Companies often link with other brands to reinforce or augment their brand attributes. When two powerful brands – each respected in a specific area - connect their offerings, they deliver a combined offering that commands even great respect.
The travel industry is famous for building this type of brand affiliation. Look at W hotels, for example. The W brand is all about style. They have been incredibly successful in consistently communicating this – from their hip reception areas and lobby lounges, to their dimly lit elevators that blast trip hop music. To ensure the perfect trendy experience in your bathroom, they provide spa products from Bliss Spa – the hottest spa in New York (Bliss and W are now both owned by Starwood). W, known for stylish surrounding and Bliss, known for trendy spa products, combine to provide an even more consistent guest experience.
Ritz Carlton, on the other hand, is missing a great opportunity to reinforce their brand attribute of luxury. Ritz Carlton is known for providing the finest amenities and superior service to its guests. It is not known as a luxury bath products company. They decided to use private label products in their bathrooms. These products probably cost less than name brand products but they don’t say much about the Ritz Carlton brand. Featuring toiletries that are known to be luxurious and expensive would go a lot further to bolstering the (already incredibly strong) Ritz Carlton image. Hermes products, for example, would provide the perfect match. Hermes exudes luxury and is quintessentially French - consistent with the interior décor of many Ritz Carlton hotels.
You don’t have to be a Fortune 100 company to benefit from brand affiliations. At Reach, for example, we are known as the leading global provider of personal branding speaking, training and coaching. We are focused on education and related services; we are not a technology company. But we know that many of our clients need web sites to support their brand building activities (see our last article about the importance of having a solid on-line identity). We therefore teamed with Brandego, the leading provider of custom-branded web-based portfolios, to provide these services. Brandego shares our branding philosophy (and has adopted the Reach 1-2-3 Success! branding methodology); and they are experts in technology. We share the brand attributes of innovation, fun, international and quality; yet we each provide a complementary service. Together, our offerings are even more compelling to our clients.
Who are you hanging around with?
Brand Connections are for Personal Brands, too. As you continue to focus your expertise and build a reputation in a specific area, think about the other experts who will complement or reinforce your brand message. The products, services and people you connect with all say something about your brand. Ensure they say what you want them to say.
Here’s a little quiz we put together to test your brand affiliation knowledge:
Brand Affiliation Quiz
Match the numbered items with the brand with which they are affiliated.
1. British Airways Club World
2. McDonalds
3. Ritz CarltonXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
4. Volkswagon BugXXXXXXXXXXX
5. MarriottXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
6. GilletteXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
7. Ford ExpeditionXXXXXXXXXXXXX
8. KMartXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
9. LincolnXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
10. Joe Boxer
_______________
a. Mercedes
b. Andre Agassi
c. Martha Stewart
d.Cartier
e. Disney
f. Apple iPod
g. Richard Branson
h. Neutrogena
i. Moulton Brown
j. Eddie Bauer
Answers:
1-i. British Airways Business Class offers toiletry kits with one of the UK’s most famous brands – Moulton Brown.
2-e. McDonalds knows kids’ brand perceptions of Disney. Same target audience - very different offerings - makes for a perfect brand affiliation.
3-a. Ritz Carlton links with the equally high quality and classic brand Mercedes to reinforce their brand attributes with its “key to luxury” program.
4-f. A different kind of car with a ‘Think Different” kind of company. Karen Marderosian, Volkswagen Marketing Director said. "We think this initiative [Volkswagen Bug and iPod] represents a natural alliance of two like-minded brands."
5-h. Marriott uses Neutrogena products to reinforce their clean, middle-of-the-road image.
6-b. The Andre Agassi brand is one of the most enduring in professional tennis. Gillette is one of the most enduring brands of men’s toiletries – the best a man can get. Shaving his head just makes him even more perfect for the number 1 razor company.
7-j. The Ford Expedition SUV comes with an Eddie Bauer branded interior.
8-c. Despite her recent legal troubles, Kmart is staying connected to America’s most trusted guide to stylish living. Kmart has also done this with clothes – the Jacqueline Smith Collection - and with Joe boxer Underwear too.
9-d. If you want to reinforce your brand attributes of luxury and elegance, Cartier is a great alliance to have. Lincoln asked them to create the Cartier edition interior which added quite a bit to the price tag, too.
10-g. When zany Joe Boxer owner Nick Graham wanted to launch his underwear line in the UK, he teamed up with Mr. Irreverence himself, Richard Branson, and held fashion shows on Virgin flights between the US and the UK. It was a match made in heaven, or at least at 30,000 feet.
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