We are meant to be able to tell a lot about a person by the company they keep.  A few oddball acquaintances aside, we are said to choose friends that compliment us and share our outlooks (and even looks). Thus, how we see ourselves can be seen by merely observing those we hang-out with. But is the same true of companies?

When Apple asked “starchitect” Lord Foster to design its new headquarters in Cupertino, California, it demonstrated the coming together of two leaders in their respective fields, each basking in the other’s designer appeal.  Savvy companies can also benefit by association with another brand—the corporate equivalent of befriending the cool kid at school.

Uniqlo, Topshop and H&M are essentially low-price retailers, but each has mastered the strategy of partnering with famous designers—from the likes of Jill Sander, Roberto Cavalli and Comme des Garçons— to up the appeal of their own labels. When H&M persuaded the French fashion house Lanvin to guest design a range in its autumn 2010 collection, style-conscious women queued overnight, on a work day, just to be able to buy this reasonably-priced designer fashion.

Lately, though, there have been some more bizarre tie-ups.  It started with Barclays announcing the closure of 400 bank branches and the shift to supermarket kiosks instead. While the cost-conscious strategy appears sound in principle, the choice of partner speaks volumes. ASDA, the supermarket partner in question, is owned by Walmart. It is also the closest we have in the UK to the mega-sized American discounter.

For those unfamiliar with the UK’s supermarket pecking order, it goes a little something like this:  Waitrose and Whole Foods are tied in front, followed by – in descending order of price or snobbery —  Sainsbury’s and M&S Food, Tesco, Morrisons, Co-op, ASDA, LIDL & ALDI.  Somewhere at the bottom sits Iceland – the frozen food “specialist”.  

As for Barclays, it has a long and proud history dating back to the 17th century, during which time it funded the world’s first industrial steam engine, prompting some employees of the bank—concerned by the impression it sends out— to express surprise at the ASDA brand association: “Why not Waitrose?” they ask.

There could be good reasons for this. In terms of store numbers, Waitrose doesn’t have the same national coverage as ASDA. Many of the other options, from Sainsbury’s to Tesco and Co-op already have their own banks, so would be less inclined to move a competitor like Barclays under their own roof.

Still, is this really where new-ish CEO Anthony Jenkins wants to positions the bank—as the ASDA of the banking world? Barclays may well have taken a few knocks of late, ranging from Libor to ForEx, but it can still be proud of its historic brand, not to mention its ability to launch industry-leading tech-products like Ping It.

Even more peculiar news came when Samsung announced its intention to take on the iconic Apple store, by opening up its own outlets right across Europe. Remember, each Apple store is designed by a famous architect to fit in with the surroundings, from the glass cube on Fifth Avenue in New York to the tasteful Kurfürstendamm store in Berlin, Germany. In the process Apple has completely overhauled the established model of high street shopping.

To counter this, Samsung has decided to partner with The Carphone Warehouse…yep, the battle seems lost before a single shot has been fired. Quite frankly, the name says it all. The Carphone Warehouse is a mobile phone seller born in 1989, during an era when businessmen carried pagers and needed a car just to transport around their Motorola brick phones.  

Samsung should take a leaf out of its Android pal, Google. The search engine intially turned a few heads (the wrong way) when it acquired Motorola Mobility in 2012, eight years after the company unveiled the RAZR mobile handset— arguably its design peak. 

Yet news of the subsequent offloading of Motorola this week, for a few billion dollars to Lenovo, minus the most valuable patents and other intellectual property, provides a model commercial partnership for the South Korean chaebol to follow: buy the company, cherry pick the choice stores, then sell on whatever is left behind.  

There is no room for friends in business, after all.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited (EIU) or any other member of The Economist Group. The Economist Group (including the EIU) cannot accept any responsibility or liability for reliance by any person on this article or any of the information, opinions or conclusions set out in the article.