Marketing collaboration is not a new trend, but collaborating for expertise is new and its being followed by both start-ups and other multi-national companies, in order to improve the sales and bring in more productivity and efficiency for the firm. Marketing collaboration is arnsituation in which there would be a smooth exchange of strategies, ideas, expert resources and infrastructure relating to the marketing activities of the firm. How does collaboration bring about a change in the marketing function of the firm?rn1. Collaborative marketing helps the firms in building up brand awareness and increasing the image through an efficient exchange of communication between marketing contributors towards brand building, intelligent content marketing and sales lead generation.rn2. It empowers the firm in improving customer lifetime value and customer loyalty that helps the firm in adding more value and expanding their business to new levels.rn3. Collaborative marketing helps the firms to explore new markets, which they are not into , by using the infrastructure of the other company.rn4. Collaborative marketing helps in generating more creative and innovative ideas, that harnesses the power of intelligent content for efficient product marketing.rn5. It helps in reducing the marketing overheads of both the firms and the funds can be thus, utilized to the optimum.rn6. Collaborative Marketing also helps in developing cross cultural relationships at the organizational level. Strategies used by companies doing Collaborative Marketingrn1. Being StrategicrnCollaborative marketing starts with having a clear idea about what to achieve, which direction the company needs to go to reach people and whether to improve brand reputation by rewarding existing loyal customers or not. This helps in having a distinct idea about the kind of activity and collaboration needed to be done with the other brand.rn2. Thinking like a customerrnThe core idea of collaborative marketing lies in taking all the marketing decisions by having the customer in mind. The companies are choosing the closest alternative brands so that the consumer interaction would be similar to their own brands.rn3. AuthenticityrnAuthenticity plays a major role in the realm of Collaborative Marketing, where the firms have an authentic exchange of ideas and values so that they could deliver a perfect product/service. Intelligent content marketing is the need of the hour, and the collaborating companies ensure authenticity of shared values to bring about this.rn4. AnalyzingrnThe companies are monitoring and measuring the performance of the marketing activities based on the decisions taken by them, which is helping the firms in acting with care if there are marketing related issues. Such a careful analysis of the marketing function is instrumental in contributing to increased demand generation. Many software companies carefully monitorrnthe whole process of software marketing in order to generate technology sales leads.rn5. Focusing on RelationshipsrnAll companies mainly focus on how to reach new customers and promote their respective business. Companies are more creative and flexible in the early stages because the foundation is the key for any result. If an idea is more acceptable, the companies are willing to continue the collaboration and this helps in developing a healthy relationship as well as a unique selling proposition to the customers.rnRecent marketing collaborationsrnHere are some of the most recent marketing collaborations between major companies that hasrnproved to be successful.
ïï Starbucks + PepsicornStarbucks and Pepsico recently went into an agreement on the marketing, sale and distribution of Starbucks ready-to-drink coffee and energy beverages in Latin Americanrncountries .This agreement attempts to leverage the respective strengths of Starbucks and PepsiCo, to bring a carefully selected portfolio of Starbucks coffee and energy beverages to consumers in Latin America, thus unlocking new market opportunities for both companies.rnAs part of the agreement, Starbucks would provide their expertise in coffee production and PepsiCo would sell and distribute Starbucks coffee and energy beverages, thus leveraging its expansive network and experience across the region. Together, both companies would continue to market, innovate and further develop the brand in Latin America.
ï Uber + SpotifyrnUber and Spotify, the digital music company has recently got into an agreement in USA, under which any person riding an Uber cab could hear their customized playlist of songs they have saved in Spotify, which opens up exciting avenues in marketing collaboration thatrnincreases the reach of both brands.
ï Apple + IMSrnApple and IMS, a Miami based marketing firm, have partnered in pushing iAds in the Latin American countries, under which the IMS clients would be partners in putting up the ads in iAds platform; this has been successful in achieving market penetration to a large extent.rnThese examples reveal that some of the leading multinational companies have been open to successful collaborations with other brands in the avenues of marketing. Collaborative marketing has skillfully integrated aspects like intelligent content writing and proper customer service measures to create a redefined marketing strategy that drives the efficiency and productivity of each company, and the coming years would only show more fruitful collaborations in the marketing domain.