If you study the corporate strategy of some of the biggest brands, you will see one thing in common: the implementation of joint venture partnerships. In this article, we present many examples of business partnership ideas.
Find complementary businesses that your clients are currently using before, during, and after your service/product and partner with those businesses. You need to get your message in front of their clients, database, or community.
Many brilliant ideas come to people off line, in dreams, or in surprise moments when they’re not trying to figure things out. What happen is this: the conscious, problem-solving part of our mind hits a wall and gets stuck. That’s when the problem gets turned over to our subconscious mind.
That’s how Elias Howe’s invention of the lock stitch sewing machine happened. That’s how Rene Descartes came up with the Scientific Method. And that’s what Seymour Cray, the inventor of the Cray Supercomputer, attributed his success to — the ability to walk away from a problem and let his subconscious mind do the work.
Where and when do you get your best ideas away from work?
Business in the digital age has become a seemingly neverending series of “next big things.” Whether it’s e-commerce, search engine optimization, or social media the pattern of firms is as predictable as Gartner’s hype cycle.
First, there is widespread panic, then a rushed effort to hire consultants who are long on showmanship but short on merit. That’s soon followed by a period of disillusionment as key expectations aren’t met. Finally, the “big thing” in question fades into the background as a fairly routine operating activity.
The problem isn’t that the trends aren’t important or that they lack impact, but that the short term impact is often overestimated. Often the long-term impact is often underestimated. What’s needed is what Rita Gunther McGrath calls a shift from “learning to plan” to “planning to learn”. Often they focus on skills rather than trends.
Likewise, rather than getting your message in front of 1 potential client, using this strategy, you can broadcast your message. The broadcast in front of hundreds of targeted contacts that have already built trust with the business you are partnering with.
Let me share with you a personal example of how powerful this strategy can be when executed properly.
For instance, I remember sitting down with my friend brainstorming new ways to grow my business. At the time it was a business consulting firm.
He threw a lot of great ideas out, but none were as profound as his suggestion to partner with accountants.
An obvious choice was given they deal with a lot of businesses throughout the year.
Over the course of the next month or so I connected with over 500 accounting firms. I then proceeded to build a relationship with them over time which in turn helped me secure partnerships in 16 accounting firms nationwide.
This action helped us increase the revenue of our business by over 328% not to mention the money we saved on marketing and advertising.
Brand partnerships, or co-branding, happens when two brands or companies work together in a mutually beneficial relationship. Often, these companies are complementary and not direct competitors.
However, there are some instances where competitors call a truce and double in to monopolize the market and everyone else trying to get into the game. When done well, brand partnerships can offer domination and seriously high profits.
However, just like any relationship, some are better than others. It takes a lot of small working parts aligning perfectly for a brand partnership to take off. Over the years, there have been winners and losers.
Here’s a look at some of the best brand partnerships to date, and what they did right:
Business partnership … Apple and IBM
This is an example of when two competitors worked well together. According to IBM, this marriage “brings together the analytics and enterprise-scale computing of IBM with the elegant user experience of iPhone and iPad to deliver a new level of value for businesses.”
Obviously, Apple has a background in giving customers what they want, and they could seriously improve the IBM image. However, it’s IBM’s incredible big data and software that will give Apple a boost. Who says two giants can’t play nicely?
A high-end designer partnering up with a budget retail outlet is nothing new, and H&M is known for snagging some seriously hot designers (as is Target). However, the Alexander Wang partnership is especially worth noting.
Just like every other H&M designer, Wang’s marriage is planned to be short-lived but offers Wang a chance to make a connection with a brand new generation. Obviously, the benefits are H&M scores yet another killer designer while Wang will likely develop a few customers willing to pay couture prices in a few months or years.
Types of business partnership … Lexus and Coach
Remember when Lexus was the ultimate luxury car, especially in the hip hop sector of the 1990s? You may also recall that this was when Coach joined forces with the car giant to offer one of a kind luxury leather seating.
It was a perfect pairing, especially at a time when Coach was also one of the most in-demand brands and the logo craze was just taking off. Nowadays, Coach is looking to expand but will always be linked to those bags.
New York’s Ace Hotel and Stumptown Coffee
Ace Hotel is one of the most well-known hotels in all of Manhattan, and it has a knack for choosing fantastic partnerships including Stumptown Coffee.
Arguably the most popular brewer in New York, any traveler (and locals, too) demand the best café in the mornings, and Ace is happy to help serve that up. Forget that mediocre, free coffee in the lobby and enjoy the real New York experience. Coffee and hotels go together like jam and peanut butter, so it was a natural fit.
Business partnerships examples … the Art of Shaving and Gillette
Well, this is a hookup many people could have guessed. The Art of Shaving is a luxury chain known for offering the best accouterments for shaving around, including gold plated razors.
Of course, Gillette is known for offering close shaves on a budget and is arguably the best-known shaving brand in the US.
However, when these two sidled up to one another, the result was the Fusion Chrome Collection: An Art of Shaving razor that only worked with Gillette blades. It cost $150 and gave both brands a corner on the market.
Business collaboration examples … Benjamin Moore and Pottery Barn
What does one of the world’s premium paint brands and one of the globe’s most renowned home goods store have in common? A gorgeous interior, of course.
While Pottery Barn was doing everything possible to provide furnishing and bedding to make interior décor dreams come true, customers kept asking about paint colors — especially the ones in the Pottery Barn catalog. The obvious answer was to work with Benjamin Moore to design a unique palette for every season.
Partnership ideas for business … Betty Crocker and Hershey
Talk about a sweet combination. Everyone knows both Betty Crocker and Hershey, and both are connected with comfort foods, desserts, baking, and goodies.
Betty Crocker has been the go-to brand for baking since 1921, and teaming up with Hershey to create easy to make treats was a no-brainer. After all, if you’re going to call for chocolate chips in your recipe, you may as well specify America’s most beloved brand.
Examples of business partnership ideas … One Direction and Nabisco
Yes, really! A “brand” doesn’t necessarily have to be a company providing goods or services — it can be a band, too. Nabisco has a penchant for partnering up with the most popular bands and musicians in the world, so it only makes sense to “brand band” with this boy band.
Nabisco is sponsoring the group’s tour including brand mentions in 20,000 retail locations via store displays and on 8,000 end-caps around the country. A bit of a brand hopper, One Direction has also worked with Nokia, Pepsi, and Target to name just a few.
MAC and Everybody
Celebrity-endorsed MAC products include special lines each year or season that is an homage to the celeb flavor of the day. Some of the most well-known celebrity “designers” include RuPaul, Cyndi Lauper, Lady Gaga, and Nicki Minaj.
Obviously, MAC likes celebrities with an edge, which goes in line with its industry-approved makeup, bright colors, and sleek designs. The most recent MAC Designer: Miley Cyrus, of course.
Brand partnership examples … Coca-Cola and Jack Spade
What could America’s most popular beverage possibly have in common with a designer? Don’t underestimate the power of Americana, because Jack Spade has launched a series of clothes, bags, and accessories that feature the icon everyone knows and loves.
For the designers, connecting with classic beverage brands tap into the nostalgia and classic adoration that many fashionistas adore. For the beverage brands, they can tap into a different market and up their class/ desirability factor at the same time.
McDonald’s and LEGO
partnership ideas for business
McDonald’s is another company known for jumping in bed with quite a few brand partners. One of the most successful was LEGO, and together the companies produced a mini restaurant (built with LEGOs of course) as well as Happy Meal Toys.
There are nothing kids love more than LEGO, except maybe McDonald’s, which is why this partnership was easy to come by and benefited all (except maybe the parents who ended up stepping on those restaurant building pieces).
KFC and Susan G. Komen
Remember the “Buckets for the Cure” campaign that was touted by KFC in collaboration with the Susan G. Komen Foundation? Of course, chicken can’t cure cancer — or can it?
With 50 cents of every purchase being donated to the Foundation, $2 million was raised in week one alone.
While some critics mocked the idea of fast food trying to help cure cancer (“eat a breast to save a breast,” anyone?), it was ultimately a goodwill effort that did what it was designed to do: Sell more chicken and raise some funds.
The bottom line
We’re often told that innovation is about ideas, but that’s only partly true. If your idea is revolutionary enough, your biggest problem won’t be having it stolen, but getting anyone to take it seriously at all. That’s why the hardest part of innovation is not coming up with an idea, but getting it adopted. Talent will only take you so far; you also need the grit to stick with it.
These are partnership ideas, many of which we should already know, of course. They are not rocket science and shouldn’t be.
This list of ideas simply reminds us of what we have forgotten. Then it is up to us to put these lessons (or reminders) into daily use through persistence and practice.
Remember … your experience and learning trumps all!
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of collaborative innovation. And put it to good use in adapting to changes in your business environment.
It’s up to you to keep improving your learning and experience with innovation and creativity efforts. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
Check out these additional articles on small business and its performance from our library:
Case Studies to Evaluate New World Marketing Concepts
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
