How Can Mobility, Fashion & Retail Brands drive Growth
A Deconstruct from the Linkedin Top Startups 2023 list
Hello,
And Welcome to the new Edition of The Success Notes.
Hope you are having a great week, and the journey towards Success continues.
This picks up from my previous notes.
It was amazing to see the wide mix of Startups in the Linkedin Top Startups 2023 list.
What is interesting to note is the noticeable presence of brands operating in the #Mobility, #Fintech and #Foodtech space which is where some of the biggest consumer and trade engagements happen. More details here.
In this edition of The Success Notes, I am deconstructing 2 of the segments and proposing how they can use the Power of Strategic Partnerships to drive growth:
Case Study - Mobility:
Mobility Companies like Fueling (e.g. Cafu), Car Rental (e.g. ekar) and Car Services companies can 10X their engagement, uptake and growth using some of the hacks below. The Mindset needs to think, and go, beyond their core product and explore how they can be a more natural and deeper fit on their customer journey.
Explore some of the below:
Create Community Partnerships - with Residential and Commercial communities. This will give your brand direct access to consumers when they are physically located for extended hours. Works well for Car services, fueling and automotive support services.
Create Service Partnerships with service providers - Hospitals, Clinics, Schools and Clubs where consumers can get services executed as they attend to their core requirements.
Connect with Seasonal events / platforms. E.g. Global Villlage in Dubai. It’s like 10,000 cars parked for an average of 5 hours. That’s a huge opportunity for Brands like Cafu.
Create Transit Partnerships - A lot of consumers who use Car Rentals could be visitors or tourists. Create co-branded Partnerships with retail brands like Cafes and restaurants, fashion and lifestyle brands, leisure and entertainment destinations etc. where your customers can get discounts while they drive and visit. This will be a huge value going beyond your core product of car rental, and help you differentiate to customers to subscribe to your service.
Fashion & Ecommerce Brand Growth:
One of the brands that struck me as amazing is The Giving Movement.
The Brand allocates a portion of its proceeds to support Dubai Cares and Harmony House in India. In January 2023, they crossed $4 million in donations – all of which goes directly to Dubai Cares and Harmony House India to change the lives of little ones. Which is an indication of their revenue potential. And this is what i want to highlight.
Social & Community Partnerships
My purpose of sharing this as an example is, this is a great learning for Retail consumer brands. Not just in the world of fashion, but also across any category.
Lets look at a Poll:
Top 5 Hacks which Brands can use with the model of Social & Community Partnerships to drive Brand Positioning, sales and also make a real impact on the community.
Define an impactful CSR initiative, a cause that will extend your brand positioning. This could be linked to the core values of your brand and promoters, and can be defined across markets and borders, based on the flow of your customers. e.g. If you want to support under-priviledged Children in a specific community, tie up with social organizations or NGOs supporting that cause to contribute products, services and revenue for their support. Or it could be an educational initiative to support schools or welfare schemes. Or it could be setting up channels to ethically source organic products and support the small scale industry. Pick your Goal.
Identify, and reach out for strategic partnerships with specific entities that will help build the ecosystem. In the above case, the entities were the Brand, Dubai Cares and Harmony House in India. These entities can be in our country of operation, or in other markets which has bigger consumer segments for your products, or both.
Decide the The deliverables of the initiative along with the respective stakeholders. This could be in the form of:
Revenue sharing partnership
marketing partnership
brand partnership
retail product display / distribution partnership
influencer or brand ambassadorship partnership
Raw material sourcing partnership
Donation / Charitable partnership
Training / Tech / employment partnership
Roll out the partnership, and drive engagement with consumers with whom your initiative resonates. Roll out can be supported with marketing campaigns, joint workshops with influencers who also support such causes etc.
Generate revenues, contribute as per your partnerships structure and get the ecosystem wheel turning. Set up milestones to achieve every 6 months, and share this with your customers and stakeholders.
I have recently written about such brand launches that has happened with global brands launching in India.
A recent successful case is the international Brand Dior doing a fashion show in India. Such Cross border Partnerships can take various form factors, and can brands can use the power of local culture, audiences, materials and value factors to drive immense growth and goodwill, going beyond any commercial consideration. Check out my post here
#Books for Thought !
In this edition, I am referencing the Book Brands on a Mission: How to Achieve Social Impact and Business Growth Through Purpose by Myriam Sidibe. This can contribute to the complimentary thought process on how Brands can link their positioning and marketing to a purpose that will drive meaning in the lives they touch.