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<\/p>\nIf someone said Nike, Sony and Doritos went into a bar and fell for their respective branding partners Apple, Ericsson and Taco Bell overnight, they couldn\u2019t be more wrong. Co-branding partnerships, in reality, are anything but casual.<\/p>\n
In a competitive market of homogenous products and services, brands are constantly vying for the spotlight, but it\u2019s tough. Often brands lose out to new and innovative competitors, decreased brand equity, or simply disappear into obscurity. That\u2019s why co-branding is such a coveted strategy, even for famous brands, as it can allow a company to maintain a strong brand identity, sustain customer loyalty and stay relevant.<\/p>\n
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\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n Channel and partner marketing improvement guide<\/strong><\/p>\n Partner marketing is a fantastic opportunity, but only if your business is ready for it! Assess your maturity and take the first step to optimizing your channel and partner marketing.<\/p>\n Access the Channel and partner marketing improvement guide and template<\/a><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n Having said that, co-branding partnerships shouldn\u2019t be formed overnight with half-baked ideas. To understand what co-branding really is, let\u2019s first start with the definition.<\/p>\n Brand association is a strategy that takes advantage of brand relationships to build equity. Co-branding is one of the methods and can be defined as:<\/p>\n \"When two or more existing brands are combined into a joint product or are marketed together in some fashion.\" - Kevin Lane Keller, author of Strategic Brand Management.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Investopedia further states<\/a>, \"Each brand in such a strategic alliance contributes its own identity to create a melded brand with the help of unique logos, brand identifiers and colour schemes.\"<\/p>\n In this context, we understand that co-branding:<\/p>\n These are strong motivations for companies to co-brand, and as a result, most enter into partnerships head on. Some of the best and famous partnerships<\/a> include:<\/p>\n Just as not all strategies are perfect, this one is no exception. Sometimes co-branding partners lose more than they gain. Others enter into alliances with pre-conceived notions. That\u2019s why we\u2019re here to debunk some of the myths and present ground realities for adopting effective co-branding partnerships.<\/p>\n Download our Business Resource \u2013 Brand vision and identity playbook<\/strong><\/p>\n This playbook will enable you to define your approach, branding expert Debbie Inglis explains a structured approach to review and define your brand identity to make it more appealing to customers.<\/p>\n Access the Brand vision and identity playbook<\/a><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n Co-branding helps create distinctive new products or services through the merger of complementary brands while co-marketing refers to the combined marketing efforts to promote two or more brands together without losing their individual brand characteristics or identities.<\/p>\n A great example of co-marketing is the Uber and Spotify campaign<\/a>. Through this marketing strategy, Uber and Spotify introduce their services to new riders and subscribers, respectively. This way both companies increase sales by tapping into each other\u2019s customer base. Once the campaign is over, both can walk away with their respective brand identities intact.<\/p>\n Image via CampaignLive<\/p><\/div>\n Though a simple arrangement, the fallout begins when Spotify and Uber\u2019s brand identities come under fire from the media.<\/p>\n Most of the time, co-marketing is a by-product of co-branding, which means partners are required to invest in complex collaborations (more on this later). Hence, co-branding is not just co-marketing.<\/p>\n Co-branding commitments have far deeper impacts on partner brands than just marketing campaigns, including brand value, equity and identities. The partnership may swing both ways, resulting in either benefits or negative impact.<\/p>\n When two established brands like Intel and Dell, or BMW I8 and Louis Vuitton decide to join forces, each brings a strong persona to the table. The result, as one would expect, is a strong selling brand persona. So how do you determine whether the brand persona is effective for both the firms involved?<\/p>\n Keller believes to create a strong sell persona, the two brands should have these qualities to achieve success:<\/p>\n However, despite having the above, there is no guarantee because one of the most important elements that play on co-branding dynamics is fitness. What may seem logical and effective on paper may not result in the desired sales targets because of the following reasons.<\/p>\n A case in hand is the Disney and McDonald\u2019s co-branding<\/a> of Happy Meals sold with Disney toys which ended in 2006. The partnership broke up over concerns about childhood obesity and the unhealthy fast food McDonald\u2019s was serving young customers. When it began, the partnership seemed like a great fit but, over time, these concerns undermined McDonald\u2019s brand equity, which inevitably affected Disney as well.<\/p>\n Hence, what started as a strong brand sell persona, deteriorated, and eventually impacted the bottom line for both the companies and forced them to forgo their partnership.<\/p>\n Developing a stronger seller persona does not necessarily help build your baseline brand equity. In fact, sometimes due to poor fit, brands develop an unequal partnership that may compromise their individual brand equity.<\/p>\n One of the charms of co-branding is growing your customer base. Why else would you share your well developed and established brand identity with another if not for generating new clientele? Of course, you could go the old school way by gradually and effectively marketing your brand, but co-branding lets you have access to a new customer pool that already has a demand for your product.<\/p>\nCo-branding defined<\/h3>\n
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\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n Myth: Co-branding is co-marketing<\/h3>\n
![\"Uber](\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Uber-and-Spotify-partnership-700x467.png\")
Reality<\/h4>\n
Myth: Co-branding creates a stronger sell persona<\/h3>\n
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Reality<\/h4>\n
Myth: Co-branding helps grow the customer base<\/h3>\n
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