo launching the Pepsi Challenge campaign claiming consumers preferred Pepsi over Coke. And thus began the never-ending back and forth between these brands to call out each other—sometimes aggressively—for advertising, product placement, and pricing strategy. This ensured a war of words that continues even today.

But the upside of this war is that both brands produced some of the most brilliant marketing and advertising moments in history. And while it’s difficult to say whether this qualifies as a brand collaboration because of its competitive nature, this battle of the brands remains one of the greatest-ever marketing successes.

If you’re considering a brand collaboration . . .

A brand collaboration can be a smart marketing strategy for a small business. However, when considering a collaboration, you need to ensure the partnership will benefit your brand and there is no conflict of interest with the collaborator.

Also, while collaborating, ensure you do not lose your essence as a brand and do not get overpowered. Align your values with the collaborator, foster mutual respect, and be crystal clear about your intentions for the collaboration.

Brand collaboration FAQs

What is brand collaboration?

Brand collaboration brings together two or more brands for a shared purpose, such as a marketing campaign that mutually benefits the participating brands.

What is the goal of brand collaboration?

Brands collaborate to promote a limited-edition collection, to complement their products, or simply to increase their reach by gaining access to other fan bases.

How do you create a successful brand collaboration?

Target a relevant brand that complements your brand/product/service. Build hype before and after the launch of the partnership. Be as creative you can be in your marketing communications.

About the Author

Post by: Alok Chakraborty

With years of experience in the lifestyle, hospitality, and fashion industries, Alok Chakraborty has curated content for Forbes India, JW Marriott, Tech Mahindra, and the University of Berkeley. A die-hard Manchester United fan, an avid reader, and a crime-documentary binger, he merges his passion with his flair for writing. Alok pairs up his research with critical analysis. At Valasys Media, Alok oversees a team of content writers and works closely with the marketing and design teams.

Connect with me on LinkedIn.

How to Build Your Brand Identity: 3 Ways to Stand Out and Win Over Consumers

By Gavin Collier

Hundreds of new beauty products launch every year in the
more than $500 billion-dollar cosmetics industry. As of this writing, there are more than 10,000 results on Amazon alone for the search term “lipstick.” Over 6 million Google results are returned if you look for “best skincare products,” and many of the results pages list 20+ individual products. And new brands pop up almost daily, creating niche areas such as clean beauty, green beauty, and highly personalized formulas.

To say that the industry is crowded is a serious understatement. It is daunting to create a new indie brand when you think about the overfilled shelves of every retail store. How will customers find your groundbreaking moisturizer or new lash-boosting solution? Clearly just setting up a website or even getting products in a local or chain store is not enough. What does it really take to stand out from the crowd?

The answer is both simple and incredibly complex. It all comes down to your brand identity. The way you brand, package, and merchandize your product can either make or break the consumer experience, which is the key to creating loyal consumers who will spread the word and generate the kind of buzz that you cannot manufacture, no matter how incredible and unique your products are. And while brand identity can make or break a cosmetics brand, it is just as important for other products as well.

Your brand identity matters

First impressions are so fleeting. It genuinely does not matter what revolutionary ingredients or fantastic new formulation you have come up with if you can’t get customers to purchase and try the product. Psychologists have found that people form a judgment about trustworthiness and attractiveness in less than one second, based on looks and instinct. That leaves no time to explain how beneficial your product is before you completely lose some customers. One look may be all you get.

Still unconvinced? An
Ipsos survey that found 72% of consumers are influenced in their purchasing decisions by the package design of a product. That number goes even higher—to 81%—when individuals are shopping for a gift. The millions of unboxing videos with thousands of views on YouTube demonstrate just how much people care about how their purchases look. More than that, they care deeply about the entire buying, opening, and consuming experience.

The bottom line is, your brand identity matters. Although many startups understand the value of smart branding, taking an idea from inception all the way to successful merchandising is never easy. You need a lot of preparation, a strong network of supportive vendors, workers, and colleagues—and a dose of luck—to make it happen.

There is no one right way to make the branding experience go smoothly, but there are steps you can take to boost the chances that your brand will stand out in the crowd.

Steps to improving your brand identity

1. Have a real plan

Business consultant and author Idowu Koyenikan said in his book
Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability that “Opportunity does not waste time with those who are unprepared.” Many startups attempt to begin their manufacturing journey in the middle. Before they have a clear idea of who they are and, more importantly, who their target consumers are, they want to move forward with formulation and production. They are so excited about the core idea that it is hard for them to look at the beginning and end of their goals.

A real plan is so much more than the product. An overarching, detailed business plan needs facts, figures, analysis, projections, and organization, but it also needs something more. A real plan should read like a story of what the brand hopes to accomplish for partners, investors, consumers, and communities involved. The details of how you get from where you are now to the final vision are crucial to eventual success.

2. Differentiate

Coming up with a brand name, logo, and letterhead is fun, but contrary to what you may think, those visual elements are not the entirety of a brand’s identity. Instead, the core of the identity should be what makes a brand and its experience different from all of the other choices already available on the market.

For instance, you may have a sustainability story to tell that’s based on the personal experience of living with pollution or seeing the impacts of climate change firsthand. Or your brand may stand out in the luxury category with state-of-the-art ingredients and packaging. Communicating these ideas has to be more than a paragraph on your website. Your brand story needs to ooze from every single decision you make.

Evocative imagery, the models or influencers you use, choice of color, shipping speed, any communications, and your social media presence all have to play into that same story. And they have to click and draw in the audience within that half-second window that you get to make the impression.

3. Progress, never digress

Customers expect the companies they interact with to keep up with their needs. As you formulate new products and offer new services to solve old problems, keep in mind that your brand has to always be moving forward. This means that you can’t fall back on cheaper packaging or customer service that does not get the job done.

Start with what you know you can sustain, quality-wise, and move up from there. Giving customers more than they are used to can create opportunities to increase profits, but degrading in quality can damage your reputation, which is something you may never recover from.

Your brand identity is important to your customers

As you consider your branding journey, remember that customers rely heavily on emotion when they make purchasing decisions. Your product has to work and it must deliver on the promises you make, but that isn’t the only thing that matters to your audience.

Buyers want to feel like they are part of a broader community, have shared experiences, and be elevated to participate in something that is truly special. Having a plan, finding that sweet spot that only your brand can fill, and continually moving forward are the keys to creating a brand that will not be lost on the shelves.

About the Author

Post by: Gavin Collier

Gavin Collier is president of Dynamic Blending Specialists and NarcX. He is also a licensed attorney in the state of Utah.

Company: Dynamic Blending Specialists

Website:
www.dynamicblending.com

Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

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