Collaborators are the ones who work with the company to innovate, redesign or produce, develop, sell, distribute or support the organization in any role. 

The first image that we get in our mind when we hear about collaboration is that of the brands or companies merging but collaboration is deeper and subtle than that. It is both higher up and down under. Ie both at the levels of reaching out to customers and consumers but also to dealers, suppliers and vendors. 

Swiggy with its restaurant partners is flourishing but where would it be without the restaurants? Where would Uber be without the drivers registering to them? 

So collaborators is a broad term, especially in today’s scenario where  a LinkedIn branding expert recommends,” Apart from your own posting, try to value add or comment relevantly in others posts! This will benefit both!” Collaboration is the mother of the phrase “win-win” 

As the spectrum of marketing and branding grow, the organization is expected to have an all-round image and positioning not only amongst the market and customers but also with other stakeholders.

^{Employees of the organization} 

Right from the product invention, design, testing and tweaking, the employees play a major role. Arguably the employees are the organization’s ability to produce a product or service and offer it to the consumer. Examples galore how contributions from employees resulted in historic successes. 

Flaming Hot Cheetos is one of Frito-Lay’s most sought after products. The story of how Richard Montanez, a janitor working at Lays, picked up the regular cheese Cheetos and covered them with the homemade spice mix and presented it to the board members in nothing less than 100 different packages! Lo and behold, Montanez became a VP of multicultural sales and community promotions at Pepsi co and Frito Lay came out with flavours not just for Latinos but for other communities as well!

 At another point in time and space, Dick Brams came up with a meal customized for kids and today we have Mac Donald’s Kids meal was born and everyone is still loving it after fifty years! Amazon’s famed and patented “1 click purchase” was the brainchild of its programmer Peri Hartman!

Supply Chain 

While the company can design and produce the most useful product, the cycle is not complete till it reaches the customer. One of the most famous is coco-cola which manages to reach every nook of the world. The credit goes to its distribution and segmented marketing. Even the packaging has subtle changes to cater to the specific market. 

In the case of coca-cola, the supply chain does not translate into mere logistics but includes specific segmentation, marketing and serving them. 

Supplier 

Suppliers play a pivotal role in the company’s competitive advantage.

 One of the best examples given is that of Chrysler. When in 1989 when Chrysler was in deep peril, they met with suppliers and asked them their support not by cutting down on margins but through “their brainpower” and came up with the novel idea of sharing benefits with suppliers. The result was billions of saving through the program SCORE or the Supplier Cost Reduction Effort. 

Boeing partnered with their supplier Nordam to develop a composite window frame for Boeing’s 787 Dreamline. This 18-month collaboration weighed 50% less than the traditional frames. This apparently simple innovation made the commercial jets more fuel-efficient!

 Tata motors extends its corporate discounts (on buying its vehicles) to its vendor and their employees. Toyota not only encourage their suppliers to improve designs and systems but apprises their suppliers!

 Distribution and dealership

Just as Toyota, a Japanese company took over the American car industry in a matter of a few years, Caterpillar, an American company could ride high on the Japanese market due to its strong distribution and customer supportive dealers!

 Caterpillar valued and nurtured its relationship with independent dealers. They not only offered them technical and after-sales service training but also learnt from them. Caterpillar understood that as part of a close-knit community, the independent dealers were the mouthpiece of their customers. They in turn helps caterpillar gain insight into customer pain points and gave significant insights. Many features of Caterpillar’s distribution system are tailored to meet the unique characteristics of our industry. As with any earth moving equipment, the unit sales of Caterpillar is relatively lower however the machines need part replacement or service after about 15 to 20 years. This is where the dealers became invaluable channels by providing the parts quickly reducing the downtime then enabling the company to delight the customer. The dealers and distributorship play a significant role in any organization especially so in a manufacturing unit. 

Customer service:

Customer service is another most important service that the company needs to offer through collaboration.

 A car maintenance company in UAE noticed that many of its customers faced a lot of difficulties in getting the vehicle get certified annually by the Gvt authorized testing centre. The Maintenance company collaborated with both the government and insurance agencies. All three of them offered a complete package to the customers. The customer’s car would be picked up from the customer’s house, then after the initial testing by the car maintenance company, they take it to get it certified by the govt, and renew the insurance and return it to the owner within a day if the car is in good condition. Now the three collaborators joined hands to provide a wonderful customer experience to the customer 

The collaborators form the fifth c of 5C of the Marketing!

Sources www.ideas.sideways6.com www.bcg.com, how2glu, brafton-features