‘Collaboration’, which is a way of marketing, is where two brands cooperate together and make their own products. Collaboration has a synergy effect of the two brands. Collaboration, which is limited in fashion industries, is recently expanding its area to various fields. As many people have an interest in collaboration, brands are using collaboration marketing for consumers’ interest. There are three kinds of collaboration: celebrity collaboration, ironic collaboration and culture art collaboration. In this article, CBT introduced ‘collaboration’ and interviewed people who have an interest in collaboration. -Ed.

★ What is ‘Collaboration’?
  Collaboration is where two brands cooperate with each other and make a synergy effect. Also, it is a marketing way that reforms the value of two brands and harmonizes them through the cooperative strategy. For instance, there is a collaboration song ‘La Song’ sung by a Korean trot singer. Their singing styles and their songs are very different from each other, but they show harmony at this time. People can look at the harmony of the two brands and can experience the synergy effect through the collaboration.
 
★ The origin of collaboration
  The collaboration originated from the aspect that Italian families of pedigree supported people of genius in those days. This tradition has been developed in fashion items these days using famous artists or art pieces in designs, and the fashion industry has been in the center of the collaboration. Collaboration became one of the marketing ways of art as time went by, and it expanded its area from fashion industries to common brands. Therefore, various collaboration ways were spread out, and the partners in collaboration were expanded from art pieces to music, advertising, etc.
 
★ Kinds of collaboration
  Collaboration originated from fashion industries and has been spread into various fields because it was used as a marketing way to depict being high class and having differentiation through the cooperation with artists in fields of pure art. The representative ways of collaboration are ironic collaboration, celebrity collaboration and culture art collaboration.
  The first is ‘ironic collaboration’. The ironic collaboration makes and shows something new and surprising which breaks the existing form. It makes a new synergy effect with the collaboration of brands that don’t seem to be able to match or breaks expectations of consumers. For example, one cosmetic company made a collaboration product with one clothing company. The cosmetic company released new T-shirts and one-pieces with new designs that combined its cosmetics with a parrot picture, which is a symbol of the clothing company brand. That could be an attempt to attract each other’s consumers of the same age.
  The second is ‘celebrity collaboration’. The celebrity collaboration, the so-called combination of superstars and brand products, is a way where they make new lines of products together or famous people become designers of the new products beyond the way of just using the value of superstars’ names. As famous artists, designers or superstars participate in the collaboration, it is generalized. For example, the clothing company ‘UNIQLO’ recently collaborated with French top model and designer Ines de la Fressange.
  The third is ‘culture art collaboration’. The culture art collaboration is one of the ways that approaches consumers closely by communicating with consumers, like making concerts and exhibitions. For instance, one beer company used art collaboration and opened an exhibition through famous artists’ collaboration and planned the concert for the marketing of susceptibility.
The kinds of collaboration have become varied, and their prevalence is increasing. Collaboration as one of the ways of marketing is very effective, and it makes the synergy effect as readers can see in this article.
 
★ Interview with an expert
  Prof. Kim Eun-young(Chungbuk National Uiviersity, Dept. of Fashion Design Information) said, “Collaboration means literally being a co-worker. It was ‘brand alliance’, and it used to be used when a company would form an alliance with other companies to take advantage of the other company’s skill. However, collaboration means companies are not in a relationship of contractor and subcontractor but of the same status.
  These days, the expression ‘brand alliance’ is generally used to mean cooperation in marketing. In the case of most fashion industries, they want to use artists’ ideas and the world of art by cooperating with the artists and average fashion brands. By using famous artists, the brands can enhance their value from a normal level to a higher level. Because of cooperation in that part, artists can get a chance to let people know their style of art and brand just like prestige of artists, so this work raises the product’s value and creates the synergy effect by integration.
  ‘UNIQLO’ collaborated with Jill Sander, who is a luxury fashion designer, and they made a brand named J+ for the first time. The word ‘collaboration’ appeared in the fashion field, but collaboration actually appeared in 2005. The history of collaboration is just 7 years old, so collaboration has a brief history.
  Collaboration is a ‘win-win’ strategy for each company. Brand collaboration is not the relations between labor and capital where one just requests the other for its own purpose, but brands establish a strategic alliance with a brand alliance that is commonly used in brands’ fields. Collaboration is used in the fashion field not because of providing production technique but sharing with each other. That means they are in equal positions.
  l am researching collaboration between different kinds of enterprises. As someone who majors in fashion marketing, I think fashion is cooperating in every field. Not only collaboration in the same industries can survive, but also collaboration of different industries will take place much more. This kind of collaboration can occur beyond the border between domestic brands and foreign brands. Furthermore, collaboration is needed not only in brands but also in mobile and off-line areas.
  Also, smart phones are prevalent these days and all products have moved into the virtual space. Companies who make applications in the virtual space want strategic brand alliances, so they want to make products more popular. Companies want profits through applications where they can cooperate with other companies. This time, there will be more technological alliances that are not between brands and brands but between technology and other products. I think the concept ‘collaboration’ is becoming ‘fusion’, and the most important thing is that a company constructs its own identity. Also, it has to maintain its uniqueness, so collaboration can be used.”
 

By Kim Ji-won
jw34@cbnu.ac.kr