The Importance of Good Partnerships

Just recently, WELD partnered with Shelby American to provide the wheels for the 2015 Shelby Mustang. This is obviously a lucrative move for us at WELD, but whether Shelby, Ferrari or anything in between, it’s important to build good partnerships no matter what your brand.

At WELD Racing, it’s clear where our specialties lie within the automobile area of business. We use this to our strengths and have managed to forge partnerships with big and small companies alike. One thing we have recognised through this is that it’s not the size of company you’re partnering with that matters; it is actually the quality of partnership and what they can offer.

This doesn’t necessarily have to be something they offer you back directly, like free staff entry to an event or a lifetime supply of products. Instead it can be something which holds more value over time, like a shared vision which can bring both parties a reward in the future. Or it can most likely be a reputable benefit. For example a brand who partners with a charity is seen in a far more favourable light than a brand who chooses to partner with an organisation which has a bad reputation. For example if you were in the business of events you may find yourself looking to Costa Coffee to  partner, with their fair trade ethical coffee and charity projects, as opposed to Nestle who have come under fire for exploiting women in poorest Africa by forcing their baby formula on them.

The truth is, you can be in events, racing, banking or any other business sector and still make good use of partnerships. Take the online bingo boom for example. These swathes of sites all compete against each other for players, but it’s the ones with great value partnerships which seem to do best. You can be the best bingo site in the world in technical terms, but if you haven’t set up any good partnerships, then chances are that a lot of potential players are missing out. For example, Iceland Bingo is spawned from the UK supermarket chain, which is already a great partnership the bingo brand uses to its advantage. However in addition to offering players vouchers and deals for the supermarket, Iceland Bingo has also partnered with daytime and primetime TV shows in the UK, reaching their target audience and benefiting both parties.

No matter what industry you’re in or where you are in the world, brand partnerships are so vital that there are even some you just can’t put a price on.