Christian Fea - Collaboration Marketing Strategist

Utilizing collaboration marketing, IBM and Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories have entered into a joint venture to penetrate into China’s call center market. Although IBM and Genesys have been working together for many years, this is the first time they will engage in a joint venture to market call center technology in China.

Capitalization on each partner’s strength

The joint venture will bring Genesys and IBM together to create, implement, and market their new call center solution in China.

IBM has a very strong reputation in China, which will be a strategic advantage to the sales of Genesys’ products to new customers. In addition, this collaboration with IBM will also give Genesys’ current clients enhanced value and branding for their solutions.

According to Michael McBrien, the senior VP of Asia Pacific at Genesys, “we are now tapping into IBM’s sales and marketing expertise to expand our presence in the Greater China market.”

The VP of Strategic Partnerships at IBM, Mark Hanny, commented that the joint venture with Genesys for call center technology will allow both partners to achieve greater market exposure in the continuously growing Chinese market.

This joint venture together will also increase the strength of their sales in other collaboration arenas in China, such as the telecommunications, banking, government, and insurance sectors.

Collaboration marketing analysis

As evidenced in many collaboration marketing efforts, one partner has a stronger branding value, while the other presents a specialization, either in products or service. In this case, IBM’s widespread market recognition lends this marketing collaboration greater exposure – especially for Genesys’ sales of its specialized contact center technologies.

If you are considering utilizing collaboration marketing or a strategic alliance to take your business to the next level, determine what your strengths are as a partner. Do you have strong branding or widespread market penetration? Or, does your company offer specialized services or products that could be easily synergized with a powerful brand? When you understand where your strongest contributions as a partner are, you can then target your offerings strategically – leading you to the most beneficial collaboration marketing partnership combination.

As 2007 winds down, IT executives are looking to take their businesses to the next level in 2008 with collaboration. Despite the threats of recession and mortgage crisis that are hurting the overall economy, IT executives remain confident in pursuing 2008 growth.

Research demonstrates collaboration reigns as a top 2008 priority

According to a Ziff Davis Enterprise Editorial Research survey, combined with interviews with IT professionals, collaboration is one of the top IT initiatives targeted for 2008. Interestingly enough, it is not green IT and Web 2.0 technologies that are not on the list, but instead, a desire to collaborate to enhance the delivery of better services.

In addition, in a research survey for CIO Insight, the IT professionals surveyed were asked to designate the three most important IT business strategies for 2008. More than 35% of the respondents stated that collaboration and workflow would reign as the most important aspects in 2008.

Increased supply of applications to meet collaboration needs

Specifically in the IT field, many companies have released new software applications to address collaboration and strategic alliance efforts. For example, Google released its Google Apps Premier Edition in 2007, demonstrating the growing strength in the collaboration movement. The increased supply of collaboration software is symbolic of how the popularity of collaboration and strategic alliances is increasing.

Collaboration and strategic alliances go beyond IT

The economic weakening in the United States, as well as in the rest of the world, changes many industry dynamics. Many luxury and leisure industries will feel the economic pinch starting in 2008, as the ramifications of the mortgage crisis and lack of expendable income begin their waves of impact.

Therefore, more important than ever, it is important that existing and new businesses explore collaboration marketing and strategic alliances as a way to maintain and grow their revenues. Relying solely upon one’s established client base may cause stagnation or a decrease in revenues. However, by developing new means of collaborative marketing, combined with exploring strategic alliance opportunities, businesses can expand their target audience reach, which will result in increased revenues – even in times of economic fluctuation.

In a momentous industry first, five university presses have joined together in a strategic alliance in order to address the changing dynamics in the scholastic publication industry. Demonstrating the power of strategic alliances, even in overcoming industry challenges, the collaboration brings together the resources of these five publication houses.

Strategic alliance controls costs

The academic publishing industry has demonstrated increased interest in collaborative models. Considering that some academic books and monographs have a very small, niche target audience, along with the lack of growth in library budgets, the business models behind university presses have been threatened. Subsequently, less academic books are reaching publication, especially when it comes to new academic scholars.

By joining together their efforts, the university presses’ strategic alliance will be able to alter the daunting costs traditionally associated with publication. By controlling the costs through their collaboration, this strategic alliance may pave the way for strategic alliances in other publication efforts.

Collaboration leads to greater academic strides

Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, this strategic alliance utilizes collaboration models to ensure that university publication becomes more economically fruitful. Collaborating together on the editing, layout design, and typesetting, the five university presses will be able to publish five more books each annually. Therefore, within five years, 125 additional books will be published – giving the public 125 more books that otherwise would never have made it through publication. Considering that most university presses consider publishing one or two new books a year, having the ability to publish five is a tremendous increase.

According to Stephen Maikowski, the director of NYU Press, the strategic alliance will overcome the economic hurdles in certain topics. For publications that are intellectually important, but that do not present economic viability, this collaboration ensures that critical academic topics still achieve noteworthy exposure.

The power of strategic alliances can be applied to all industries, ranging from academic publications to software ventures. By utilizing creative collaboration processes, companies can expand the economic pie, as well as overcome any traditional economic scaling obstacles.

According to research conducted by Best Practices, a pharmaceutical research firm, collaboration marketing is a critical factor in the successful launch of pharmaceutical products.  Thus, the power of collaboration marketing is once again demonstrated across diverse industries.

Collaboration marketing closely tied with successful launches

On average, pharmaceutical companies begin their collaboration marketing efforts for a product five years before the anticipated launch.  The collaboration is critical in identifying whether the launch, which costs hundreds of millions of dollars, will be successful – and if it should be undertaken at all.  Thus, many players in the industry are involved.  For example, many large pharmaceutical firms employ licensing partnerships with small biotech companies, enabling significant benefits for both parties.

Critical elements of successful strategic alliances

In the research findings, pharmaceutical companies reported that the maintenance of strategic alliances were critical in the success of the collaboration.  Thus, through the comprehensive research, three major factors were revealed that were indicative of a successful strategic alliance:

1.    Business management and human resource relationship skills are fundamental to creating positive partnerships.
2.    Synergistic approach to risk management will alleviate any tensions in strategic alliance partnerships.
3.    Formal, clearly developed collaboration goals, along with the management of decision-making, play a large role in determining the success of the strategic alliance.

With the proper management, synergistic approach, and clearly defined goals, a strategic alliance results in effective collaboration efforts – both in pharmaceutical and other industries.

Undoubtedly, the power of a successful strategic alliance is exponential for both parties involved.  The key word here is successful.  Utilized properly, a strategic alliance takes revenues to the next level, but if the underlying fundamentals of a strategic alliance are not in line – then neither party will benefit.

There are several underlying fundamentals that determine the success of a strategic alliance:

•    Generating value:  To make a strategic alliance prosperous, it is important that what you “bring to the table” is valuable.  Your partnership offer should be valuable to both yourself and your potential partner.  In addition, the second underlying value factor of the offer for the partner’s clients.  This will generate sales from the partner’s customer base, which translates to profits to both your partner and yourself.
•    Appropriate attitude: Remember, you deliver significant value to the strategic alliance.  Without having to increase their production or staffing, your potential partner potentially stands to gain significant increase in revenues – all from your partnership.  Thus, instead of approaching the proposal with trepidation, arrive with confidence and power.
•    Cohesive partnership:  Even if the two companies have potential synergies, the commitment behind the strategic alliance must be present to reap the full rewards.  It is important to ensure that the personal and management dynamics can create a cohesive partnership, where both businesses fully support the joint venture efforts.  If there are conflicts in the beginning, or you sense a reluctance, then this may not be a strategic alliance worth pursuing.
•    Targeted clients:  It is ideal for your partnership to have client synergies, but not all of their customers will be perfectly in line with your target audience.  Therefore, it is important to develop lists that are specifically targeted to your clientele, whether it is the discount shopping mom or high-tech bachelor.  Specify the demographic details of your client base and work with your partner to target those specifics.
•    Strategic management:  Like any business relationship, a strategic alliance must be managed and maintained properly.  Left alone, the partnership will not reach its highest profitability potential.  You should maintain regular communication with your partner, continuously re-evaluating the power of your offer.  The more effort you place into partnership management, the more rewards you will receive from the strategic alliance.

Remember, your strategic alliance is a relationship, and thus, you should expect negotiation, compromise, and maintenance.  However, once the underlying characteristics are in place, reaping the benefits of a strategic alliance is certainly worth the effort.

Fortune 500 companies, along with sole proprietorships alike, have demonstrated the inherent value and power of strategic alliance.  Strategic alliances allow you to instantly expand the value of the customer base.  However, the question still remains – how much is a strategic alliance really worth?

Before embarking on a strategic alliance endeavor, it is critical to calculate the costs and benefits of the partnership.  There are several factors to evaluate in determining the true value of the strategic alliance:

Customer value:  The most powerful part of a strategic alliance is gaining an instant, new customer base, which you may not have been able to tap into previously.  What value does your potential partner’s customer base have for your company’s services and products?  Could you reach these customers through other marketing avenues?  Are there specific synergies that would allow you to fully capitalize upon your partner’s loyal customers?  How many of those customers would be a converted sale for your company, and are the purchases sustainable over both the short and long term?

Calculating the costs:  What are the tangible costs associated with implementing the strategic alliance?  This would include building new web pages, links, advertising campaigns, administrative tasks – as well as the cost of your time in developing and managing the relationship.

Defining your profit margins:  Although an increase in sales will certainly be a benefit, how much of your profit margin remains after the costs or commissions of the strategic alliance?  It is importance to calculate what your true profit margin is and compare it to your anticipated increase in overall corporate revenues.

For every business transaction, there is a cost that is inherently built into the value of the end-product.  Strategic alliances are no different.  The value that you will gain with a strategic alliance comes at a cost – and it is critical that you calculate the true benefit to your bottom line before engaging into a fruitful partnership.

The power of collaboration marketing continues to certainly gain steam.  Recently, Microsoft and CAE announced their marketing collaboration strategy, specifically targeted towards the audience of defense, homeland security, and public safety.

This is a powerful synergistic relationship that will let both brands capitalize on the resources and reputation of its partner.  Microsoft, as we all know, is the ultimate powerhouse in both business and consumer operating systems – but what is its track record for software related to defense?  This is where CAE enters the picture.  CAE is the international forerunner in developing simulation and training software for the defense industries.

By combining the software giant of the world with the civil defense simulation leader, this marketing collaboration relationship allows both companies to take their businesses one step higher – especially in revenues.  Sharing services, products, and specialist knowledge, CAE and Microsoft will utilize each others resources and reputation to create solutions – and marketing strategies – for the defense industries.  This gives both companies a broader and more profitable reach into the niche industry.

For both CAE and Microsoft, they can penetrate into new markets through new software solutions and distribution channels.  Without each other, the upward growth of the two companies would have been limited in the sector, but capitalizing upon their strengths, they can both achieve significantly more than individual efforts.

The marketing collaboration relationship between Microsoft and CAE is an excellent example of how significantly partnerships can contribute to a company’s growth.  Collaboration marketing increases the revenues pie for both parties involved, allowing each company to have a great slice of profits.

The manufacturing giants once kept the innovation in marketing minimal, viewing any partnerships as a potential conflict of interests.  With an industry market of competitiveness and secrecy, collaboration was a faux pas word that was not utilized during strategy meetings.  However, without collaboration marketing, one company can only accomplish so much.

The analogy is simple.  One man, regardless of how strong and bulky his muscles are, cannot move a boulder as efficiently as a team of people.  It is only through collaboration that companies can overcome market boulders to fully penetrate their target audience.

Take the famous “Got Milk?” campaign as a great example of the power of collaboration marketing.  Through key partnerships, the milk industry capitalized upon the branding and strength of other companies and industries – to massively penetrate consumer psychology.  Instead of viewing marketing as an individual effort, the “Got Milk?” campaign teamed up with Oreos, Hershey’s, Girl Scouts of America, Barbie, and even the Cookie Monster.  This multi-faceted campaign no only increased the marketing efforts of all the collaboration partners, but also allowed milk to capitalize upon the identification of each product’s client base.

The key to utilizing collaboration marketing effectively is to think outside of the box, pursuing relationships that are creatively compatible.  For example, Apple iPods and Swarovski crystals would make a very effective collaboration marketing partnerships; while in completely different industries with varying target audiences, this collaboration would effectively boost the market presence of both companies – resulting in greater sales.

It is not necessarily an easy feat to develop, strategize, and negotiate a collaboration marketing strategy.  Often, an independent third party strategist is an effective partner in bringing together companies that will lift each other’s sales and market penetration.

McDonald’s Happy Meals and Disney’s toys.  Garmin’s GPS and Hertz’s rental cars.  These are all tried-and-true joint venture marketing partnerships that have led to significant success – and increased revenues.

The underlying fundamentals of joint venture marketing are simple.  You partner with a company and have them deliver your message to their customer base.  In turn, your collaboration partner garners a percentage of your profits by expanding their asset offerings.

Whenever Disney has a new movie arriving in theaters, they utilize McDonald’s as a marketing partnership to generate additional excitement and exposure.  In turn, McDonald’s capitalizes upon the popularity of the movie and makes additional Happy Meal sales.

With the relationship between Garmin and Hertz, the benefits are significantly twofold.  Garmin’s legitimacy undergoes a significant boost, as Hertz is actively promoting the product.  In addition, Garmin demonstrates to the end user how effective its GPS systems work, thus having essentially days to engage in first-hand marketing to the consumer.  On the other hand, Hertz gains additional profits from renting out the Garmin units as an addition to their rental car fees.

Whether you own a multibillion dollar corporation or a one-person operation, any business can capitalize upon the powers of joint venture marketing.  In fact, joint venture marketing is much more effective than your traditional advertising campaigns – where you toot your own horn to a critical audience.

For example, if you see a banner advertisement extolling the virtues of X Company’s software, you would review it with a weary eye.  Consumers, both subconsciously and consciously, believe that they should be critical of any self-promoting advertisement.  Therefore, not only do you have to overcome this initial skepticism, but you must compel them enough to click through to your website.

On the other hand, if their favorite blogger mentions the power of X Company’s software, the consumers are much more inclined to take a look at the product.  In fact, they already have a good impression, and thus, chances are they will become a converted sale.  You eliminate the barriers of skepticism, as well as the lack of motivation to view your website. The other company also enjoys increased revenues, typically through a commission on all leads or sales.

Thus, one of the most effective ways you can promote your website is through joint venture marketing.  By capitalizing upon the relationships that other companies have already built with their customer base, your products can enjoy the benefit of a positive first impression.