Help your business partners to get help yourself


In many business situations, you will have allies. These are businesses that sell towards the same target audience, but don't compete directly with you. For instance, people who read the nearby paper obviously live locally and are as a result within your catchment region; having the nearby paper on your side could be a good thing. Occasionally it's feasible to operate on a bigger scale - especially if you have a large number of feasible allies.

When Tate Modern (the London art gallery) opened its doors it needed to attract the kind of audience that would enjoy modern art, and particularly the kind of avant-garde exhibits that Tate Modern was planning to show.

Tate Modern's marketing team developed a profile of the kind of person they believed would be in their target group (usually an excellent starting point for any marketing activity). This included the type of restaurant they had been most likely to patronize, the kind of coffee shop they would prefer, and also the type of bar they would drink in - not businesses that would compete straight with an art gallery, but ones that would attract a similar audience.

Tate Modern arranged to supply Tate-branded chopsticks to Japanese restaurant chain Wagamama, and 6 million Tate-branded disposable coffee cups towards the Coffee Republic coffee shop chain. Finally, the gallery supplied Tate Modern-branded beer towards the fashionable Mash restaurant.

From the viewpoint of the restaurants and bars, being related with Tate Modern was in itself prestigious: having the gallery supply them with free disposables also helped their bottom line. In the exact same time, getting the brand across in a novel and interesting way to 6 million coffee drinkers was achieved at a relatively low price - this sophisticated audience would be challenging to reach in any conventional way.

It's absolutely important to begin by identifying your "typical" target customer - which other goods and services they purchase, where they like to go on vacation, which magazines they read, and so forth. Be as detailed as possible. Find a giveaway that helps your allies either to sell more themselves or to save money. This concept works best if your allies can see an advantage in being allied to you.

Be cautious in your choice of allies - be sure that they will use your branded products effectively and in a way that enhances your status. Be very clear with your allies about how the partnership will work - what are the boundaries?

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