TextBlack 1st Proof Title: The Fundament of Branding : AVA
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2nd Proof Title: The Fundament of Branding : AVA
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Endorser brands
Endorser brands are brands that provide credibility to a dominant market brand when innovating in new areas. This can help the dominant brand gain access to new markets where a shift in perception may be needed – such as if a food range wants to enter the organic or healthy eating market.
For example, Weight Watchers products by Heinz effectively reposition the Heinz brand in an increasingly health-conscious market.
Weight Watchers, in return, provides the credibility for managing diets. Endorsements from well-known ethical brands are starting to become more ubiquitous as large brands enter the eco-conscious market.
Endorsements also come in the form of celebrity endorsement – a very common tactic today where celebrities will be the face of a particular brand. The association is obviously aimed at selling more products via the ‘cool’ factor or glamour of the celebrity.
This is a tactic long-used by sports brands – Michael Jordan and Nike’s relationship is perhaps one of the most well-known – and is now frequently used to promote jewellery and perfumes. For example, George Clooney and Daniel Craig endorse Omega watches, and Police sunglasses formerly gained cool credibility through the endorsement of David Beckham.
Co-branding
In a simple co-brand arrangement, each brand has equal billing and transfers the brand experience to the co-brand partnership. Good examples of this are co-branding of credit cards, such as the British Airways or Virgin Atlantic American Express cards; in both, the premium nature of the airlines matches the aspirational nature of American Express. Their joint heritage in travel reinforces the alliance and offers equal credibility, benefiting the customer with joint concierge benefits. The co-branding additionally encourages spending on the cards to collect air points!
A co-brand normally has a direct financial relationship, such as sharing the cost of promotion to build a market. The specific form of the co-branded partnership can take many forms and behind-the-scenes deals may not be evident to the consumer. For example, the airlines KLM and Air France project an equal balance between the brands, but KLM actually has the dominant share of the partnership. The degree of tight coupling between the companies will vary depending on the objective of the relationship, but may extend to a formal business joint venture.
Co-branding offers opportunities for brands to be creative in product and service development, particularly when the coupling is unlikely and works across different sectors; as when cosmetics company, Shiseido, and Coca-Cola launched a cosmetics and beverage range in Japan. A more pronounced relationship was struck up when electronics company, Sony, and mobile technology company, Ericsson, got together to create mobile phones. As joint partners, they could reduce the cost of both development and marketing in an increasingly fast-paced, competitive market.
UK actor, Daniel Craig, endorses Omega watches (top) as James Bond 007 (above). Celebrity endorsements of high-end brands are a commonly used strategy to attract attention and customers.
Affi nity marketing Forms of collaboration
Techniques to diversify the brand
TextBlack 2nd Proof Title: The Fundament of Branding : AVA
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Eat more chocolate with Weight Watchers – working with Heinz to produce a new product range (left). A tasty and effective example of co-branding.
Celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver (left), is the face of UK supermarket chain, Sainsbury's. Oliver has linked his chef skills to many social causes, including encouraging people – especially kids – to eat well.
His 'school dinners' campaign challenged the UK government to improve the quality of school meals, by replacing junk food with nutritious meals and foods presented in a different way, simply cooked and with fresh ingredients.
TextBlack 1st Proof Title: The Fundament of Branding : AVA
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1st Proof Title: The Fundament of Branding : AVA
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Ingredient brands
Ingredient brands take a key product component that conveys a specific benefit to the consumer to create a strong marketing proposition. Intel Inside is perhaps the most globally well-known ingredient brand as it supports Microsoft Windows.
It enabled Intel to raise awareness among consumers of the microprocessor technology at the heart of their personal computer. Intel then gains brand visibility, which reinforces relationships with computer manufacturers and is associated with innovation. Another area is fabric ingredients, such as GORE-TEX® fabrics or Lycra, which are added to products to give better performance (whether that is waterproof and warmth, or spandex and stretchy). The ‘ingredient’ offers performance assurance for the customer and can affect purchasing decisions.
Alliances
Another form of collaboration is alliances, where companies connect under a new brand to provide incentives to customers through joint offers or by acquiring reward points. This is very typical of loyalty schemes and became popular when airlines joined in various networks to encourage customers to align themselves with their brands. These alliances then branched out to include other associations within the travel sector, such as tying in with car hire brands and hotels.
The important thing to note here is that the group of companies under the alliance brand will associate itself with like-minded brands. So, for instance, an airline network may also choose to offer services from a five-star range of hotels to effectively promote a five-star experience.
GORE-TEX® fabric is a technical product that provides dryness and warmth in outdoor wear (top and left). It was first created in 1978 and has since been extended for outdoor leisure use, as well as workwear for emergency services through to military use.
The fabric is used by many brands, such as those which produce skiwear clothing, as an ‘ingredient’ with any purchase accompanied by the promise: ‘Guaranteed to Keep You Dry® – if it doesn’t, GORE-TEX® fabric will remedy the problem’.
Affi nity marketing Forms of collaboration
Techniques to diversify the brand
TextBlack 1st Proof Title: The Fundament of Branding : AVA
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Collaborating for innovation
Innovation is fundamental to the growth of any large brand. The old business model within the large companies used to be to seek out the best research and development (R&D) minds, hire them and retain them. If competitors looked threatening, the large companies would often buy them or out-do the smaller companies through sheer marketing muscle. Now, things are changing and ‘open innovation’ is becoming a new theme. This is an open form of collaboration where companies pay to seek expertise on product and service development with individuals and small providers, through online communities called ‘ideagoras’.
Consumer goods company, P&G, now develops more than 50% of its innovations through outside collaboration.
Its ‘Connect + Develop’ website,
<www.pgconnectdevelop.com>, invites people to submit innovations to the company. Colgate-Palmolive paid US
$25,000 to a scientist who suggested a new way of getting toothpaste into the tube.
This kind of collaboration is dependent on experts, but it actively advances the idea of co-creation, where anyone is able to participate in creating new products.