Brand collaborations are well known for their ability to:

• Provide media hype and drive brand awareness. 
• Build cultural relevance
• Expand reach by sharing audiences
• Reinforce or change brand perception

These efforts can also be more affordable due to the financial costs of campaigns being split between partners. Yet, despite the benefits, many of these partnerships never materialize. 

In this article, we’re providing you a heads-up on how you can spot common pitfalls to maximize the chances of a successful brand collab.

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The Most Common Challenges in Brand Collaborations

There is a labyrinth of challenges that can derail even the most promising partnerships. Let’s take a look at some of the more common stumbling blocks.

Misaligned Goals & Objectives

Different goals between partners can derail collaboration efforts. That’s why we believe it’s important to nail the specifics at the start.

Is the effort about increasing usage occasions? Is it about driving product trials, or increasing social followership? It’s possible a collab will provide a multitude of spinoff benefits, but at the start it’s best to have a clear focus.

Solution(s):

• Be clear on what you are trying to accomplish up front.
• Or, approach the collaboration with some flexibility, and be open to possibilities. Like any relationship, collabs involve some give and take. Maybe “driving trial” isn’t your #1 priority, but you can still roll with it.
• Avoid campaign ideas that have too many goals, as that can lead to things like diluted focus, resource strains, conflicting messaging, and measurement challenges.
  

Mismatched Market Positioning & Values

This alignment is crucial for ensuring that collaborations are coherent and appealing to the target audience. If the positioning matches, it has a greater likelihood to resonate with consumers.

Solution(s):
Evaluate whether the partnership aligns sufficiently and be open to unexpected pairings. You know your brand best, but it is wise to be open to lateral thinking.

For example, maybe all the parties are:

• The “better for you” alternatives to less healthy options
• Both embedded in pop-culture (See: Oreos & Supreme Collab)
• Both challenger brands
• Believe in an entertainment approach to marketing
• Offering consumers the same outcome (eg. feeling better about themselves)
• Can be paired in an unexpected (but amazing) consumption moment. 
• Give access/reach to new audiences.
• Etc.

If you line up on shared positioning or values, chances are you can make the collaboration work, and it will seem more natural. If you struggle to find similarities, you might be forcing it – but in some circumstances, an odd coupling could work to your advantage.

Cultures, Operational Styles & Enthusiasm 

Different company cultures and operational styles can complicate collaborations.

If you bring two businesses together; each with diverse corporate cultures, different stakeholder personalities and priorities, you’ll quickly spot that enthusiasm around brand collaborations aren’t always on the same level. 

If you’ve ever organized any kind of group event of more than 8 people, you’ll know how this feels (there’s always somebody who’s unhappy with the way things are unfolding).

Solution(s):

• The most important advice is to have clear goals around why the brands are participating, and the benefits.
• Appoint project champions. These are the people who can see and articulate the potential.
• Bond. Do something fun between the brands (eg. exchange goodie bags, offer e-comm coupon codes, etc.) 
• Finally, understand that disagreements and varying levels of enthusiasm on any given day can be expected. It’s not you, it’s just how these things can go.
  

Distribution Mismatches

An obvious (but sometimes overlooked) reason for failure is distribution. Some collaboration concepts may not be the correct approach if participating brands aren’t found in the same region or retailer. It’s best to check this early on.

Solution(s):

• Double check where all the parties sell their goods/services.
  

Target Audience Contradictions

Some brands may feel a priority to reach one-type of audience segment, while another isn’t as keen. If too many audiences are targeted, the effectiveness of advertising and promotional efforts could be reduced.

Solution(s):

• Easy. Know who you’re trying to reach with the collaboration. The answer to this question might be as simple as “the other brand’s loyal audience.”
  

Budget Mismatches

Budget mismatches in a brand collaboration can limit what the partnership can do together if one brand can't chip in the same contribution. This can affect everything from the quality of the project deliverables, to how long the partnership can last.

If a collab is 1% of one brand’s budget, and 25% of another brand’s. Well, you can see how this might play out. In many cases, these collabs are unexpected, and not in anyone’s budgets.

Solution(s):

• ​​Start early and set expectations of budgets up front. Brand collabs can be an important part of the marketing mix but needs to be planned for and protected in you annual plans.
• At Crew, we typically get around this by pairing brands that are at similar growth stages. There are always exceptions, but we’ve found that pairing a mature brand with a start-up doesn’t always work.
• Look for smaller executions. A co-branded product, or a national campaign might be too costly of an approach; but a social contest, or an influencer collaboration could be far more palatable. Crew’s brand collaboration service www.pairedbrands.com is one solution for this.
  

Sound Overwhelming?

It doesn’t have to be. 

Crew’s VP of Strategy, Nate Douglas, puts it this way: “Brand owners are focused on their own world and, understandably, need to control the direction of their brands. It takes early planning, perseverance, and an understanding of the impact to make collaborations work.”

With that, and an understanding of the pitfalls, anyone can walk the path to a successful brand collaboration with a greater chance of success.

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