Brand Collaborations
Brand collaborations are a mutually beneficial alliance that can increase brand visibility, expand a brand’s audience, and even elevate a brand’s cultural clout. And although we think of fashion collaborations as a modern concept, they have existed since early last century, when Coco Chanel designed costumes for Jean Cocteau and Pablo Picasso’s Le Train Bleu and Elsa Schiaparelli collaborated with surrealist artist Salvador Dali. So, the concept of brands collaborating is nothing new. That said, when I work with clients and the topic of a brand collaboration comes up, I tend to notice three main issues.
The first is that many clients only think about reaching out to another brand when they are working on an advertising campaign or marketing collateral for themselves. Collaborating with another brand takes a lot of research and time. Brand image and alignment, values, communication style, and design aesthetic all need to be considered when creating an alliance with another company. Deciding on a brand to collaborate with should be both a creative and strategic consideration because a collaboration ultimately needs to be seen as relevant and valuable to both of your audiences.
Another challenge I’ve seen with clients is a tendency to reach out to the same brands they have worked with before rather than expanding their collaboration circle. While repeatedly working with trusted peers can be a safe business bet, it can also become repetitive to your clients. Finding new creative partners that share your goals and values is a great way of expanding your technical knowledge, design ideas, and your audience – which in turn can potentially drive sales.
Finally, a collaboration needs to be successful for both parties for it to be a win-win situation. Clients will often talk to me about other brands or stores that they are interested in working with, but for a brand to be invested in a collaboration project they need more than a credit in your ad campaign or names from a mailing list. Before approaching another brand, think about how to structure a collaboration so that both parties are sharing their creativity and resources to produce a successful outcome for everyone.
Again, these are just a few of the issues that come up when clients raise the topic of brand collaborations. Investing time into considering the who, what, when, and why of the project is essential for a successful outcome. A brand alliance should not just be about filling a product need in a shoot, but a serious consideration of how aligning values and resources with another brand can benefit both of your businesses and, most importantly, be meaningful and be seen as a value to your audience.
Image courtesy of Clem Onojeghuo
