Roadman of Co-branding Positions and Strategies Wet-Lung Change, Tammany University, Taiwan ABSTRACT Co-branding, is a marketing arrangement to utilize multiple brand names on a single product or service. Basically, the constituent brands can assist each other to achieve their objectives. Co-branding is an increasingly popular technique for transferring the positive associations of one company’s product or brand to another. In the absence of a clearly defined strategy, co-brand mergers are frequently driven by short-term goals to mistrust and failure.
In this paper, we Identify critical factors of a successful co-branding strategy. Co-branding position matrix, and co-branding strategies respectively. We also utilize certain real-world cases in order to demonstrate our notions. Finally, this research aims to provide clues and a roadman for future research in co-branding issues. INTRODUCTION product or service. Also, co-branding can be seen as a type of strategic alliance between two parties. Basically, the constituent brands can assist each other to achieve their objectives.
Obviously, creating strategic alliances by engaging in co- branding has become increasingly popular across many industries. A successful co- branding strategy has the potential to achieve excellent synergy that capitalizes on the unique strengths of each contributing brand. Co-branding is an increasingly popular technique for transferring the positive associations of one company’s product or brand to another. In other words, creating synergy with existing brands creates substantial potential benefits of various kinds.
As Gaur Dodos notes In a recent 2007 article, such synergy: (1 ) expands the customer base (more customers), (2) increases profitability (3) responds to the expressed and latent needs of customers through extended production lines), (4) strengthens competitive position through a higher market share), (5) enhances product introductions through enhancing the brand image (6) creates new customer-perceived value, and (7) and yields operational benefits through reduced cost. The philosophy behind co-branding is to attain advanced market share, Increase the revenue streams, and improve competitive advantages through customer awareness.
A great deal of attention has been focused on selecting a co-branding partner-not only the essentials of the potential parties but a series of steps in selection process. Correspondingly little attention, however, has deeply been paid to the co-branding position and successful strategies. An appropriate co-branding strategy decision on brand managers has by and large tended to follow rather than focus on surface factors. Not surprisingly, such a reactive approach can be deeply damaging. At best, it results in confusion and conflict among brand managers who hold differing views regarding the co-brand mandate.
At worst, it results in turf wars between rival managers about who owns the top post-merger brands. Alternatively, brand managers can find homeless caught up In appropriate type and strategies of co-brands to reach single winner strategy that seriously compromises customer expectations, employee morale, and long-term competitiveness. The most damaging response, however, is to do nothing at all, allowing the pre-merger brands to go their separate ways. The expected synergies of a co-brand can easily turn into a nightmare if the co-brand located in the inappropriate position and strategy.
In the absence of a clearly defined strategy, co-brand mergers are frequently driven by short-term goals to mistrust and failure. A recent report claims only once in five rand mergers succeed (Rubber et. Al. , 1997). Clearly, something more strategic than an adaptive response is needed to harness the market potential of a merger. A clear keyboarding strategy is critical in both directions: positioning a new brand align their efforts behind a common set of goals and finding an appropriate co-branding tactic to create a win-win situation. Such a strategy should take into account the core competences and goals of both firms.
This can be referred to as a C co-branding strategy (Figure 1). These factors can assist a company in organizing a successful and appropriate co-branding strategy from a macro perspective. Cost Capital Culture Critical Factors Core Consumer Figure 1 Critical factors for a co-branding strategy It’s important to consider the transition costs for two companies embarking on a successful co-branding strategy. For the Joint venture type, the two companies have the same responsibility for both profits and liabilities (e. G. , Sony and Ericson). Thus, the transition cost for both parties is symmetric.
But in the merger type, one party (e. G. , Been) must take responsibility for the other (e. G. , Siemens). Been merged with Siemens and had to provide constant financial support. Unfortunately, Ben’s pockets Just weren’t deep enough to absorb the cost of turning around the profit- losing Siemens unit. The cost for both parties was thus asymmetric. The general lesson: the transition costs of co-branding seriously affect the future for the companies involved. Cultural Differences Cultural differences are also a crucial consideration for two companies planning a co- branding strategy.
Trying to consolidate companies from different countries creates many unknowns of, especially at the employee level. For example, if one company’s culture is conservative while the other is innovative, cooperation will prove difficult. And there are many other potentially problematic cross-cultural factors that are extensively documented in the literature. Ben’s employees worked hard to collaborate with Siemens’ workers for nine months, but ultimately failed, largely as a result of underestimating the intractability of German labor laws.
Cultural differences are a major factor impacting on the direction and outcome (success or failure) of a co-branding strategy. Lesson two – cultural differences between two companies would be considered thoroughly in advance and require very effective management. Consumer Acceptance The third lesson: “know thy customers”. Consumer-centric design will drive a successful co-branding strategy. Sony and Ericson is a case in point, having launched several consumer-centric mobile phones in recent years (e. G. , embedded with Coversheet technology). They advanced the level of functions (digital video recorder, Bluetooth, etc. In order to increase competitive advantage. On the other hand, Been and Siemens originally targeted teenage customers (based on the slogan enjoy matters”) and them attempted to provide diversified models (e. G. , classical and business models) for other groups (besides teenagers). However, consumers in Germany and Taiwan are completely different. It was difficult to find a leverage point and common ground for both parties to satisfy the radically different types of consumers in the two countries, the companies should identify, focus on and act concertedly in terms of what specific consumers want and need.
Core Positioning The core competence of a brand is fundamental in attracting large numbers of customers. Since each individual brand has its own core competence, the synergy between two brands is extremely important. In the brand alliance situation, a strong brand should clearly and uniquely identify and position its core competence, so that the second brand can integrate with it. The core competence could be either homogeneous or heterogeneous. Ideally, similar core competencies (I. E. , homogeneous) will generate a stronger co-branding effect.
However, heterogeneous core 78 competencies can complement each other to create a substantial synergy. For example, Been has re-positioned its brand as “keep exploring” to replace the original slogan “enjoy matters” after that original venture failed. The lesson is that the core competencies of two companies should be clearly identified in order to successfully position the new brand. Capital Restructuring As previously mentioned, co-branding may take on one of two essential operational types: Joint-venture or merger. For the former, both companies restructure the capital structures of the original corporations.
Externally, among customers, it guides the formation of brand image and expectations. Generally, for companies that are present in a variety of product markets, the co-brand stands for overarching consumption values (e. G. , reliable for HP-Compact, which serves product markets as varied as desktops and laptops). Similarly, a co-brand offers image and expectations to business partners (e. G. , SONY Ericson brand stands for superior quality of mobile phones, which SONY has an excellent brand image and Ericson has superior manufacturing for telecommunication equipments).
Internally, a co-brand acts as a bond of identity among two companies, helping to build trust and loyalty by rejecting a continued and consistent set of values. Co-branding Level Department Enterprise Various types of positions between two firms create options for four generic positions for locating the merged brand: Coalition; Coordination; Collaboration; and Cooperation (see Figure 2). Also, four cells in the keyboarding position matrix are driven by two dimensions: co-branding type and co-branding level.
Co-branding type stands for operation form regarding the type of co-branding situation, for example, merger (Company A merges with Company B) and Joint venture (A and B invest collectively). Conversely, co-branding level stands for whether the process refers only to a department (As department corresponds to Bi’s department) or to the entire enterprise (Company A corresponds to Company B). Coalition Coalition stands for the union of two companies in terms of merger type and enterprise level. Coalition allows two firms to combine into a single company with a dual brand name.
Generally, the first brand name of a cobra is the dominator and usually pre-dominates the coalition process such as between HP and Compact (2002). HP originally utilizes HP-Compact as the co-brand name and enjoys the entire target customers. Coalition potentially integrates two firms’ resources, reinforces the brand image, enhances the market share, and raises the visibility of the newly co-brand. The resources, for instance, include the tangible and intangible ones. Tangible resources, such as assets, equipments, plants, employees, and customers, are easily to identify after merging.
However, intangible resources, such as brand value, brand image, and perception, are difficult to measure and Judge. Intangible resources integration can bee seen as the synergies of two individual brands, which is unpredictable and uncontrollable. Simply, HP enhances the co-brand image, which Compact had good manufacturing quality and brand image. Yet, they did not exceed Vim’s market share dramatically as a result of unpredictable synergies. Coordination Coordination stands for putting two companies in harmony of the same rank or order in terms of merger type and department level.
Coordination allows two departments of different firms to combine into a single department in a company with a dual brand name. Similarly, the first brand name of a co-brand is sometimes the dominator and usually pre-dominates the emergence, for instance, Been and Siemens 2005). Been settles the vision to extend the global market by embedding Siemens’ brand name as a co-brand. Meanwhile, Siemens was one of the global top 5th mobile phone manufactures before merging by Been. Also, coordination possibly harmonize two departments’ resources and enhances companies’ competitive advantages.
For instance, Been invested a major portion of company’s assets (besides telecommunication department) to support Siemens’ telecommunication department, however, did not acquire the core intellectual property rights from Siemens at the agreed time. It also faced formidable differences in culture, laws, and regulations. The global market share numbers tell us Been that lost its original advantages and ended with a highly unsatisfactory partnership. Once one of the brands affects in a negative way either in tangibility or intangibility, the difficulty to coordinate two departments will be raised.
Collaboration Collaboration stands for one company works with another company in terms of Joint venture type and enterprise level. Collaboration allows two firms share their resources, tacit knowledge, and know-how aligns with a Joint goal like Miller and US second and third largest brewers, combine their operations to create a bigger challenger to Enhancers-Busch Corporation (Tom, 2007). Gabrielle and Nelson Coors will each have a 50% interest in the Joint venture, and have five representatives each on its board of directors.
Based on the value of the assets, Gabrielle will have a 58% economic interest in Millimeters, and Nelson Coors will have a 42% economic interest. Millimeters will have annual beer sales of 69 million barrels, roughly 29% of the U. S. Market, and revenue of $6. 6 billion. Enchantresses has a market share of round 48%. Collaboration not only increases the number of market share, but also reduces the cost of two companies. Thus, the difficulty to attain a Joint goal, share resources and knowledge, and executes the same strategy is high.
However, the potential benefits will emerge time by time if two firms collaborate collectively. Cooperation Cooperation stands for the act of working Jointly together for the same end in terms of Joint venture type and department level. Cooperation allows two firms to help each other in operating a newly single company such as SONY and Ericson (2001). SONY and Ericson invested collectively to form a new company in terms of telecommunication. Basically, SONY and Ericson still hold their own companies even they decide to Joint venture.
Meanwhile, SONY had superior design capabilities, but lacked core telecommunication competences, whereas Ericson had excellent R&D capabilities. Both firms attempt to contribute their own advantages and help building good reputations for new company. Cooperation drives single company to draw on the strength of each to offset the weakness of the other. For instance, before merging tit Ericson in 2001, Sony was not (with market share of only 1% to 2%) a leading player in the telecommunication industry. The dominant players were Monika, Motorola, and Ericson (15%).
Sony-Ericson initially suffered losses: the deficit was 13. 6 million US dollars in the first quarter and the market share dropped to 5. 4%. At 6th place, the firm remained out of the group of leading players in the first year after merging. Sony-Ericson saw particularly dramatic growth of 7. 4% in 2006, up from 6. 3% when they acquired Sonny’s authorization for “Walkway” brand technologies in 005. Sony-Ericson is currently among the top four mobile phone manufacturers. STRATEGIES FOR CO-BRANDS A co-brand is more limited in terms of its audience than a corporate brand.
It conveys a specific image and a set of expectations to target customers in a given market. The key decision that the merged firm needs to make regarding its co-brand is to choose the type of tactic it wants to create or maintain with the various strategies previously served by the individual firms. Should it try to maintain all the existing strategies or eliminate them in favor of Just one or a few? The issue underlying these choices is how to manage similarities and differences -?in respect of both customers and the brands that it has inherited-?through a clear co-branding strategy.
The two dimensions that determine a merged firm’s co-branding strategy are its co-brand name and its intended market. The co-brand name signifies a new or existing brand name for a co-brand. The co-brand name involves a choice for the firm: should it have a same brand name to all its customer segments no matter how different they might be from each other? Or should it create a different brand name, raying the range of specifications and quality accordingly to different customers segments?
The intended market dimension signifies the market positioning of the firm’s products or services that it wishes to convey to a given market. The merged firm may decide to stay in the exiting market regard to all its product or service-?that is, suggest the same positioning across all served segments. Alternatively, the firm could create new opportunities to move to a new market with its product or service-? that is, adopt different positioning for them depending upon the particular customer ND competitive dynamics in each of its served segments.
Figure 3 Co-branding strategies Cross-classifying the two dimensions (Co-brand name: existing or new; Intended Market: existing or new) leads to four alternative co-branding strategies, each representing a particular way to integrate the brand name and customer positioning dimensions: Market Penetration, Global Brand, Brand Reinforcement, and Brand Extension (see Figure 3). Market Penetration Strategy A Market Penetration Strategy signifies a conservative tactic to keep the existing market and the original brand names of two firms. In essence, the co-brand name is either a single brand name (e. G. BMW MINI Cooper) or the combination of two firms (e. G. , Millimeters and Demolisher’s) with the products or services. The key assumption that drives the adoption of a Market Penetration strategy is the horizontal convergence of two companies. The merged firm’s commitment is to take advantage of such horizontal integration, accentuate the desirable goals and benefits by sharing the resources. The merger between HP and Compact, for instance, has led to the creation of a global brand. HP uses single brand name for the firm’s image but some products with a al name such as HP Compact Prepares series of laptop/desktop.
Another example is the merger of Miller and Coors recently on October 2007. The new co-brand “Millimeters” positions in existing market and keeping the original brands. The new company will combine Coors’ two breweries with Miller’s seven plants. Under the deal, a Coors product can be brewed at a Miller plant and vice versa. Thus, the combined firm will bring its production closer to end markets, creating huge savings on shipping. However, focusing on existing market and brand names might not cause the synergy to make the merged firm stronger and more efficient (e. , HP was not superior to IBM much after merging Compact). Finally, for a Market Penetration strategy to succeed, it is critical that the heterogeneous of customer segments and the reputation of two firms should be sufficiently high. Global Brand Strategy existing co-brand name in a new market. The key assumption that drives the adoption of a Global Brand strategy is convergence of cross-segmental preferences. The merged firm’s commitment is to take advantage of such convergence, accentuate the desirable goals and benefits by utilizing global recognition.
Among recently urged firms in the telecommunication sector, Been has actively pursued to extend the market share and global visibility by merging telecommunication department of Siemens with existing brands of the combination “Been-Siemens”. For the merged brand, advantages of a global product brand could accrue at both the supply end when scale and scope advantages substantially outweigh the benefits of partial-?as well as the demand end, with uniquely 81 and premium than local or regional brands.
However, focusing on extending the current market might cause fail and lose the original advantages (e. . , Been reduced its assets dramatically after merging Siemens). Finally, for a Global Brand strategy to succeed, it is vital that the universality across diverse customer segments appeal continuously to evolving patterns of preference. Brand Reinforcement Strategy A Brand Reinforcement Strategy signifies two firms decide to use a new name as a co- brand name in the existing market. The key assumption that drives the adoption of a Brand Reinforcement strategy is brand image reinforcement.
The merged firm’s commitment is to take advantage of such attempt of a totally different co-brand name, accentuate the desirable goals and benefits by providing a diverse name and representation style. For the new co-brand name, two firms could reinforce the reputation of their original brands without hurting the original names. However, focusing on creating a new brand name might cause fail lose the advantages (e. G. , people have negative image will affect the seed company of a diverse co-brand name).
Finally, for a Brand Reinforcement strategy to succeed, it is essential to create an appropriate co-brand name that is totally different from original ones effectively and efficiently. Brand Extension Strategy A Brand Extension Strategy signifies two firms decide to serve a newly co-brand name in a new market. The key assumption that drives the adoption of a Brand Extension strategy is union of cross-segmental preferences (e. G. , Sony and Ericson). The merged firm’s commitment is to take advantage of such union, accentuate the desirable goals and benefits by extending different segments.
The merger between Sony and Ericson has led a horizontal integration for a strategic purpose. Before merging with Ericson in 2001, Sony was not (with market share of only 1% to 2%) a eating player in the telecommunication industry. Sony had superior design capabilities, but lacked core telecommunication competences, whereas Ericson had year (2003) thanks to the embedded camera function and emergence of 3rd generation mobile phone standards and technology. Sony-Ericson is currently among the top four mobile phone manufacturers.
This success can be attributed in part to the fact that the partners had a good co-branding plan including a Joint brand name for cellular phones. For the merged brand, positioning a co-brand in an extension purpose might cause by a successful keyboarding plan (e. . , Sony-Ericson). However, it is risky for both firms to position a new brand in an unfamiliar market or customer segments. Finally, for a Brand Extension strategy to succeed, it is vital that two firms have to take advantage of their core competences at the first place, generate the positive synergy as well as draw up an appropriate long-term co-branding plan.
An effective co-branding strategy could have many key successful factors. This paper attempts to analyze the keyboarding context in terms of legal, economic, and culture. In the legal viewpoint, two firms could take into account the antitrust issue when they attempt to merge or ally. The economic issue is also significant either for a Joint venture or merger type of two firms in term of co-branding. For example, the transition cost and capital reconstructing would be the factors of success or failed.
Moreover, the cultural viewpoint for a successful co-branding strategy is required. The existing cases demonstrate that cultural factor may affect the future of a successful co-branding strategy. Legal The merger is a type of strategic alliance for two firms either for vertical or horizontal integration of the industry. One of the advantages for merger is the extension of market share. However, the antitrust issue exists which may cause the in-equilibrium of the market. Miller and Coors announced to combine in order to fight the leader Budweiser.
The combination needs to pass an antitrust review by either the Federal Trade Commission or the Department of Justice first. Few analysts expect the government to try to block the deal; however, despite close scrutiny by regulators. Regulators might even see the pairing as helping offset Enhancers-Bush’s (I. E. , Budweiser) dominance. Thus, the pre-merger notifications allowed companies to make adjustments in areas regulators cited as problems, and largely took the Supreme Court out of the picture.
Hence, antitrust is a significant legal issue for co- branding and the firms should tackle it carefully and circumstantially. 82 Economic losing Siemens unit. The cost for both parties was thus asymmetric. As previously mentioned, co-branding may take on one of two essential operational types: Joint- venture or merger. For the former, both companies restructure the capital structures of the original corporations. That is, each member corporation is responsible for the new Joint-venture company, especially the financial aspects.
In the merger situation, the dominant company should be responsible for the gain and loss after merging For example, the capital structure of Been was reorganized after it merged with Siemens, and this resulted in a reduced brand value from 7 billion to 2 billion (-34%). The lesson: adequate capital for two companies is critical before they even start evaluating each other and organizing a co-branding plan. Co-branding strategy. Thus, cultural differences between two companies should be insider thoroughly in advance and require very effective management.
