2 principles of co-branding marketing!

Previously, I wrote an article about the joint venture between Luckin Coffee and Coco Tree Coconut Juice, pointing out several reasons why brands are keen on joint marketing :

(1) Create marketing events to gain a short-term exposure boost;

(2) Create a youthful brand image through fun and innovative marketing;

(3) Break through the circle and divert traffic to target specific groups of people to expand market share;

(4) Create star products and boost sales.

This article continues the topic of co-branding and discusses how to do a good job in brand co-branding marketing to achieve a win-win effect for both product quality and effect.

1. Who are the targets of joint marketing?

The entities behind the brands of co-branded marketing generally include products (companies) , people, cultural and creative IPs, etc., while the brands initiated are mostly products (companies) , and the main purpose is to enhance brand influence or increase market sales.

(1) Co-branding of product brands

This form of collaboration is the most common, and the collaboration between Luckin Coffee and Coco Tree Coconut Juice belongs to this type. Both parties often focus on the consumer groups behind each other's brands and hope to be influenced by the other's brand tone in order to give themselves a breakthrough and innovative image and gain more customers. Therefore, there are great differences between the two parties from brand tone to customer base, and cross-border cooperation often occurs. Even if Luckin Coffee and Coco Tree are in the same category, they constitute complementary consumption or have sufficiently large differences in consumption scenarios, customer portraits and brand tone.

OPPO and Lamborghini's collaboration

OPPO X Lamborghini Joint

In recent years, similar collaborations have emerged one after another, such as the collaboration between mobile phones and sports cars (OPPO x Lamborghini/Huawei x Porsche) , the collaboration between cosmetics and food (Want Want x Chando/White Rabbit x Maxam) , the collaboration between sporting goods and beverages (Anta x Coca-Cola) , etc., all of which belong to this category.

(2) Product brand and “person” brand co-branding

The "people" here must be people with strong personal brands, that is, celebrities, such as stars, artists, scientists, designers, entrepreneurs, writers, etc. Today's Internet celebrities also belong to this category. In addition, the currently popular virtual idols are also the new favorites of brand collaborations.

Xtep x Muhammad Ali joint

Product brands often focus on the similarities between the "people" brands and themselves, such as the same field, similar tone, and similar audience groups. Such as collaborations between business schools and entrepreneurs, sports brands and sports stars, fashion brands and entertainment stars/sports stars/designers/artists, etc. This type of co-branded product often has distinct personal characteristics of the celebrity. The simplest ones include a signature or image printed on the product or the celebrity participating in the design. Sometimes, this type of collaboration will be accompanied by a brand spokesperson, and the collaboration will be more reflected in the launch of exclusive/customized products.

(3) Joint branding of product brands and cultural and creative IP brands

The content industry has produced a large number of cultural and creative IPs, each of which has a large number of fans. Product brands also like to cooperate with cultural and creative IPs to capture as much traffic as possible and try to convert them into their own customers. This type of collaboration requires less consideration, unless the IP may be politically sensitive or conflict with mainstream culture. Almost any brand in any category can try it.

Mao Geping and the Forbidden City, jointly launched the "Oriental Spirit" series

This includes brands such as well-known media companies and their film and character brands (Marvel, Disney, Iron Man, Batman, etc.) , books (Harry Potter, The Little Prince) , games (Honor of Kings, League of Legends) , cultural tourism (Forbidden City Cultural and Creative, Colorful Yunnan) , and collaborations with other commercial brands.

2. How to choose the right co-branded partner?

In this regard, I think we need to grasp the two principles of focusing on long-term brand building while taking short-term goals into consideration.

First, we must avoid short-term vision and understand that every marketing action should serve long-term brand building. Therefore, when choosing a co-branded partner, you cannot just consider traffic. Based on the specific brand mission, try to choose partners who can help enhance the brand image, improve the brand imagination, and help the brand achieve renewal. At the same time, we must have the awareness of building brand assets, such as leaving brand symbols, planning series of activities, etc., integrating into a strong subculture output to strengthen the brand impression in the minds of the audience. Like Coca-Cola insisting on spreading the symbol of "happiness" in joint ventures, and Uniqlo continuing to choose world-renowned designers to jointly spread the symbol of "leading fashion", it is very beneficial to the long-term construction of the brand.

Of course, we also have to take into account short-term goals, such as increasing brand awareness or boosting sales. This sounds a bit conflicting with the previous point, but it is not. On the principle of satisfying the long-term brand building of services, we try our best to plan and achieve short-term goals in order to achieve the unity of the two. If a brand wants to increase its visibility, it can choose to collaborate with popular celebrities, but it must select celebrities who have a youthful temperament and resonate with the brand's tone.

Of course, the brands that can be accessed, the permitted cooperation models and budget are also important factors in determining how to choose the appropriate joint marketing partners, and specific situations require specific analysis.

3. Several key points in the joint marketing process

1. Products are fundamental

I have always maintained that products are the foundation of a brand and the basis for the development of an enterprise. The so-called pure "marketing" (which is often short-sighted hype or packaging that does not live up to its name) is not sustainable, and it is difficult to form a strong brand influence or create a sustainable century-old brand. Co-branded marketing is merely a means of building a brand. It should not be regarded as a panacea or a tonic. Instead, we should start from the fundamentals of the product, make good co-branded products, and ensure that we provide customers with high-quality goods or services that match the price they pay. Only then should we consider promotion matters, so as not to put the cart before the horse.

Is this kind of co-branded product appropriate?

Some brands have turned co-branding into a gimmick, focusing too much on attracting attention in the short term, and only caring about hype without caring about the products. In the end, not only have they failed to form long-term brand value, they have also failed to gain sales, and their brand image has even been seriously damaged. For example, in the case of the collaboration with x tea, they often hype up the packaging and try to attract consumers. There is even a strange phenomenon of collaboration between beverages and toilet cleaners. The gimmicks are really too much and deserve to alert marketers.

2. Create scarcity

People will cherish scarce things and will pay more attention, energy, money and other costs to obtain them. As a special marketing method, co-branding is not the norm and has the characteristic of scarcity. Intentionally "creating" scarcity in the marketing process is more conducive to improving people's evaluation of co-branding and motivating people to take action.

Creating scarcity in co-branded marketing

For example, scarcity at the product level (limited categories, styles, series) , scarcity of sales scenarios (exclusively for offline use, limited time supply, limited to a certain country or region) , scarcity of sales quantity (limited sales, limited number of times) , etc., are more likely to attract consumers' attention and purchases. To some extent, this can be called a combination of co-branding and hunger marketing.

3. Plan ahead and leverage marketing; accumulate strength and make concentrated efforts

Co-branded brands will have their own daily communication plans. If they can plan ahead and intervene in each other's marketing, they can leverage each other's strengths to deepen their influence and extend the marketing cycle, forming a rhythm of accumulating momentum, preheating, blasting, and continuing the impact. In this way, the joint product will have a chance to explode when it is launched on the market, forming an "unexpected but reasonable" effect, and strengthening communication and interaction with fans of each brand, which can be more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

4. “Fans” participate and create brands together

In today's society, information fragmentation is too serious, leading to the relative scarcity of attention. Allow each brand to participate in joint marketing, from product research and development, brand packaging to promotion and publicity, and consumers can deeply participate in the interaction, forming a "person-to-person" diffusion and "snowball" brand influence, gaining the communication volume to achieve a larger impact range, in-depth interaction to promote a deeper understanding of the brand, open co-creation to strengthen loyalty, and joint marketing will have a better chance of gaining recognition and purchase from fans of both parties.

Collaboration is valuable, so please cherish it. I hope that marketers with aspirations will treat every cooperative brand and the consumers and fans behind it with caution, plan each collaboration carefully, and achieve a win-win marketing effect that combines brand and effect.

Author: Chen Hao

Source: Chen Hao