Company Collaboration

One simple strategy to get you in front of your ideal bride could be to collaborate with other companies who service “your” bride. Many global brands adopt this approach to mutual advantage.

Successful brand collaboration depends on both brands being able to benefit from the existing market, or from gaps in the market that can be filled through a collaborative relationship that competitors will find hard to replicate.

Let’s take Nike and Apple as a prime example. In 2006, they brought the world of sports and music together with the Nike+iPod Sportkit, where Apple then partnered with Hermes with the obvious progression of tech products becoming more luxury-oriented and luxury products becoming more tech-oriented.

The iconic Vera Wang partnered with high end French Patisserie company Laduree to put her name to macaroons, selling at $24 for 6, and with Chopin Vodka to produce a limited-edition retailing at $99 a bottle.

In April this year, the announcement was made that Pronovias have created Vera Wang Bride where, to quote Vogue, the marriage “mixes the creativity of the New York designer and the expertise of the Spanish brand”.

Technically, this is co-branding as well as collaboration for the true marketeers out there. If it’s good enough for Apple, Nike, Hermes, Vera Wang and Pronovias, how can we follow their lead?
Christine Skilton introduced our Get Savvy members to the concept of collaboration at our first monthly session whilst in lockdown last March. Branded as “Partner 100”, the goal is to find out where your ideal customer is congregating and get her to learn more about you. The idea is that she is already on someone else’s “list” and you want to get her on your list. In the past you could “buy” lists, but GDPR changed all that.

For those bridal boutique owners who don’t have the resources of Vera Wang, Pronovias and Apple, here are Get Savvy’s Seven Steps to creating your Partner 100.

Seven Steps to creating your Partner 100

1. Make the decision to incorporate this into your new marketing strategy.
2. Create your Ideal Client Profile. This should include their buying habits, age, profession, dislikes and desires.
3. Create your “Partner 100”. Researching other wedding suppliers, not competitors, who would already be serving your ideal bride is critical, and decide with whom you would like to collaborate.
4. Create a marketing plan: are you going to buy your way in, earn your way in, or both? When Christine said “buy your way in”, the words “bribe” and “dodgy deal” were ringing in my ears, with visions of big brown envelopes stashed full of cash being pushed under the table in some equally dodgy dive! However, this is a courtship, which takes both time and monetary investment.
5. Decide how to build the relationship without breaking the bank or the law. Money does make the world go around. Let’s face it: there’s an entire industry devoted to corporate entertaining. You could also buy your way in by using advertising, which is a whole different strategy.
6. Decide how you can earn your way in. This is true collaboration and you are creating a bridge between you and your selected partners with the aim of getting their customers onto your mailing list. You could create a competition, a free draw, a quiz, a downloadable PDF etc., with the outcome being that you are able to market to each others lists and get your ideal customer to opt in - with the usual opt out clause - to your list.
7. Launch your campaign to find your Partner 100 with key partners in venues, photographers and/or videographers. Be persistent and patient, and it will certainly pay off.

Get Savvy

Partner 100 is just one topic covered by Get Savvy in our Business Success Plan. The Get Savvy Membership 2021 is opening soon, so get yourself on our VIP waiting list and be one of the first to know when we open our doors for membership, via our website.