The Importance of Brand Partnerships
Brand Partnerships are a great opportunity to work with another brand or business enabling both parties to pool marketing resources, expertise, and brand assets. The partnership allows you to access a wider customer network through your partner, ideally within your target audience, and it’s beneficial to your partner who will receive the same exposure from your brand.
Mackie’s of Scotland’s 2021 Summer Campaign
A great example of how we have used brand partnerships for our clients is the Mackie’s 2021 Summer Campaign partnership we negotiated with Coolstays. To anchor our ‘Discover Summer’ campaign, we wanted to use partnerships to create a hook for our audience to engage.
In order to make sure that a brand partnership will be successful it is important to understand the criteria of your combined target audience and how this will work for both brands, and the commercial objectives for each brand. For instance, Mackie’s 2021 Summer partnership with holiday lettings brand CoolStays shared ‘summer’ as the focal point of this partnership by creating a competition to win a holiday and a selection of ice cream, combining going away for summer holidays and ice cream. The brands shared a similar audience profile too because we know from research just how much Mackie’s shoppers also love holidays and short breaks as well as great ice cream!
It is important to make sure that a chosen brand partnership does not conflict significantly with the interest of your own brand – ideally they should a similar demographic and complement your brands’ own positioning and tone of voice. However, this doesn’t mean that partnerships between seemingly different brands don’t work. When values align and there is a common ground shared between two brands, being different can be a good thing!
The Mackie’s Big 2021 Summer partnership with CoolStays meant that participants could enter a competition to win a summer trip and a selection of Mackie’s ice cream. In this partnership, the competition acted as the ‘campaign hook’ as this is what kept consumers engage and served to generate brand awareness as well as e-mail sign-ups for both brands.
Fairfields Farm’s E-mail Database Growth
Additionally, brand recognition, engagement and growth can be generated through teaming up with like-minded brands for one-off e-mail sign ups or social media giveaways. It is important that brands do not share their database with anyone else as this will contravene important guidelines and legal requirements regarding GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). Your customers or contacts should always have opted in to hear from you via email and they should not be approached directed by another partner. However there is immense value for like-minded brands to introduce a partner brand to their database via their own email campaigns; and vice versa. It creates more opportunity and exposure for each brand and when done well will lead to the growth of each others’ e-mail databases.
Fairfield’s Farm have undertaken several brand partnerships, often with local businesses, where both brands share a similar target audience. For example, a past summer partnership with Stoke’s sauces offered entrants the chance of winning a delicious selection of Stoke’s Sauces, plus plenty of Fairfield’s Farm potatoes and crisps with the idea of entertaining guests at a BBQ as the focus point in the partnership. This combined both brands’ products and created a common purpose for the partnership, whilst expanding their reach.
A successful one-off email campaign was the partnership between Fairfield’s Farm and The Prince’s Countryside Fund. This partnership offered customers a saving 5% on their purchase from Fairfield’s Farm as well as a donation of 5% to The Prince’s Countryside Fund from Fairfield’s Farm as a way of saying thank you to farmers.
If your goal is to grow your reach through email marketing, then email partnerships are a great way to grow your database and brand awareness at the same time. A clear campaign structure is vital for success, and GDPR compliance essential, which is why it is important to outline the campaign goals and objectives before sending any emails. It is also important to ensure that the partnership is aimed at the right target audience so there is greater chance of retaining the growth from the email partnership.
Garden Trellis Co’s RHS Prestige Range
Adding industry recognition can be a successful partnership for your brand. Some of Curzon Marketing’s campaigns for joinery brand The Garden Trellis Company have included working with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) to secure an endorsement for the high quality ‘Prestige’ range of trellis, fencing & gates. This formal agreed partnership provides industry recognition for The Garden Trellis Co, offering greater reach and enhancing brand reputation & trust, ultimately contributing to increased sales.
Brand partnerships are a tremendous marketing asset that can produce very valuable results, but it is vital to remember that if done incorrectly they can have a negative impact to your business. Make sure to assess your potential brand partner and brainstorm what you could offer each other and whether your business goals will work together. With the right planning, a GDPR compliant approach and a well-suited brand partner this could be the perfect way to expand your business to a whole new audience.
If you’re looking for a fresh perspective on your brand or business and think brand partnerships would work for you, please get in touch. We’d love to help you put your brand first.