ion team-up doesn’t? That’s something I’d like to explore in this article by looking at the following: The role of brand in expanding your offer Arena thinking: A new way to carve up industries  Criteria for success in moving outside your arena The benefits of getting it right. This shifting role of brand and the new opportunity to stretch I’m sure you would expect me to say this, considering I’m a brand strategist, but whether a business can successfully partner to expand outside its category comes back to the foundations of brand strategy. When we look at the evolution of brand over the last 100-200 years, we’ve gone from brands as physical markers of ownership (this cow is mine), to brands as products and services defined within clear categories (VW sells cars, LV sells clothes), to today, when we increasingly we look to brands to lead us – sports teams are now entertainment businesses, tech businesses are now healthcare businesses, fashion brands are now community creators. We’ve moved beyond expecting brands to hand us a product and, instead, we are looking to brands to fulfil core human needs. From inside industries to spanning arenas At Interbrand, we call this approach ‘arena thinking’ and we know that, by adopting this methodology businesses achieve commercial success. Brands that operate in three to four arenas achieve 13 per cent growth in brand value, and those in six-plus achieve 20 per cent growth in brand value.  All this to say that, if you want to collaborate to stretch outside your category, you first need to throw out the notion of a category and instead start thinking in arenas. Which arena do you want to own? Are you about creating comfortable lounges or are you about the feeling of home (Dwell)? Are you a lip balm company that helps lips stay hydrated or are you helping people express themselves (Express)? Are you a maker of travel bags or are you answering the human need for freedom (Explore)? The clearer you get now, the more solid a platform you’ll have to jump from later. Now you know the arena you are in today, look to who else your consumers use within this arena and make this your collaboration shortlist. Look at their day, who else are they inviting into their lives within this arena? If you are in their make-up bag helping them Express themselves, what clothes are they wearing, what car are they driving, what music are they listening to for the same need. An example of a brand that has taken this approach when it comes to partnerships is Rimowa. With its avant-garde designs, travel bag maker Rimowa wanted to cement its position in the Express arena. By looking to who else its consumers were using to meet this need, they landed on a lucrative collaboration with Tiffany. So now your collaborations are helping you expand out into a single arena, it’s time to go even further and start playing in multiple arenas. How to stretch without breaking Australian ice-cream maker Messina is one such example of a brand that has remarkable stretch and so far hasn’t broken. How? It intuitively adopted arena thinking – defining its brand and experience around the broader idea of Taste. The smells, textures, sensations – it has never offered just ice cream, it has always been a bigger idea, sensory stimulation. After initially expanding from there – working with other Taste brands (Australian FMCG brands Archie Rose and Tim Tam), then Messina knew it had won the right to go bigger.  So, the brand looked to other arenas where sensory stimulation had a role to play: Dwell through its collaboration with homewares label Maison Balzac, Express through its Lanolips line, and even Thrive through its Standard Procedure sun cream. It might feel counterintuitive, but the more certain and focused you are on the very core of your brand, the more permission you have to play outside of it. What idea is central to your brand that has a role to play outside your arena? Disney owns the Play arena, but its core DNA is Magic. Where else do we value magic, make-up (Express) and in the hands of Charlotte Tilbury? Alemais owns the Express arena, but its core DNA centres around nostalgia. Where else does nostalgia play a role? Our home, and in particular with KitchenAid. What single truth is central to your brand and where else is that idea relevant? This is going to lead you down all manner of fun and interesting possible partnerships, but how do you prevent yourself from falling into the same trap as VB and Reebok? Whilst a decent amount of what comes next is inevitably going to be down to gut feel, there are a few questions you can ask. If I sat these two brands next to each other at a dinner party, would they have enough in common to have a good time? Rhode and Krispy Kreme would have great dinner party banter as both are obsessed with glaze. Disney and Charlotte Tilbury could talk for hours about fairy dust, magic and glitter, Alemais and KitchenAid would indulge in their love of colour and kitsch. Reebok and Victoria? I’m not sure they’d even be at the same table. Is what you’re about to do or make together better than the sum of your parts? I wouldn’t buy lipstick from Krispy Kreme, I wouldn’t buy a doughnut from Rhode. By coming together, they’ve given me something I couldn’t get otherwise. Without this partnership, could you do this line, launch, event just as well? Keys to partnering for brand growth First, you need to free yourself up from category thinking and instead get clear on the arena you play in. Next, look to others in that arena that are serving your customers so you can work together to better meet their needs. Finally, harness the unique DNA of your brand to move into entirely new arenas but make sure to ask yourself if any collaborations on the table make sense at a dinner party and have enough uniqueness to get something extra from this relationship that is greater than the sum of its parts.