Macaroni and cheese. Tom and Jerry. Movies and popcorn. Many things in life are much better together than they are apart, and this is just as true in the world of marketing as it is elsewhere, with brand partnerships a tried and tested method of improving a business’s prospects.
Also known as co-branding or partnership marketing, these partnerships can help take a company’s promotion efforts to the next level, and research shows that almost three quarters (74%) of companies see forming them as a top priority.
But what do they involve exactly, what benefits do brand partnerships offer businesses, and how do you go about forming these relationships?
What are brand partnerships?
Quite simply, a brand partnership is a strategic agreement between two or more businesses, and is designed to provide added value to the respective brands’ products and services — more on these benefits in the next section. There are various types of brand partnerships, including:
- Content partnerships
Brands may work together to co-create content and reach new audiences, like Vice and Van’s Boardly content partnership which celebrates women in skateboarding.
- Distribution partnerships
This involves two or more brands offering their products as a packaged deal and sharing the revenue. Perhaps the most famous example of this is McDonald’s Happy Meals.
- Sponsorship partnerships
Sponsorship partnerships involve a brand marketing themselves by sponsoring a partner like an event, celebrity, or media outlet. These are commonly seen in sport with brands sponsoring teams or athletes.
- Influencer partnerships
Many brands work with influencers who create content explicitly mentioning the company, encouraging their followers to buy the brand’s products or services.
- Licensing partnerships
This is where a brand allows others to produce products using things like its logo or intellectual property. One notable example is toy company Funko, which secures licensing agreements with media franchises to produce pop culture figurines, like characters from Pokémon or Star Wars.
What are the benefits of brand partnerships?
As noted by marketing agency Pitch, brand partnerships have the ability to boost passion for a brand in multiple ways, from increasing its reach to evolving the brand. The agency explains that brands can reach new audiences by having other companies market products or services to their audiences on their behalf, potentially earning new customers as a result.
Pitch also points out that brand partnerships allow brands to harness their partner’s marketing resources, expertise and contacts, and can even result in an evolution of the brand through the creation of new products. Other potential benefits of such partnerships include boosting credibility, the fact it’s a cost-effective marketing tool, and improving a brand’s go-to-market speed.
What should businesses consider when forming brand partnerships?
While brand partnerships can certainly provide a variety of advantages to brands, choosing the wrong partner may have the opposite effect. Consequently, businesses need to think carefully about who they collaborate with — below are three of the main things to consider.
- Values
Although partners can be in completely different industries, they at least need to have the same or similar brand values for the partnership to succeed. For instance, if a food company that champions healthy living like HelloFresh worked with McDonald’s or Burger King, it would send the wrong message to their respective customers as neither would be reflecting what they claim.
- Objectives
While the exact targets of brands in successful partnerships may differ slightly, the agreed marketing goals, like building brand awareness or boosting sales, should be the same. If these objectives don’t align, neither brand will get what they want out of the partnership.
- Skill sets
A brand partnership should bring added value — otherwise, what’s the point? In areas where one brand may have weaknesses — be it a lack of resources generally, a limited online presence, or something else — the partner brand should be able to support, and vice versa.
