How can businesses use strategic alliances to enhance their customer experience in creative strategy?

The most important benefit that most people overlook when approaching a strategic alliance is the differing desired outcomes for both parties. This doesn't mean that it's impossible to achieve. But parties must be transparent about their desires from said partnership. Big companies often work with smaller ones to gain from their agile and nimble execution, while said smaller company gains from the reputation of the bigger company and being a key partner of theirs. The right partnership structure can also lead to joint financial gains and even long-term programs - a good example being the Intel Inside program that was run for multiple decades across key computer/laptop brands.

Já reparou que toda boa ideia é multiplataforma? Como publicitário já participei de um mercado inflado por vaidades, com pessoas que precisavam ser reconhecidas como donas isoladas de ideias colaborativas. Da minha experiência, acho muito mais valioso estarmos antenados e sintonizados nas tendências para conectarmos os melhores especialistas e gerarmos soluções muito mais impactantes para os problemas dos nossos clientes. Se o mundo está cada vez mais conectado, é natural que a conexão de diferentes perspectivas e conhecimentos seja importante também no contexto das empresas.

Lets make it simple strategic alliances means enhancing customer acquisition and expansion in new markets. This is what collaboration means .

In my experience if the two brands have complimentary audiences, share similar values, and can collaborate effectively to form a strong alliance the pros outweigh the cons. One example was a playbook I built where we’d create content for other brands in our market for free, and then we’d promote them on our social media channels. 90% of those companies were so compelled by our efforts they felt obligated to repost the content, tag our brand, and as a result opening us up to new audiences for almost free and increased our brand exposure.

The only thing to consider in strategic alliances is whether or not you align in values. All successful strategic partnerships flow from this.

Gucci are the ultimate with their recent collab with Adidas. Once a high-brow brand for the rich gents and ladies of the world has worked its way into homes of every young professional, athlete and inspiring fashionista thanks to collabs like this.

Recently Starbucks also collaborated with Netflix (India) to create exciting drinks based on theme for the movie Archies. Infact, Archies used a lot of co-branding throughout the film and through partnerships to market the movie before launch. The aim there was also to build a steady collaboration to promote and enhance consumer enthusiasm. I personally also believe that co-branding is a great way to increase the "lets all benefit" mindset.

Identify analyze evaluate the feasibility . Go step by step to undertsand the situation. Helps to simplify of what you want .

One of the key role is played by the person who gets the "foot in the door" aka the first contact person. For larger co-branding and co-creation deals, its important to be connected to the right stakeholder. Sometimes that might mean that you have to go a longer route and a time consuming one, but it is worth the partnership.

It's important to consider that ups and downs happen. Mistakes happen. And sometimes the "right" position to take is the one where you stand by your alliance and support their lesson-learned-now-making-better-choices experience. Think about it this way: if your friends ditched you every time you did something goofy or hurtful how would that land for you? Abandonment feels awful especially when you need support most - after a lesson-learned experience. So drop the strategic alliance tunnel-vision on profit-loss. Start treating your alliances with compassion and friendship. Go beyond the "what can I get out of this" mentality to thinking more expensively. (Because, let's get real: even Apple has struggles, but they also grow from them).

Culture Culture Culture. Some differences can be beneficial, but if you partner with someone who has a completely different set of values that don't align with yours, you may get some quick wins, but in the long term you are going to knock heads. If those values are too far in opposing directions, then it can end badly.

Apesar de ser uma colaboração entre marcas pense SEMPRE na experiência que o consumidor final terá sobre isso. A estratégia e conteúdo precisam ser relevantes para ambas as marcas, mas principalmente para o produto divulgado. Uma das melhores formas de fazer isso pode ser unindo uma necessidade básica do cliente perante o seu produto/marca, mas que pode ficar ainda mais completa através da experiência com parceria. Entenda sempre a colaboração como algo que irá complementar a sua estratégia. e o ponto crucial para descobrir esse complemento é ouvindo e observando como o seu público tem consumido o seu produto de forma orgânica e espontânea.

For incredible examples of strategic examples that have outachieved their goals - look at Adidas x Gucci, Puma x Dapper Dan, Dior x Nike, Supreme x Nike in the luxury and clothing space. Additionally, Omega x Swatch to create the MoonSwatch was an absolute masterstroke benefitting both brands immensely - new customers for Swatch, more people eyeing and buying the Moonwatch extension and therefore lusting after the actual Omega Speedmaster (aka the Moonwatch) in the process. The most successful partnerships don't just end up creating small benefits, they change the landscape and often become iconic in their own right.

Strategic collaborations for collaboration's sake are hollow. It has become a trend over the last few years to 'team up' and the market has become saturated with Brand x Brand campaigns. Most felt like they were doing it because everyone else was doing it, not because it was bringing value to both brands and more importantly, their customers.