Have you heard about The WIP’s Expert Directory? This new platform is a one stop shop for all your environmental and social impact experts, offering the opportunity to connect with industry peers that share your values in business. In this article, Lucy Kebbell, Founder of The WIP, talks us through strategic partnerships and the myriad ways that they can support your business.
Business partnerships offer an excellent opportunity to grow your business, your brand awareness and to test new markets. A strategic partnership is understood to be an agreement between two or more businesses working together to achieve a common goal. Of course, these goals will be unique to the businesses in question, however, incorporating values into these partnerships is a vital ingredient for any values driven business.
Maybe you are looking to build a reputation around ethical business practices, or build trust and authenticity to help yourself stand out in a very crowded market place. Working with a business that doesn’t align with these values, or worse, openly works against these values could damage your reputation.
You should also think about any work you do with freelancers as a partnership too. A copywriter, PR or supply chain expert should share your values, or even hold them more deeply than you do, so that you can ensure that you benefit from their increased knowledge.
Partnerships can be big or small, but as long as it benefits your business in some way, it’s a strategic partnership. Partnerships can be leveraged to grow your brand awareness, create new customers, cement your values and share costs. For example, you might partner with a few other like minded businesses to create a pop up shop. You would share the cost of the putting on the pop up, and market the event together to each other’s networks. A drinks sponsor could also become a partner, again, allowing you to be ‘cool by association’ or simply grow your brand awareness with your partner’s audience.
Aligning your values to your partners cements your core values to your existing and potential customers. It allows you space to explore other ways to inhabit the values you hold and not stray outside of them. For instance, it wouldn’t make sense for an ethically made, organic clothing brand to partner with Starbucks in a Wetherspoons pub. Neither brand is known for its ethics, and one has been accused of greenwashing. This partnership would damage your reputation and confuse your customers.
This also counts for the experts and freelancers you may use in the business too. Since they will likely tell people they have worked with, it’s important to make sure that they understand your values and are aligned with them before you begin working together to prevent friction later on. If you choose an expert with a reputation for working in the fossil fuel industry, or for unethical businesses, this may damage your reputation too.
Just any old partner won’t do. They should have some relationship to your business, and they should ideally be values-aligned. There are several benefits to this;
1. Strengthening your brand identity and authenticity
If our organic clothing company partnered with an organic fruit juice company or an organic homeware company, this strengthens the brand’s values in the organic space. It makes them look more authentic because they are partnering with other organic companies that have knowledge in their own space.
2. Appealing to new conscious consumers
87% of consumers would prefer to shop with a conscious business* so shouting about your brand’s values will win you more customers. These new customers could find you via a partnership because they are already loyal to the company you are partnering with.
3. Fostering long-term stability and growth
Values-driven partnerships are more resilient in the face of industry challenges and trends. They allow you to grow trust with your customers, making them more likely to come back and tell their friends about you too.
First you need to be clear on your own values. Define your businesses values, whether it be ethical sourcing, environmental regeneration, supporting underrepresented communities or finding new homes for outlived items (circularity). It’s also important to understand your customers’ values too. There is a reason they are shopping from you but they may also care about other things so market research is crucial here to help you understand this.
Research potential partners’ values and practices through competition and market research. If you are already part of a community of small businesses with similar values to yours, this can be a great place to start. Think about the brand’s sustainability initiatives, labour practices, or materials sourcing. Also think about what events or partnerships they’ve have had in the past and whether these might appeal to your target market.
Networking is a critical first step when it comes to fostering relationships with potential partners. Often, it’s the personal relationships we have with fellow business founders that form the basis of the best partnerships or collaborations. So get out there or get the word out to your networks that you are looking for values aligned partners.
Next, ensure you retain your values by factoring them into any agreements you have. It’s important to mutually agree upon who will be responsible for what. Make sure you advocate for your values throughout the process, from asking how much staff might be paid, or querying where potential waste might end up.
Communicate effectively by having a marketing plan agreed upon by all parties. Ensure that products and designers are credited fairly, and that everyone shares the burden of social media or digital marketing before, during and after the partnership.
Fanfare partners with Stelar
Stelar is known for it’s ethically made, woven handbags that support handweavers in Bali to fairly monetise their skills. They teamed up with circular denim brand Fanfare to use denim offcuts from production of their jeans, to be used to weave handbags. This partnership is genius because it was born out of Fanfare’s circular mission but it introduces their customer to a fellow business who is also ethically minded and supplies the kind of stylish handbags that their customers might love.
Monica Vinader with Mother of Pearl Founder Amy Powney
Monica Vinader has been busy changing it’s reputation in the last few years to align with it’s ethics, so this partnership with ethical clothing brand Mother of Pearl is a winner. Amy helped design the capsule collection of jewels featuring ethically sourced mother of pearl. She then used MV designed cufflinks in two limited edition organic and Tencel shirts for Mother of Pearls clothing line.
There are many benefits to partnerships for your values driven business, and the good news is that they are mutually beneficial. Partnerships enable you to grow and take advantage of other entrepreneurs or experts knowledge to bolster your business, and grow your customer base.
Not sure where to start? Explore The WIP’s Expert Directory to find fashion experts and partners aligned with your values.
*Source: PwC consumer survey
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