Together we are strong: Using co-branding correctly

Whether you are a large international brand or a smaller medium-sized business, one of the most important goals is always to increase brand awareness and convince even more people of your products and services. Collaborating with another brand can help with this. With the right choice of partners, all parties can benefit from the reach and strengthen their awareness and also market share. This tactic of joining two or more companies is called co-branding. 

What is co-branding?

Co-branding is a popular marketing tactic for brand extension. Two or more companies or brands join forces and use common resources (costs, reach, image, etc.) to market a product or service. As a customer, it is clearly recognizable here that the purchased product was created in collaboration between the brands involved. The companies hope that this will not only improve their image, but also increase demand and thus profits. In co-branding, a joint product is created for this purpose, which is advertised and sold using all the brand names involved and a joint design.
In addition to the joint creation and marketing of a product in co-branding, there are also strategies that relate only to joint marketing. In so-called co-marketing, already existing products are promoted with a joint brand strategy and marketing activities.

Advantages and disadvantages of co-branding

Teaming up two or more companies to create a new product offers companies some advantages for their own brand. With the right collaborative partners, not only can brand awareness and market share be combined, but also positive emotions and trust towards the brands can be transferred to the product and therefore the partner brands. Especially if the brands involved address a similar target group, they can grow together and open up new markets through co-branded products. In addition, the brands also benefit from the shared risk of production and marketing. The merger not only unites the brand names, but also shares production costs and marketing resources. This means that the individual brands can launch new products on the market with a comparatively lower expenditure of resources and benefit from the joint profit.
In addition to the many advantages for one's own brand, there are of course also risks that must be taken into account when planning such a co-branding campaign. Above all, choosing the right cooperation partners is a crucial step that can already determine success or failure. A cooperation should not be entered into if the target groups of the brands are too different or the missions and visions of the companies do not match. This could quickly lead to conflicts between the individual brand identities. In addition, negative connotations of the partner brands should also be investigated and understood to prevent them from being transferred to the company's own brand and products. 

Using co-branding correctly 

Whether you decide to offer an existing product in combination with that of other brands (such as a McDonalds McFlurry with Smarties chocolate lentils) or create a completely new product together (such as Milka longnese ice cream), selecting the right partners for cooperation is one of the most important steps to successful co-branding. Only if you manage to agree, set common goals and pull together will co-op marketing be successful. If all this is given, you and all involved can benefit greatly from this co-branding cooperation.