From collaborations to sponsorships to creative cooperation, partnering with a noncompetitive, complementary brand can be an asset in differentiating your business from the competition when targeting customers.
1. Find what assets you have to leverage. The partnership needs to be mutually successful to be balanced, as both parties need to bring something to the table.
2. Identify who you are targeting. Who exactly are the specific customers you are trying to reach with this partnership?
3. Pick a partner that makes sense. Research brands your customers can identify with or recognize, and create a list of the best matches.
4. Fully understand your partner’s goals and begin a dialogue. What is the main thing they want out of the partnership? Driving up sales? Raising brand awareness?
5. Establish your currency. Is it a number of rooms a night? Or is it something else?
6. Build your database. Sending out a cooperative message or promotion will gain a larger market for both parties.
An example of a successful partnership includes WeSC (We Are the Superlative Conspiracy), a young, hip clothing and accessories brand, that teamed with The Standard hotels, a group known for its playful sensibility. By combining their images, the companies created items travelers might need for everyday life such as wallets, passport holders, iPhone covers and premium retro-style headphones, all in different colors representing each of the hotels’ color identity. In this case, The Standard is reasserting its “cool” image, as they often do, by promoting up-and-coming musicians and performers, which helps them appeal to the 35-and-under market.
Another example includes Marriott International and its strategic partnerships with Christie’s; Tumi; nutritionist Keri Glassman ; Aromatherapy Associates; and Treasury Wine Estates, as part of the brand’s initiative to deliver a higher level luxury experience at JW Marriott hotels worldwide.
“We’re making an effort to drive awareness among luxury consumers. One way is through our partnerships,” Mitzi Gaskins, VP and global brand manager for JW Marriott said in a June article in The New York Times. “We want to align ourselves with people in a space relevant to our consumers. Our goal is offer unique experiences and knowledge to our guests.”
Additionally, having an understanding of what your goals are can help you formulate how many partnerships you pursue—it can be as small as getting more people to attend an event you are throwing at your venue, or as big as driving sales, depending on what holes you may be looking to fill in your brand. As mentioned before, each deal must create a form of “currency,” whether it be a higher revenue per available room or reaching a market that you have yet tapped, and so on. The point being, whatever the “currency” might be, it should be beneficial to both sides.
In turn, if one side, or both sides, is not receiving their expected “currency,” it might be time to go separate ways. Partnerships should be viewed as a way to bring a fresh view to your brand, so trying out new partnerships (rather than only using the same ones over and over) should be the goal.
Furthermore, the most successful scenarios are achieved when a marketing partnership brings two brands together and reaches out to their respective customers with a cooperative message and/or offer. Collecting customers’ names and information will eventually equal a valuable “currency,” both in your direct consumer marketing efforts and in your future partnership possibilities.
Overall, alliances between brands can be a highly effective tool in expanding your market at a low cost and are a way to make your brand stand out amongst the competition.
As New York’s premiere restaurant and hospitality consultant, Steven Kamali serves as a translator between the investment and hospitality worlds. Working with clients at the intersection of hospitality, restaurants and nightlife, Steven has skillfully advised partners and clients on some of the most successful, high-profile projects New York and beyond. Named to Crain’s New York Business’ prestigious “40 Under 40” list, is regularly quoted as a trend expert in publications including The New York Times, Forbes, New York Post and New York Magazine. He can be reached at info@stevenkamali.com.
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