How Can Cross-Border Cooperation Be Successful In 2020?

Photo source: Zhongfu net

Almost every day there is news of brand cooperation in the fashion industry.

The past few weeks are no exception. In addition to Beyonce's Beyonc Ivy Park x Adidas release and the Louis Vuitton custom NBA trophy box, Gap also announced a new partnership with Instagram today, which is a hot brand among young people, and the long-awaited capsule series has finally been identified for release in April 2020.

Cross border cooperation is often just a small episode in the overall marketing strategy, rather than an important moment. Gachoucha Kretz, Professor of marketing and brand management at HEC Paris, Paris, says these products are "very easy to make" and are easy to get goods, and they can add interest to the existing series. Though luxury is more permanent... But cooperation brings fresh feelings.

But as cooperation becomes more and more common, it also brings problems that are not worth it. After brand cooperation has become a common phenomenon in the past 20 years, are they still worth the effort of the brand? In this new era, BoF outlines how to plan carefully for the success alliance between the two brands:

　　 Find a meaningful partner.

"A good cooperation is actually the two parties get along well and have good health," Kretz said. "The two parties are willing to commit themselves and get along well in their business."

But cooperation should be more than just a mutually beneficial transaction. A smart consumer can smell a kilometre outside a kilometre because it's too easy to hook up.

The news of cooperation between Gap and Telfar has caused quite a stir and media coverage on social media. At the same time, there are more and more discussions about its popular "shopping" handbags. Telfar provides Gap with what it longs for: sense of entry, loyal customers, and American style "cool" are all things that have been lost for years by this basic tycoon.

"I regard cooperation as a creative strategy," said John Caruso, the design director of Gap. We have been established for 51 years. For those who grow up with this brand, they know why we exist, continue to exist, and why they are closely related to them, but for those young consumers who do not understand this brand, cooperation will enable us to establish contacts with them.

Through cooperation with Gap, Telfar has gained a lot of exposure and will not offend its loyal customers. Its brand DNA advocates tolerance and availability, which is fully consistent with the democratization of Gap in multinational corporations.

In the video released by Telfar Clemens on Gap's Instagram, the designer said, "the concept of usability makes any lifestyle normal. This will be a broader message that allows us to spread, because it is more meaningful for more people.

　　 Make full use of brand equity

Expectations, goals and outcomes of cooperation may vary. Smaller brands can gain incentives through cooperation with big brands to gain mainstream market share, production resources, and the "bigger global footprint" of Marc Beckman, DMA United's partner and chief executive officer of a senior co operative brokerage company.

But smaller brands with cultural and young fan base may have more bargaining power than they are aware of.

Stephen Sidkin, a fashion and business legal partner at Fox Williams law firm in London, points out that many small or emerging designer brands believe that cooperation is only a way to enhance brand awareness and credibility, rather than "helping designers make progress in the business market".

However, in a diversified industry that advocates flexibility and strong brand narrative ability, market share and abundant financial resources are not everything. For small brands, cooperation can actually turn into a healthy financial income. Some cooperation payments usually exceed hundreds of thousands, sometimes even more, depending on the extent to which big brands rely on the cooler brands.

"What we are seeing now is that consumers have changed their shopping habits and media consumption habits, so that these cooperation... In fact, it has affected the root, "Beckman said.

Kretz noticed a similar transformation: "you used to cooperate specifically for image, but today's cooperation helps to increase return on investment, because cooperation is short-term, quantity... Quite large, and the product line is designed to maximize profits. "

　　 Do not alienate your core customers.

Although the purpose of cooperation is to contact and acquire new consumers, brand cooperation and information transmission still need to be consistent.

"Remember, the core customers represent the group foundation of the brand," Beckman said. "Theoretically, this group will always advance with the brand and participate in all social discussions around the brand."

Because social media dominate the marketing platform, brands have to use the same communication channels to get customers and contact with existing customers. Traditional media are suitable for more fragmented consumer bases, such as price appropriate cooperation series, should be put into outdoor billboards, targeted at those fast fashion consumers, not fans of niche brands. But in the era of digital marketing, Instagram may be more useful.

Social media is still the key, but in 2020, the brand had to think beyond the traditional social marketing mode. As the interaction rate between net marketing and paid content is getting less and less, the importance of carefully planned marketing activities is even more important. Advocacy cooperation is not just a self explanatory label and a unilateral press release.

For example, when Telfar was promoting cooperation with Gap, it did not release the same video as Gap, which damaged the image of its brand on the Internet. Instead, it published another series of videos.

But even if you have a variety of content, it's still hard to catch the attention of overstimulated consumers. Static product pictures (or wearing net red products) may no longer be applicable. How to tell a subtle story is the key.

　　 Beyond explosion

Virgil Abloh, the king of cooperation, may have announced that street wear has disappeared, but the fact is that T-shirts, sweatshirts, jeans and sports shoes are now the wardrobe of most people. This means that luxury brands will continue to sell these things.

NPD analyst Matt Powell said: "now consumers has the final say. It is the responsibility of the brand to understand what consumers want and let them have what they want, which is the sensitivity of tide cards.

However, as demand for Logo products began to slow down, the "explosion" as a fashion product is going downhill. For example, according to the analysis data of Tribe Dynamics, in November 2019, the cooperation of Adidas x Prada had two brand labels, which helped Adidas the German sportswear brand to enhance its overall value of winning media (Earned Media Value, EMV), up to $26 million 900 thousand, an increase of 10% over last month. However, Prada's EMV dropped by 1%, to $13 million 800 thousand.

This is reasonable. Adidas benefits from cooperation. The expensive collection of classic Superstar sneakers is a testament to this. However, Prada has neither grasped the imagination of its ordinary consumer groups nor grasped the imagination of new customers. Highsnobiety's Chris Danforth said he thought the quality and the meaningful combination were "very attractive", but many people on Instagram criticized the two piece series as "lazy" and lacking in thoughtful design.

In contrast, Dior Men's cooperation with Nike's Air Jordan not only helped Kim Jones's aesthetic style, and the cooperative trend he had led in the past, such as cooperation with Louis in Louis Vuitton, but also added rationality to the entry of Dior into sports shoes.

Some commentators believe that the design of this shoe is dull and unimaginative, just like the one that Prada and Adidas cooperate with, but the feedback in other aspects is generally positive. In December 2019, the month when the product debuted in December 2019, the tag #airdior directly brought $84 thousand and 200 EMV to the Dior, which brought us $159 thousand and 700 EMV. However, according to the data of Tribe Dynamics, the total EMV of Nike in December was 67 million 200 thousand US dollars, a decrease of 9% compared with the previous month, while the EMV of Dior increased by 20% to 36 million 400 thousand US dollars.

Kretz said that although this may not have any immediate impact on the Nike brand, cooperation with Dior will benefit the Air Jordan Series in the long run, because Dior provides "aura of luxury brands" for it, and allows Nike to pursue high-end brand positioning. And high-end prices. Therefore, it is not surprising that the sportswear brand announced recently that the cooperation between the two sides will expand to the field of garments.

The series also takes full advantage of the potential impact of traditional functional clothing on sports. French football player Kylian Mbapp e released a video of the box opening photo to his 38 million Instagram fans.

"Consumers are watching their favorite sportsmen, what they wear before and after the game," Powell said. Similarly, the cooperative relationship between Louis Vuitton and NBA opens the door to such cooperation. "Basketball is one of the most popular sports in the world," he said. "I think luxury brands want this kind of aura."

　　 Let people feel that products are worth it.

The quality and life of products are also attracting more and more attention from consumers, especially those who wish to resell secondhand products. "Consumers are looking for products that can keep value," Powell said. Ultimately, the design of cross-border cooperation requires people to feel more than just a commodity, but also to make people feel that they are worth paying.