How to do a collaboration right

An effective collaboration is a strategic exercise

Welcome to the Sociology of Business. In my last analysis, Why cultural obsessives matter, I shared a strategic approach to ESPRIT’s comeback. Buy my book The Business of Aspiration and find me on Instagram, Twitter, and Threads.

ESPRIT x Ruby Hibiscus

No brand exists in isolation from culture, trends and its audiences.

Modern consumers shop cross-brand, cross-category, and across multiple contexts and use scenarios.

To address this consumer behavior, and to position your brand for an ongoing cultural dialogue, which is a bloodline for all brands, best is to approach your brand as a creative platform.

This means creating a curated selection of brands that:

a) amplify your brand’s assortment

b) complement your brand’s assortment

c) diversify your brand’s assortment

Amplify

Swarovski x Skims

In this category are brands that amplify your brand’s positioning, product offering and cultural resonance. Best recent brand amplification collaborations are Swarovski x Skims, Mango x Boglioli, Steven Meisel x Zara, Matches x Missoni, Rabanne x H&M, Telfar x UGGs, Omega x Swatch.

Complement

Rimowa x Tiffany & Co.

In this category are brands that complement your brand’s seasonal and category product offerings. A capsule, a drop, merch or a special collection isn’t something that your brand regularly offers, and this type of collaboration serves to renew your brands’s audience proposition. Examples are: Rimowa x Tiffany & Co., Nike x Tiffany & Co., Birkenstock x Tekla, Miu Miu x New Balance,

Diversify

Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty x MSCHF

In this category are brands that take your brand into new categories and retail territories. This is the domain of non-sequiturs, cultural stunts, randomness, kitsch and experimentation. Examples are: Rimowa x Tiffany & Co., Nike x Tiffany & Co., Birkenstock x Tekla, Miu Miu x New Balance, anything that MSCHF does, Typo x Barbie, Christian Cowan x Teletubbies, Nike x Ben & Jerry’s, Pokémon x Van Gogh, Fenty Beauty x MSCHF.

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