Many businesses — even small businesses — partner with other brands, and with brand ambassadors, to build awareness for their own brand. Often those partnerships don’t work, though. As former Bodybuilding.com CEO Richard Jalichandra told me, “The number one rule is authenticity.”
For an association to work, it has to be authentic. And even then it still might not work. For every association that seems to be a magic bullet, 15 others have failed.