Everybody wins

If you’re a competitive, testosterone-fuelled go-getter, you may never have visited the Sanrio website before.

Give it a quick peek.

On it, beyond the cute characters, you’ll see endless — endless — collaborations.

With brands you might deem competitors (like Tokidoki). With brands you might think are vying for the same discretionary dollars (like Loungefly). With brands you might think have nothing to do with a Hello Kitty audience (like Formula 1).

And yet there they are. Why?

Too many brands think that great experiences are zero sum games. That for us to win, they must lose.

But Sanrio disproves this outright: instead of competing, we can collaborate. We can make things together, and actively promote those joint ventures to our respective audiences. Each audience becomes aware of the other, each grows, and everyone finds something they like. Everybody wins.

Next time you think about your competitors, think of them as future collaborators. Watch what it does to the way you show up in the market.