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Introduction:

Ritualized collaboration has become a big trend in the business world where two companies

team up to create something extraordinary. When companies collaborate, it could be because

of many purposes. One is to drive people from one market into another, such as when

Alexander Wang collaborates with Beats by Dre to bring people from the high fashion world

into the world of music. Another reason why businesses would collaborate is to use the best

of both of their abilities to come up with a product that reflects the best of both companies

(ex. Raf Simons x Adidas)

A recent collaboration that is worth mentioning is Alexander Wang x H&M in November

2014. Alexander Wang is a world renowned fashion designer & H&M is a retail store that

specializes on 'fast fashion' which is good looking

clothing for cheap. When Alexander Wang &

H&M collaborated, they created garments that not

only have the distinguish Alexander Wang look to

them, but they also are H&M affordable. This

allows people who could not normally afford

Alexander Wang to buy his high fashion collection

for a very good price.

Collaborations can also be used to bring two businesses in the same market to come together

and create something that much better. One example is the collaboration of both COMME

des GARCONS, and A Bathing Ape (Bape). Both COMME des GARCONS and Bape are

Japanese clothing brands that have a worldwide popularity with both different and similar

demographics. When both of these powerhouses collaborate, it creates a product that satisfies

all areas of the demographic and results in a highly sought after product. The products

included the classic ribbed collar most notably found on the COMME des GARCONS PLAY

shirts and featured the famous camouflage print that is exclusive to Bape products.

Background:

Collaborative marketing otherwise known as Co-Marketing is often confused with co-

promotion. Collaborative marketing is when two separate companies with completely

different products with different attribute, distribution channel and marketing strategy

companies share the same marketing purpose goal and objective and merge their marketing

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practices together in order to make profit. This is not only sharing content and information

but also about bringing ideas together forging all the resources and helping each other’s share

of customer.

Without realizing it, we have all been partners in collaborative marketing. Most of the credit

card companies collaborate with retailers, airlines, hotels and boutiques to give you a one-

stop shop. In the same way you can offer a similar experience to your customers based on

their needs. As a small business owner one needs to be

inventive while the other should involve the partners in the

process. With the help of social and print media and the field

work needed to engage the partners and customers to

experience the brand and the customer base stronger. But by

keeping in mind that not too much money and time can be

wasted in preparing for this marketing campaign, the

companies need to be swift and smart in order to implement

the ideas , and depending on the budget of their promotion and

understanding of how well can they team up with their

partners.

The first step in marketing should be to identify the partners, and keeping in mind that the

target market should be the same or should have common features between the product that is

being collaborated. After which we will try and find a consultant who can choose a launching

platform for advertisement in these case the local consultants would be the best as they know

the taste and perception for the target consumers, in that case it’s a win situation

Secondly the preference of the target market should be identified , is the young crowd

targeted for which social media should be extensively used as they are into social media a lot

or should print media be used depending on the budget where would we want to invest.

These type of collaborations can be overwhelming the companies should try and have more

and more options and be positive , they should just think about the whole process and

understand where can they be wrong and try to make amends for that and run a successful

collaboration. A very good example of collaboration is ritualized collaboration, as consumer

can’t focus on one thing making; things like superhero skin care, bear branded denims and

designer head phone collaboration are making the market.

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Discussion on the Trend:

The days of singular products are numbered as the notion of co-branding and collaboration

take center stage in the market. Iconic products or celebrity endorsements are pushing into

new areas of marketing that ritualize two seemingly separate products. Creating a market

where one seemingly requires the other to be complete, brands are evolving the traditional

notion of collaboration to the point of perceived dependence for consumers looking for ways

to expand their own personal repertoire of brand prowess.

Ritualized collaboration has become a big trend in the business world where two companies

team up to create something extraordinary. When companies collaborate, it could be because

of many purposes. One is to drive people

from one market into another, such as when

Alexander Wang collaborates with Beats by

Dre to bring people from the high fashion

world into the world of music. Another

reason why businesses would collaborate is

to use the best of both of their abilities to

come up with a product that reflects the best of both companies (ex. Raf Simons x Adidas).

A recent collaboration that is worth mentioning is Alexander Wang x H&M in November

2014. Alexander Wang is a world renowned fashion designer & H&M is a retail store that

specializes on 'fast fashion' which is good looking clothing for cheap. When Alexander Wang

& H&M collaborated, they created garments that not only have the distinguish Alexander

Wang look to them, but they also are H&M affordable. This allows people who could not

normally afford Alexander Wang to buy his high fashion collection for a very good price.

Collaborations can also be used to bring two businesses in the same market to come together

and create something that much better. One

example is the collaboration of both COMME

des GARCONS, and A Bathing Ape (Bape).

Both COMME des GARCONS and Bape are

Japanese clothing brands that have a worldwide

popularity with both different and similar

demographics. When both of these powerhouses collaborate, it creates a product that satisfies

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all areas of the demographic and results in a highly sought after product. The products

included the classic ribbed collar most notably found on the COMME des GARCONS PLAY

shirts and featured the famous camouflage print that is exclusive to Bape products.

Finally, another reason why business may collaborate is to create more exposure for a

business. One example of this is when French based clothing brand Pigalle teamed up with

sporting powerhouse Nike to create a line of products that gave much exposure to the brand

Pigalle and at the same time, looked very good. Pigalle created a whole line of basketball

gear featuring their own & Nike's branding and used older Nike basketball sneaker

silhouettes to add their own touch of luxury that the brand is known for by making them all

leather (which isn't exactly most efficient for playing basketball.) This helps for both brands

because it makes consumers feel safe knowing that they are buying a brand that they are

familiar with while also trying out something completely new.

Relevant Examples of Ritual Collaboration:

Gillette’s Ritual Collaboration with Famous Movie Franchise “Avengers”:

IN 2015, the producer of the world’s top men’s shaving brand Gillette has collaborated with

famous comic book movie franchise “Avengers” for promoting their new movie “Avengers:

Age of Ultron”. For promoting a big budget movie like “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, Gillette

has come up with a big marketing campaign

which includes launching of new avenger

signature razor. They have launched a new razor

the Fusion ProGlide with FlexBall technology

which has created hype among the customer in

global market. But the interesting part of this

campaign is Gillette has designed some special

range of pretend Avengers-themed razors which are they designed inspired by the

superhero’s costumes and their power sources. They have made some commercials which

they have broadcast in Youtube and it got more than 3 thousand likes with more than 2

million views. This ad made a positive vibe among the customers and increases the sale of

Gillette’s new Fusion ProGlide razor. Overall we can say that, by doing ritual collaborative

marketing campaign, Gillette has gotten massive attention of customers and also done a lot of

business in global market.

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Dodge’s Ritual Collaboration with Famous Action Movie Franchise “Fast and

Furious”:

The famous American car company Dodge has also done a ritual collaborative marketing

campaign for another famous action movie franchise “Fast and Furious” for promoting its

latest movie “Furious 7” which also got the attention of customers as well as the marketers

around the world. Dodge, which has been a part of the blockbuster Fast & Furious franchise

since its inception, announced today a promotional partnership with Universal Pictures for

"Furious 7", and for the first time, Dodge is broadening its long-time partnership with an

innovative new Atlantic Records collaboration that truly expands the power and reach of the

‘Fast and Furious’ franchise, and provides a natural extension for showcasing Dodge’s most

powerful new performance vehicles.

Dodge’s cross-branded campaign includes television spots for the United States and

international markets, social media and digital marketing campaigns, and a special “Furious

7” landing page on the brand’s website, which explores Dodge performance cars: the Dodge

Challenger SRT Hellcat, Charger SRT Hellcat, Charger R/T Scat Pack and Charger 392

HEMI Scat Pack Shaker. The cross-promotional spot for the U.S., via Doner, uses the tried-

and-true, aspirational-fantasy car leitmotif: A guy perusing cars at a Dodge dealership hops

into a Dodge Challenger R/T, and notices a poster for the movie on the showroom wall. He

grabs the wheel, and we are transported to world of the movie, ending with a shot of the late

actor Paul Walker's character hanging from off of a cliff from the spoiler of a fishtailing

Challenger. Back to reality, and the guy is also hanging from the spoiler of the car while a

salesperson watches. Voiceover says “It’s not ‘Fast and Furious’ without a Dodge. ‘Furious

7’ in theaters starting April 3.”This marketing campaign was so successful that it grabs so

people’s attention and increase the sale of Dodge’s car quite high.

Beats Audio’s Ritual Collaborative Marketing for FIFA World Cup 2014:

Maker of some of today's most popular consumer headphones, earphones, and speakers,

Beats by Dre is executing a formidable digital campaign: The Game Before the Game. And

it's taking Twitter and YouTube by storm. The campaign promotes the electronics company's

new Solo2 and Beats Studio headphones, and marketers for the brand hope to reignite the

desire for Beats products that has arguably waned in recent months. The social campaign

provides fans an intimate look at some of the game's star players in their pregame rituals—

wearing, of course, Beats headphones. Tapping into the social culture of the brand's younger

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audience, Beats' hashtag, #GameBeforeTheGame, and its poignant video have already gone

viral.

Consumer Adoption of Ritual Collaboration:

There are five stages in the consumer adoption process. Stages of Consumer adoption on

ritualized collaboration are discussed with example below.

Product Awareness: In order to make collaboration a success, it is must that the

collaboration gets enough awareness among the targeted people. Speaking of Ritualized

collaboration, the first step is always easy, as it creates much hype. When P&G collaborated

with Stark Industries to bring out their new product line for Gillette for Marvel’s Avengers:

Age of Ultron, it could draw their target audiences’ notice and interest. The promotion did

not clearly tell when this product line will be coming, but due to mass interest it could get the

product awareness.

Product Interest: In this stage consumers are

ready to learn more about the product and / or

service. Right after the hype about the

collaboration, people became much interested to

know where to get this line of products. So, as

soon as they reached their targeted awareness,

they launched an online competition of winning a

set of the razors signed by Stan Lee to build the

target audiences interest in it.

Product Trial and Evaluation: Prior to purchasing, consumers examine, compare and

evaluate the product. Such behavior increases in intensity and need once the item in question

is more expensive, sophisticated and complex, or critical. Consumers are searching for

information. The above stated competition surely gave a chance to the winners to practically

use the product and share their experiences in their network. Thus, the consumers can easily

evaluate, whether it is worth the hype.

Product Adoption: When the consumer enters the product adoption phase, he/she is ready to

purchase your company product. This is the critical stage that businesses need to get their

consumers to. When the customer is here, you need to make the payment process simple,

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intuitive, and pain free. In addition, you need to ensure that the consumer can easily obtain

the product. If you make it to and through this last phase successfully, than you can take

money to the bank –A job well done!

How to Capitalize on the Trend:

Some leading companies have developed a strategy to avoid these pitfalls, by reinventing a

model that’s been in use for years — shared services. Marketers first adopted shared services

more than two decades ago with a specific goal: to slash expenses by consolidating the work

they had been giving to a number of advertising agencies for research, media buying, and

creative development. They soon added direct marketing execution, performance

measurement, customer data processing, and lead management to the mix. Today, marketers

are taking this model a step further, to build and share more advanced capabilities —

including Web 2.0 technologies — that can be leveraged across business units. By creating

centers of expertise and scale and freeing up resources that had been dedicated to low-value

and often overlapping tasks, companies can deepen their marketing excellence even as they

reduce operating costs. This goal is a key imperative for chief marketing officers, who face

growing pressure to respond to the digital revolution under increased budget scrutiny. Indeed,

some early adopters of this model have achieved efficiency gains of 15 to 20 percent.

Conclusion:

Collaborations used to bring two businesses in the same market to come together and create

something that much better. Effective collaboration is higher quality outcomes in an

increasingly interdependent any system continues to grow in importance. Collaboration is a

complex partnership. It is a process that occurs over time. It is also an outcome, a synthesis of

different perspectives, an integrative solution. It is important to remember that conflict is a

natural and expected part of collaboration. Conflict provides an opportunity to deepen

agreement. The strategic use of conflict resolution skills and goodwill power can be effective

in enhancing decision quality and team commitment. This article has offered ten lessons to

enhance collaboration. Finally, another reason why business may collaborate is to create

more exposure for a business.

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References:

1. Smith, N. (2014, June 14). World Cup Social Campaigns Score Big. Retrieved May 2,

2015, from http://www.dmnews.com/world-cup-social-campaigns-score-big/article/355414/

2. Greenberg, K. (2015, March 10). Dodge Gets Fast In 'Furious 7' Retrieved May 2, 2015,

from http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/245327/dodge-gets-fast-in-furious-

7.html

3. Gillette and Stark Industries Join Together for a First of Its Kind Collaboration. (2015,

April 9). Retrieved May 2, 2015, from http://news.gillette.com/press-release/product-

news/gillette-and-stark-industries-join-together-first-its-kind-collaboration

4. Hills, A. (2015, March 9). Cars, Movies and Music Come Together as Dodge Partners with

Universal Pictures and Atlantic Records on 'Furious 7' Retrieved May 2, 2015.

5. Landry, E., Ripsam, T., & Kapoor, N. (2012, January 13). A Collaborative Approach to

Marketing. Retrieved May 2, 2015, from http://www.strategy-

business.com/article/00101?pg=all