Building your Brand through Online Strategic Partnerships

During the early part of my career, within the world of brand development, I had once read a quote from John Stuart, Chairman of Quaker, stating that, "If this business were to be split up, I would be glad to take the brands, trademarks and goodwill, and you could have all the bricks and mortar, and I would fare better than you." I have always believed this statement does a better job than anything I've seen underscoring the immense and enduring value that a brand can bring to a business. Indeed, a tangible, touch-and-feel product will never achieve success without an associated, strong brand. Vice-versa, one can attach any assortment of product or service to an existing brand and can make it work. Companies embrace this concept in practice when they extend the equity in their existing brands to support new products and even whole new businesses. Richard Branson's extended use of his Virgin brand is a classic application of this, noting Virgin Atlantic (airline), Virgin Mobile (telephony), Virgin Megastores (entertainment), and Virgin Vacations (travel), as examples.

A successfully established brand is one that embodies a set of positive attributes associated with a product or entity that resonates with a particular set of customers. As the awareness of a brand increases, these underlying combinations of attributes evolve into the character and soul of that brand. Brands such as Google and FedEx are perhaps the most extreme examples since their brand names have actually evolved into English verbs.

Ultimately, the most fundamental step towards establishing a brand comes from the quality of the products in conjunction with the way in which they are distributed. Or, in other words, the strength of the customer experience. Whether in a brick-and-mortar environment or on the Internet, the "store" is the ultimate touch-point for the customer and, for all practical purposes, the branding begins here.

BUT, unlike the brick-and-mortar experience, the Internet provides relatively easy means to leverage the equity and positioning of established brands in order to elevate and further legitimize a lesser known entity through association. This incredibly powerful "branding tactic" is achieved via strategic partnerships. On the Internet, strategic relationships can be crafted so that the products or services of one company can be integrated into the website of another. And, through the "magic" of technology, the Internet makes this process relatively easy to share customers, create unique customer experiences, and bundle brands.

There are many examples of this both big and small. Grist Magazine, for instance, is a non-profit environmental news publication with a strategic objective to elevate environmental issues and concerns to mainstream audiences. In order to transcend its traditional market niche, Grist Magazine crafted a strategic partnership with MSNBC in which Grist provides articles for MSNBC's Environment Channel. Through this partnership, Grist Magazine is associated with an established international news source, inheriting all of the positive attributes the Microsoft and NBC companies have brought together in their news services.

Today, stories like the one below are posted on MSNBC:

This partnership also sends new readers back to Grist, while also changing Grist's audience composition and affecting its ultimate strategic goal to make environmental issues a mainstream concern. In addition, secondary affects include increasing Grist's rankings in search engine results and legitimizing the publication in the minds of Grist stakeholders.

Additionally, this tactic of bundling brands can be applied to two establish brands as well. Below is an example of About.com, a Top 10 web destination, publishing Computing and Technology editorial from an external, leading publisher, PCWorld.com - an IDG property. In this situation, both brands endorse the other and create a very compelling reader experience. The practical benefits from the relationship are a deeper experience for About.com's 33 million Users and extended brand reach for PCWorld.

Utilizing strategic partnerships can arguably be one of the most influential branding tactics available to build brand equity and awareness. It can provide an implied endorsement from an already established brand, greater brand awareness, enhance customers' experience, reach new audiences and customers, and can be integrated relatively easily.

Scott Lyle is a Managing Partner at Alliance Network Group (ANG) (www.alliancenetworkgroup.com). ANG is an Internet Business Strategy and Integrated Marketing Services firm. Scott's career has encompassed of variety of positions held at KPMG, Interbrand, CNET Networks, and Macromedia. Scott's career includes brand development, corporate finance, financial acquisition analysis and integration, corporate budgeting, negotiating strategic alliances, and business development. His expertise was developed in traditional industry, the internet, and emerging platforms; including both broadband and wireless. Scott also has an MBA from THUNDERBIRD - The American Graduate School of International Management and a professional license as a CPA. Scott can be reached at: scott@alliancenetworkgroup.com.