Brand collaborations are when 2 brands whose business and social media goals, as well as their products, align, which can invite a great opportunity for partnership to be taken advantage of. If one brand has a certain amount of followers and products that are similar to another, then a brand x brand collaboration is highly recommended, as it will result in many benefits for that brand and vice-versa.
Not convinced yet? Well then, let’s discuss the concept of brand x brand collaborations in a little more detail to get the full picture of why brand collaborations will have a positive impact on your business.
Let’s say for example, that you started a clothing brand, and the business went pretty well. You’ve achieved a decent number of followers, and are making a decent amount of profit. However, you’re not completely satisfied with the trajectory of your business and still yearn for more because you strongly believe that your products have the potential to reach a much wider audience and that your business deserves a spot in a much bigger league. But, how are you going to make that happen?
It wouldn’t surprise you to know that there are other business owners out there with the same goals and dreams that you have with your brand. There are even businesses that have a product line and target audience that’s extremely similar to yours. With that in mind, what are you waiting for? These other businesses clearly need the help to boost their sales and following, and you know that better than anyone because you’re in the same boat as them, so it’s basically a potential match made in heaven that’s just waiting for one of you to make the first move.
Also, even if the business wasn’t in the same sector as your brand, but was still located in the scope of the fashion world, that would also be a pretty powerful partnership. Take Louis Vuitton for example. Back in 2017, the luxury giant that’s been around for almost 2 centuries actually wanted to collaborate with a brand that couldn’t be any more different than them in terms of style and sector, and that brand was Supreme, a streetwear brand of all things!
This partnership was certainly unexpected and made absolutely no sense at first glance, but it turned out to be one of the smartest and strongest brand collaboration examples in the history of fashion. You see, by collaborating with a brand that lived on a completely different planet than them, Louis Vuitton was able to tap into a whole different market of consumers, and be the topic of conversation for an audience that is typically drawn to a much more casual and effortless wardrobe story, such as Supreme’s. This resulted in garnering a much wider customer base, as well as more profits in sales, and Supreme reaped the same benefits by selling products to a luxury-addicted audience that in the past, never even gave them the time of day.
In the end, this partnership benefited both brands and inspired a bunch of other well-known brands x brand collaborations today, such as Adidas working with the likes of Ivy Park and Gucci.
So, what are you waiting for? Find a brand that you think you can collaborate with, and try to make it happen. Here are some tips on how to navigate the whole process from start to finish:
The Right Way to Approach a Brand Collaboration:
1) Know Your Goals
In order to narrow down the right partner to collaborate with, you first have to have a clear idea of what business trajectory you want your brand to achieve. You have to ask yourself: How many more followers do I want? How much more profit do I want to make in the future? What other markets do I want to tap into?
There are so many questions that will be hanging over your head, but once you figure that out, and have that clear vision, you’ll be able to find the perfect brand to collaborate with, who will for sure help you get there because they’ll have the same vision as you.
2) Find the Right Partner
When choosing the right partner for a brand x brand collaboration, it’s important to understand that it’s not just about choosing a brand that has goals that align with that of your brand. Still, it’s also about making sure that you’re both at the same level in terms of the number of followers, website traffic, sales achievements, and target audience. We know what we said about Louis Vuitton and Supreme, and sometimes the unlikeliest pairings can turn out to produce amazing results, but collaborating with a brand with the same type of customer base can bode pretty well for you too.
However, in terms of follower count, sales, and website traffic, it’s completely non-negotiable because there needs to be a sense of equality in both brands’ success levels, in order for them to achieve a mutual amount of success from the collaboration.
It wouldn’t be right for a smaller company to collaborate with one that’s much bigger and well-known because that would only benefit one of them, and that defeats the purpose of what a true collaboration is supposed to achieve.
3) Pitching a Partnership
When you finally find another business that would be perfect for a brand x brand collaboration, the next step is to reach out and introduce yourself and the idea. How do you do that?
You want to make sure that when reaching out, whether by email, call, or in person, that you remember that the other brand you’re communicating with is under the ownership of a real person, just like you. So, with that in mind, you should start out by introducing yourself, as well as your brand, and be very personable because that will resonate with just about anybody.
This will keep them engaged long enough until you see the right window of opportunity to finally bring up the idea of collaborating, and how it will benefit both of you. Let them know that you relate to them, and are in the same business predicament, and let them understand that this is an opportunity for them to share the same future success story as your brand.
How could someone possibly say no to that? We sure wouldn’t!
4) Compromise
Even when you’re collaborating with a brand that’s very synonymous with yours, it doesn’t also mean that you’re going to have the same ideas for how you want to get it done. You could have a completely different point of view in terms of social media strategies, creative direction, product design, or literally anything else.
This shouldn’t make you skeptical or make you start questioning whether this partnership was a good idea in the first place. Don’t let yourself go to that negative place. Instead, see it as an opportunity to grow and learn from the other brand’s different points of view.
Don’t be stubborn and try to control everything. This is a partnership, and negotiations will always be part of the deal, but you’ll be very thankful in the end that you listened because your ally might end up coming up with unique strategies that you would’ve never thought of yourself.
The point is, just learn to keep an open mind, and always try to work with them, not against them.
To sum up, brand collaborations are among many popular strategies for a brand’s success, and we at The Stylatude would highly suggest it!
If brand collaborations are something you would be interested in, why wouldn’t you be? Then please reach out to us, so that we can help guide you through the whole process, from understanding your business goals to choosing the correct partner, to making the right collaborative strategy decisions.
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