What Makes a Partnership Work?

If someone were to tell you that they were gifting you something that comes in a blue box with a white bow, what would you expect? You would probably expect a piece of jewelry from the iconic luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co. But would you ever expect that box to contain a basketball from Wilson Sporting Goods?

This year, Wilson Sporting Goods teamed up with Tiffany & Co. to release a limited-edition Tiffany blue basketball sold in the signature Tiffany’s box, with a $575 price tag (and a resale value of over $1,000). Given that a Wilson basketball typically retails for around $25, the product for sale with the Tiffany & Co. branding seems a little extravagant. It also appears that these brands typically cater to very different market segments — are the same consumers who spend thousands of dollars on luxury jewelry usually the same ones who are buying Wilson’s sporting equipment? Essentially, this partnership begs the question, what type of consumer would buy this? 

Photo courtesy of Tiffany & Co. 

From time to time, brands will collaborate for a limited time on a product or product line with both brands on it. Most of the time, forming these temporary partnerships allows the brands to draw in both of their loyal consumers while attracting consumers from another brand’s audience. For consumers, buying into limited-time partnerships grants a chance to buy a product that might carry the names of two of their favorite brands while also granting the humble brag of having their hands on an exclusive product.  

Considering these brand partnerships, it is clear that even those that were truly unexpected are successful due to high publicity. An ice cream brand pairing with an athletic footwear brand, for example, seems just shocking enough to draw in some publicity (see collaboration between Ben & Jerry’s and Nike). The success of collaborations such as this one suggest that maybe people want a little outrage when it comes to the new, limited edition products that they choose to buy. There’s no better way to draw attention to yourself (and the brands involved) than wearing a pair of Nike sneakers that don the same design as a container of Chunky Monkey ice cream. 

Some brand partnerships, however, seem logical in the alignment of their brands’ interests and consumer audiences. When Uber partnered with Spotify and Pandora, it made complete sense that the ride-sharing platform would make a deal with music streaming companies that are widely used by many of the same consumers who ride in Ubers. Spotify and Pandora’s services for streaming music also blend naturally with the experience of riding in a car. The two brands also operate within similar industries as both provide services through mobile apps and online platforms. 

So what drives a really good brand partnership? Is it best to partner up with a brand in your industry that provides similar services in order to make something that will provide utility to both brands’ consumer audiences? Or is it better to stir up the traditional marketing mix and go to market with something that will spark just enough outrage in consumers to generate a buzz around your product and consequently, drive up demand? 

It’s hard to say what will be most successful, but I would speculate that brands that are well-established and are looking to stir up publicity around their name are most likely to partner up with other iconic brands to create wildly unexpected products like a Croc shoe with a heel and the Balenciaga label, a blue velvet Birkenstock with bedazzled buckles to echo Manolo Blahnik’s designs, or a Gucci handbag with Disney’s Mickey Mouse printed on the side. Brands that are looking to increase product sales or craft a product with a strong level of utility, however, might approach brand partnerships with a different strategy. It seems that these brands seek out partners that have similar customer profiles to that of their own and that have products that can blend naturally with their own. Luxury brands like BMW and Louis Vuitton, for example, likely cater to the same type of high-income consumer and were able to create a line of Louis Vuitton luggage that pairs seamlessly with the trips one might take in a BMW vehicle. 

It’s hard to say who would buy something like a Wilson basketball in Tiffany blue — aside, perhaps, from Kim Kardashian who allegedly purchased a Wilson football made in collaboration with Tiffany & Co. — but products like this undeniably generate a lot of publicity. And at the end of the day, isn’t catching the eye of the consumer largely what marketing is all about?