Collaborative Social Marketing – New Lessons from an Old Concept
I have owned several companies since exiting the North Carolina public school system, with varying degrees of success; and I have tried just about everything (within my limited means) along the way to get a leg up on the competition. Over the last few years, it seems that everywhere I turn the hot buzz word I hear is collaboration.
Most people that have been around a while will agree that Social Marketing is truly a unique opportunity. It has never been easier to reach so many people with so little investment as with “today’s word-of-mouth.”
But how can you reach the right people quickly? How long will it take to get my friends to recommend me to their friends in order to get an effective following? Social Marketing Collaboration is a great strategy to get started, and we can learn lessons from the past regarding how effective collaboration can jump-start a business.
There are countless collaborative business models to highlight the point, but the one that fascinates me is the keiretsu. The collaborative business model appeared in Japan in the aftermath of World War II. The mid 1900’s version of it was a closely knit group of non-competing companies that help each other for the collective good. The result was a fast rise to global leadership for participating companies. Perhaps you have heard of companies like Toyota, Mitsubishi, Fuji, Toshiba, Yamaha, Hitachi – you get the picture.
After these companies established their own wide-scale brand identities, they loosened or left the collaborative model. However when the companies were just starting up, or rebuilding after dismantling from the west, collaborating (and even sharing ownership) with other complementary businesses is what made them strong in a hurry.
If you own a dry cleaning business, doesn’t it make sense to reach out to people who are fans of local clothing stores? If you sell upscale clothing, why not reach out people who follow high-end cars, or follow a good steak house? A keiretsu doesn’t have to be a formal relationship. In the beginning, the companies whose friends you approach may not even know its happening. But if we are both looking for the same customers and we don’t compete, doesn’t it make sense to look together?
Bruce Muir, ReadyLaunch, Charlotte, NC
