Two Brands Can Be Better Than One

We’ve all heard the saying that two heads are better than one.The same thing can hold true when it comes to brands. Two brands can be more effective than one.  A brand partnership is also known as co-branding. This is when two brands associate themselves with a specific product, service or event.

This may have to do with the fact that I was a blogger first before becoming a small business owner, but I absolutely love forming brand partnerships.  It’s one of my favourite parts about being a blogger. Just the idea that a company was interested in working together made me all giddy with excitement.

 

Now that I am a small business owner, I feel brand partnerships are more important than ever.

 

I recently cobranded with Busiwomen – a networking group geared toward female entrepreneurs in the Halton region and surrounding area. This very successful group is run by a fabulous woman who also happens to be named Karen. With co-branding, each brand should have something of specific value to bring to the table.  I had over 5 + years of blogging knowledge/experience to share with people who were brand new/relatively new to blogging, whereas Karen was a household name in the Halton region of entrepreneurs and had developed a massive network over the years.

While there is a wealth of information online in the form of blog posts, YouTube videos, online courses, etc,  I felt that the in-person version was lacking – specifically where I was located. There was a need to educate small business owners on the importance of blogging for your business and I felt I could help fill that need.

So it made complete sense to host my first in-person workshop with her. It was a mutually beneficial relationship. Karen was able to provide a workshop for people who attended her networking events, who were in her mastermind groups and newsletter subscribers.  I was able to further develop my teaching skills and promote my business. Not only that, people who weren’t able to attend the workshop expressed interest in being notified about future workshops.

 

There Are Many Benefits To Brand Partnerships

Brand partnerships are great because similar to the way that people guest post on other blogs, it help exposes you to a different and wider audience that you may not have been able to reach on your own.

If you are associated with another brand, you will be seen as credible. A brand partnership can help create more awareness for your brand and boost its reputation. The co-branded product and service can help create more business. If done right, it can be a win-win situation.

You can also be seen as a business that is new and innovative – a business that creates trends rather just following them. In a world where we are constantly consuming content and being bombarded with content, co-branding can be a way to stand out from your competitors and really help capture peoples’ attention.

Celebrities are no stranger to forming brand partnerships. We see it all the time. Martha Stewart is a prime example and has co-branded with several retailers including Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Target.

 

 

However, you don’t have to be a big celebrity to start looking into co-branding with brands that are more well known than yours. Even if your reputation is not well known (yet), you may have that certain something that none of your competitors have. The key thing is to think about how the other brand can benefit from partnering with you. It all goes back to the idea of providing value. You emphasize how you can provide value to your clients and customers. The same goes for joining forces with other brands to form unique brand partnerships. This may result in other brands wanting to partner with you.

 

Determine If The Partnership Is a Good Fit

If you haven’t heard of the brand that’s proposing a partnership, it’s important to research the brand itself and see whether or not it would complement your brand. Don’t just jump in blindly. It could result in a collaboration you may regret.  Do a brand audit and look into things such as their strengths and weaknesses.  There have been some partnerships that seemed odd at first or unlikely, but marketers found a unique angle in which the two can work together.

It’s no surprise that whenever an epic film comes out, such as Star Wars, everyone wants to partner with them in one way or another. Cover Girl managed to execute this beautifully by using their product to illustrate to stark difference between the “light side” and the “dark side”. It was done in such a way that it captures your attention with a unique visual that is definitely share-worthy.

 

 

Build up your portfolio to show other brands you’d like to form partnerships with, especially if they’re bigger and well-known. This helps with the know, like and trust factor. Since Karen was a person that many people knew, liked and trusted, I knew it would work out in my favour to host workshop within her network. And because Karen was associated with me, I could be seen as someone else that people could eventually know, like and trust.

Another benefit of brand partnerships is that you can also learn something new and different, that could be implemented into your business. One brand partnership could result in future collaborations with the same brand or an ongoing series of brand partnerships.

 

 

Want more info and advice on how to work with brands? Register for a Lightning Round session here! 

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