How To Turn Your Dud Into A Collab Winner

Brand collaborations make headlines daily, and for the most part, they’re cast in a positive light. What you don't often see are the mistakes brands make when collaborating before they finally nail it.

Collaborations are tricky. Compared to a one-man campaign, a collab involves twice as many factors and there’s twice as many repercussions if you mess it up . But don’t let that scare you away! 

Because we want you to succeed, we’ve listed the top five problems that lead to brand collaboration failure and what you can do to fix them. 

Problem #1: The Collaboration Doesn’t Serve Your Customers

Customers won’t like your collab if it doesn’t benefit them. Worse, they may actively defame it and lose faith in your brand altogether.

Brand collaborations are exciting for everyone, but don’t put your excitement before that of your customers. The customer should always come first, and your collaboration should serve the customers of both brands.

‍How To Fix It: Learn About Your Customers

If you want your collab to serve your shared customers, you must know who they are. This includes knowing their needs, wants, likes and dislikes. 

The Eloquii x Refinery 29 collaboration succeeded because the brands prioritized learning about their customers. Knowing how hard it is for plus-size women to find clothes, the brands set out to create the first crowdsourced plus-size clothing collection. Instead of assuming they knew their customers’ style preferences, the brands asked 1022 plus-size women exactly what they wanted from their wardrobes. 

This outreach technique allowed the brands to gain insights on their customers and helped them craft a collection that made their customers feel seen, loved, and valued. 

‍Problem #2: Your Objectives Are Counterproductive

When your business objectives don’t align, your customers pay the price. 

You can learn this from Forever 21 and Atkins. During the summer of 2019, these companies gave Forever 21 customers a free Atkins bar with every online order. Atkins was in the business of reaching younger demographics, and Forever 21 was in the business of enhancing their summer campaign with minimal cost and effort. 

Despite having no ill intentions, customers were confused and deeply offended by the free ‘gift,’ which they mistook as a message to go on a diet. 

Ultimately, this gesture failed because brands’ different objectives didn’t make sense for their audience.  

‍How To Fix It: Think: Intent Versus Impact 

Forever 21 and Atkins could have avoided this mistake by asking:  

• How will customers perceive this? 
• What benefit will they get from it? 
• Does it negatively affect them in any way?

Use these questions to determine whether your objectives make sense for your shared audience. 

‍Problem #3: Your Message Isn’t Clear

This power is lost when customers can’t work out what the point is. You’ll know you’ve trodden on this landmine if your colleagues and customers are asking "Why did they do that?" ,  "Who is this for?" , “Sorry, Am I missing something?” or “Explain it to me again”.

In 2020, Dior and Kenny Scharf experienced just that. The two designers collaborated on a clothing collection that blended Dior's clean lines with Scharf's psychedelic prints. 

They were clearly trying to send a message through bold and bizarre design choice. Unfortunately, no one received it. Fans were confused by the collection, and several said they had no idea who would buy it. 

‍How To Fix It: Question Your Collab Idea For Clarity And Purpose 

Use this questioning framework to test your idea:

• What does your collaboration communicate? 
• Who should receive the message? Which customers do you want to reach?
• When should they see it? Think about the customer lifecycle. 
• Where will they see it? Which media channels resonate with your target? 
• Why should they see it? Refer to your business objectives. 

If you can’t answer these questions well, re-work your idea. 

‍Problem #4: Your Collaboration Is Boring

If customers aren’t engaging with your your collaboration, you’ve probably bored them to death. This can happen when your collab fails to inspire customers to feel something. 

 How To Fix It: Evoke A New Emotional Experience

The best way to banish boredom is to evoke a new emotional experience for your customers. The type of emotional experience you create depends on the relationship you want your customers to have with your brand. 

For instance, Clinique and Crayola inspired nostalgia and excitement by redesigning Clinique's Chubby Stick Lipsticks to look like a pack colorful crayons. This collaboration gave customers a way to experience makeup as art with the sensation of drawing on their faces...just as they did as children.

On a different note, Calm and Gravity provided customers with the ultimate sense of tranquility by offering a free year-long Calm subscription with the purchase of a weighted blanket.

In both cases, the brands used their partners to help them create a positive experience their customers hadn’t felt before, and that’s always exciting!

‍Problem #5: Your Partner Doesn’t Enhance Your Brand

If you pick a partner that doesn’t uplift or align with your brand, your collaboration will come off as a gimmick. As demonstrated by the “WArby’s” collab, gimmicks don’t get great results. 

“WArby’s” was the brainchild of Warby Parker, a high-end eyewear brand that targets socially-conscious urban millenials, and Arby’s, a fast-food chain that targets rural hunters. The collab featured a line of random branded merchandise, including raw beef patterned glasses and sandwich-themed microfiber cloths.

The merch didn’t appeal to either brand’s customers and made both brands look bad. 

‍How To Fix It: Keep Collaborating (And Find Better Partners)

Picking partners that compliment your brand will amplify the message of your collaboration and improve both you and your partner’s brand image. The more you collaborate with complimentary partners, the easier it will be for customers to forget about poor choices of the past.