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Jakarta Post

Collaboration of brands gives mutual benefits, promotes innovation

Many more people, both men and women, show a growing interest in style these days, turning simple items into stylish ones to make them more appealing

Jessica Natalie (The Jakarta Post)
Sat, December 14, 2013

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Collaboration of brands gives mutual benefits, promotes innovation

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any more people, both men and women, show a growing interest in style these days, turning simple items into stylish ones to make them more appealing.

Brand collaboration has become an increasingly popular way to supercharge innovation. Even the most successful companies have benefited from participating in joint projects with other complementary brands and consumers are increasingly receptive to the collaborative approach.

Branding expert Jean-Noël Kapferer and luxury industry executive Vincent Bastien say: '€œ[In terms of] luxury for oneself and luxury for others, to sustain the latter facet it is essential that there should be many more people that are familiar with the brand than those who can possibly afford to buy it for themselves.'€

We can learn from many case studies in the fashion and consumer goods industries. In 2004, H&M launched its first designer-centric collaboration with Karl Lagerfeld, in a bid to fuel further growth that would command higher margins and enter new markets.

The outlandish success of this debut collection was followed by collaborations with Stella McCartney, Viktor & Rolf, Roberto Cavalli, Comme des Garçons, Matthew Williamson, Jimmy Choo, Marni, Versace and Lanvin.

Recently, H&M collaborated with fashion designer Isabel Marant on its latest collections. The brand is also able to raise awareness in consumer segments or geographical markets where awareness remains low. The high street collaboration also seems effective for luxury brands seeking to connect with younger audiences.  

'€˜Fashionizing'€™ the ordinary

Coke has already been positioned as one of the most iconic and successful brands in the worldwide market. But when the brand decided to add a touch of fashion luxury by collaborating with fashion brand icon Karl Lagerfeld, it soon became a whole different and attention-grabbing story. The Karl Lagerfeld Diet Coke 2011 campaign suited the pretty pink bottles of Coke perfectly, with the bottles specially designed by the Chanel designer.

The cutesy campaign features super models Coco Rocha, Jeneil Williams and Heidi Moun. Another Coke brand collaboration story was created in collaboration with Benefit Cosmetics. They designed the Diet Coke Get Glam campaign, and the pop cans have never been more fashionable.

This stylish campaign centers on three can designs, in which each one has a silhouette of a woman'€™s face filled with either a floral, zebra or houndstooth print. Although specifically targeting consumers in the UK and Europe, the Diet Coke Get Glam ad campaign will surely capture the attention of women around the world.

In Indonesia, we have Aqua, which is doing brand collaboration with well-known fashion designer Sebastian Gunawan to create the premium brand, and the hip drinking water '€œAqua Reflections'€. Aqua was not the first water brand to collaborate with a fashion designer to design bottle packaging. Evian has done it with Jean Paul Gaultier, Paul Smith and Issey Miyake.

However, Aqua is the first to make this revolutionary move in Indonesia. Aqua'€™s latest innovation is embodied in a beautiful bottle to meet the premium market share in Indonesia.

The name '€œAqua Reflections'€ reflects a modern and dynamic look, always wanting to get ahead in life while being balanced with a healthy body. Sebastian Gunawan is definitely the right person to transform this philosophy into the '€œAqua Reflections'€ bottle design.

Inspired by nature, he took the image of bamboo to be infused in the design. He created a bamboo-plaiting motif that looked modern. '€œAqua Reflections'€ is available only at Indonesia'€™s best hotels, restaurants and cafes.

Personal brand meets beauty products

As part of its annual community program, Kiehl'€™s, an American cosmetics brand retailer, launched a series of limited edition products in collaboration with four Indonesian public figures.

Utilizing their distinctive personalities, Kiehl'€™s created unique and distinctive cosmetics packaging and lab coats. The retailer is collaborating with Ari Wibowo (The Powerful Actor), Didiet Maulana (The Powerful Designer), Nicoline Patricia Malina (The Powerful Photographer) and Sigi Wimala (The Powerful Actress) as part of their Feel The Power Campaign.

They had to create the historic lab coat worn by Mr. Bones '€“ Kiehl'€™s icon. As an ikat designer, Didiet added a stylish ikat print on the lab coat. Ari Wibowo gave the lab coat the spectacular New York City skyline drawing that looked colorful and energizing.

There must be a strategic purpose behind co-branding activities. In other words, brands shouldn'€™t team up without a concrete and significant reason.

The collaboration should offer both simplicity and integrity in the mind of the consumer. There should be a true brand story of how the two parties '€œcame together'€ to give '€œbirth'€ to the new creation. Every collaboration should be controlled through a limited edition or one-off collection and there should not be an overlap of shared brand values.

The writer is brand consultant at DM IDHOLLAND.

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