Question

Topic: Branding

How To Retain Separate Identity In Collaborations?

Posted by Anonymous on 8/27/2009 at 6:33 PM ET 250 Points
I’m currently exploring the idea of teaming up with a group of business people in my small city. Our group includes a graphic designer, an interior designer, social media expert, a business/marketing coach and a marketing strategist/writer. We’re making plans to pool our services into a one-stop-shop offering marketing and image services for moderately upscale companies under a new LLC. At the same time, we all want to retain our separate business identities. I believe this model would work fine in a large market, but I’m struggling with how to present ourselves to a small city market. Since we’re all known to some extent as separate companies, I wonder if it will be confusing to also market ourselves as a group, even if we don't refer to our other company names.
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  • Posted by ilan on 8/27/2009 at 6:53 PM Accepted
    I've been working under this model for years.
    The one thing you must make sure, is to present to any potential business one brand.
    So if the graphic designer is leading the project, it will be his identity, if the writer, it will be his etc.
    You can't be one brand with 10 identities.
    When I invite my collaborators to work on a project, they all understand that they will be working under my brand name, with all the equity it carries, and I have made business cards for them. They can't come to a meeting and give 10 different cards.
  • Posted on 8/27/2009 at 7:02 PM Author
    We want to market both our new joint LLC and our separate LLCs - of course, not at the same time. Don't you think it's beneficial to have an umbrella organization that presents a unified brand?
  • Posted on 8/27/2009 at 7:47 PM Accepted
    My view (based on a number of interviews with marketing consultants and service providers): It won't work if you try to maintain separate identities AND an umbrella name.

    Many hundreds (maybe thousands) of consultants have tried this, and very few ever made a go of it. When I was writing Rasputin For Hire, I had occasion to interview several dozen different consultants, and I asked them all about this kind of arrangement. Not one of them had a success story, even though most had considered or tried it at one time or another.

    There's a discussion of the findings and some hypotheses about why it doesn't work in the book. If you're interested, you can get the book by clicking on the link above and receive a free bonus report that reports advice and experiences from a roundtable discussion with five of the experts here on the MarketingProfs Know-How Exchange. Or it's available through major bookstores in the United States and Amazon.com.

    Logic says the umbrella organization can work, but in practice it just doesn't pan out. Maybe multiple identities are just too confusing for the clients.
  • Posted by cookmarketing@gmail. on 8/27/2009 at 8:22 PM Accepted
    My background for this type of organization is, surprisingly the movie business, where everything is labeled 'project'.

    You have an extremely narrow staff, presenting projects; or accepting projects, and this narrow staff is it.

    Once a 'project' is approved, if you do your offering correctly, your clients understand staff the will be expanded for this particular project. Run project, after completed, staff shrinks back to minimal.

    In this way, all can pitch any 'project' knowing how to quickly expand to project needs.
  • Posted on 8/27/2009 at 8:36 PM Author
    Thanks to all responders - very helpful. So maybe we just need to print some more biz cards per ilan's suggestion, and serve as project managers for each other as needed. Great input!
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