Better Together: How Partnership Marketing Lends Itself To Success
Everyone has loyalties to different brands. Chances are, some of your favorite products have come as a result of companies working together.
Brand partnerships involve two brands — corporations, nonprofits, retailers, media properties, or even celebrities — collaborating in a joint venture. The premise of partnership marketing is very promising: brands can leverage each other’s audiences and combine resources to achieve a mutually beneficial goal. When done right, these partnerships can deliver a great return on investment while reducing marketing spend internally for each brand.
As the marketing landscape becomes increasingly competitive, there’s no better time than the present to leverage branded partnerships to stay ahead — in fact, Forbes referred to 2020 as “the year of the brand mashup.” Partnerships are particularly important in trying times, making it vital for brands to combine resources and lean on each other for mutual support.
In this article, we’re discussing all things partnership marketing — including how firms can leverage it amidst COVID-19, the benefits it brings, and examples of successful long-term partnerships.
Tapping into Nonprofits During Trying Times
As our world continues coping with the effects of COVID-19, firms have an important role to play — and they can’t do it alone.
Forming partnerships with nonprofit organizations can help your brand show support for important causes and communities they care about. Many companies have already done so. For example, LVMH, the parent company to Louis Vuitton, is repurposing its production lines to produce hand sanitizer and hydroalcoholic gel to distribute throughout France.
The nonprofit sector has the unique ability to serve hard-to-reach populations and help remedy very specific causes. Here are some tips for companies looking to forge partnerships with nonprofits:
Think Local: Local nonprofits are vital to COVID-19 response efforts, but they often don’t receive enough funding and lack the capacity to fundraise on a global scale. Because of this, community-based partnerships have abounded over the past few weeks. In fact, Yelp recently added a GoFundMe donation button for struggling local businesses, encouraging consumers to help support restaurants, bars, gyms, and more.
Tap Into A Cause You Care About: Choosing a cause or nonprofit that aligns closely with your brand’s values can generate positive publicity. For instance, in its partnership with nonprofit organization Blessings in a Backpack, KFC is donating $400,000 to fund prepackaged meals for school children.
Empower Consumers and Employees: Many companies are making donations to first responders, healthcare workers, police officers, and other employees risking their lives amidst COVID-19. Companies are empowering their own employees as well. Consider Apple, who is matching their employee donations two-to-one to support COVID-19 response efforts locally, nationally, and internationally.
Be Creative and Authentic: A creative, brand-aligned partnership can be both inspiring and highly profitable. PopSockets, for instance, is donating 100% of sales from its "Dogtor" and "Open Your Heart" PopGrips to Doctors Without Borders and Feeding America.
Forging Strategic Brand Partnerships
In a strategic brand partnership, two or more companies work together to enhance the value of each brand to their respective target audiences. These partnerships ensure both brands have something to bring to the table — making it a win-win scenario for everyone involved.
Here are some of the pros that brand partnerships bring:
Positive Long-Term Relationships: Building bridges with other organizations enables business leaders to learn from one another, which provides a great foundation for an enduring relationship. Companies may even choose to cross-train their employees, allowing them to grow their skills as well. Thinking longer-term helps add authenticity and value to the experience — remember, relationships built from partnership marketing can extend far beyond the experience itself.
Builds Trust: Consumers will likely react positively when two or more reputable brands partner with one another — especially if one is a brand they’re very loyal to already.
Shared Resources: A significant advantage with partnerships is scale, shared talent, and cost-effectiveness. Generally, neither of the two brands would have the budget alone to take advantage of the unique promotion opportunities that come along with a partnership.
Brand Awareness: Leveraging a partnership exposes your brand to not only your target audience, but to your partner’s target audience as well. Brand partnerships can especially help small businesses by increasing their market size.
Access to New Markets: Forging partnerships can help a brand break into a market they have yet to reach with their own marketing efforts.
Give Your Brand Another Story: Brand partnerships enable companies to get more creative with how they position their brand narrative, products, and services. They enable brands to gain new perspectives on ways to drive business growth and connect further with consumers.
As you can gather, there are many benefits of partnership marketing when executed properly. Like every marketing strategy, however, there are potential risk factors when forming brand partnerships:
Profit Sharing: Often, brand partnerships come with profit-sharing agreements and other joint-venture scenarios that may make one brand feel like they’re at a financial disadvantage.
Potential Disagreements: Two brands may complement each other from a product or service standpoint, but their cultures or values could clash.
Sharing Reputation Isn’t Always A Good Thing: Consider scenarios that could crop up down the road and harm your reputation. For instance, your business partner could get involved in initiatives you don’t support, or they could receive backlash for poor customer service.
How do I find strategic partnerships?
The most important criteria in forming a partnership is that both businesses have similar interests, intentions, and goals in mind. Generally, businesses in a partnership will complement one another and share some overlap in their target audiences.
We’ve outlined some tips to help you in your search for a potential new partnership:
Evaluate Your Own Needs: Consider your motive for considering partnership marketing in the first place. Are you trying to reach a new audience, or add a unique benefit to your product or service?
Choose A Partner With Potential: Any brand you consider a partnership with should natively integrate with your business — your core values, audience, and mission.
Both Parties Should Find Common Ground: It’s important that both brands in a partnership align their goals in the beginning stages. Once a partnership begins, consumers tend to mentally associate brands with one another.
Take A Synergistic Approach: Remember, a joint endeavor is not a competition between you and the brand you partner with — any publicity you receive will be good for all the parties involved. The end goal of the partnership is to benefit consumers, so it’s important to work closely with your partner brand to ensure everyone reaps the success.
Stay In Your Lane: When pursuing partnerships, each brand should drill down on their individual competencies — no one wants others stepping on their toes.
Brand Partnerships Brought To Life
Several brands have turned to partnerships with businesses and nonprofits to stay ahead of the competition and increase market share. Here’s a rundown of some of the most strategic partnerships we’ve seen over the past few years:
GoPro & Red Bull: The two brands announced they’d be forming an exclusive global partnership in 2016, in which GoPro would become Red Bull’s exclusive point-of-view camera and content provider.
In their multi-year partnership, GoPro and Red Bull have collaborated on many events and projects together. Their individual goals were simple, yet complementary: Red Bull wanted immersive footage captured at their media productions and events, while GoPro wanted to show off the stunning clarity of their cameras. Perhaps the biggest collaboration stunt they’ve ever done is “Stratos,” in which GoPro recorded the entire 24-mile descent of a record-breaking balloon jump.
GoPro and Red Bull’s partnership remains strong today and is evident on Red Bull’s social media channels, where 360-degree photos and high-quality close-ups and action shots are the norm.
T-Mobile & Taco Bell: What happens when a wireless phone carrier combines forces with a quirky taco joint? The establishment of “T-MoBell” pop-up stores in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.
Although these three crossover stores were only open from July 23 to 25 in 2019, the stunt turned into quite the success. The three days filled with free tacos, co-branded merchandise, and celebrity meet-and-greets gave consumers immense appreciation for both brands giving back to loyal fans.
This unexpected brand partnership began with a wildly successful free taco promo, in which T-Mobile started giving away free tacos every week on T-Mobile Tuesdays. Their success heavily relies on how closely the brands’ audiences align: they both skew male, younger, and toward value seekers.
Dawn & International Bird Rescue: The International Bird Rescue needed a quick, inexpensive solution for cleaning oil off of aquatic birds, and Dawn dishwashing liquid gave them exactly that.
The two brands began a partnership in 1978, when the International Bird Rescue discovered that Dawn dishwashing liquid was powerful enough to effectively remove oil from birds’ feathers, while remaining gentle on their feathers, skin and eyes. Ever since then, Dawn’s slogan has been “Tough on grease, yet gentle on feathers.” The key to this partnership? Authenticity and honesty.
“We literally use the soap every single day, and it is our product of choice,” said JD Bergeron, executive director of International Bird Rescue. Partnerships like these really resonate with consumers by emphasizing what a brand stands for.
Nike & Apple: These two giants in their respective industries first partnered in 2006 when Apple released a special chip for Nike shoes, the Nike+ iPod, that measured pace and distance when running. Their partnership continued in 2016 when they brought runners the Apple Watch Nike+, which combines Nike Sports Bands with Apple Watch Series 2. Today, all Apple Watch consumers can access the Nike+ apps, Nike Run Club and Nike Training Club, right from the fitness wearables on their wrists.
“Nike and Apple have enjoyed a long partnership with the common goal of innovating to serve athletes,” said Sandra Carreon-John, global corporate communications director at Nike.
Spotify & Starbucks: The partnership between Spotify and Starbucks demonstrates how two very different products can team together to accomplish a mutual goal.
In what Forbes dubbed as digital co-branding genius, this partnership allowed both brands to benefit: Starbucks consumers gained access to Spotify's expansive discography, while Spotify’s artists gained greater access to consumers. The campaign, whose tagline was “Take the sound of Spotify with you,” has been very well-received by both brands’ audiences.
Conclusion
When it comes down to it, forging a successful partnership involves the collaboration of two brands with overlapping audiences and a shared vision. It’s important to stay cautious of potential risk factors, but partnership marketing is emerging as an important strategy is today’s competitive marketing landscape. From gaining access to new markets to increasing customer loyalty, there are many benefits that can come about from brand partnerships.