Co-branding: What It Is And Companies That Made It Work

When looking for new marketing strategies to help grow your business and expand your audience, it’s a great idea to look at what other businesses have tried and analyze what made their efforts successful. While co-branding isn’t a new concept, it’s becoming more and more popular due to an increasingly competitive market. There’s a need to fight for the spotlight, and collaborations are a great way to steal it.

What Co-branding is

Co-branding is when two companies create a new product or product experience for their audiences, capitalizing on exposure, and a larger audience. Co-branding can be an excellent marketing ploy when done correctly, but there’s a couple of things to keep in mind if you’re considering co-branding as a marketing strategy.

It’s important to find the right partner to co-brand with. You also need to study your own business as well as your prospective partner’s. What does your business bring to the table, what does your potential partner? How will your individual businesses benefit from the union? And of course, the product or experience you create needs to be something both your audiences will want.

Companies that Made it Work

You might be familiar with some of these business partnerships that created new experiences or product for their audiences:

● Starbucks and Spotify

● Doritos and Taco Bell

● Rihanna and Puma

● Betty Crocker and Hershey

● Taco Bell and T-Mobile

● Rick & Morty and Pringles

● Mike Jordan and Nike

All of the partnerships above were successful in their co-branding efforts, let’s take a look at a few of them to see what they got right.

Starbucks and Spotify

If you have visited a Starbucks restaurant, you know the chain uses music to create the perfect coffee-sipping ambiance in their restaurants. In 2015, they went from daily
playlists and offering free music download cards to partnering with the streaming service Spotify.

Starbucks with its 7000 locations and 10 million My Starbucks Rewards users joined with Spotify’s considerable discography and 60 million customer base in a beautiful co-branding effort. Together they created a system where Starbucks customers could create in-store Spotify playlists to listen to even after leaving the restaurant, encouraging both the use of Spotify as a streaming platform as well as the My Starbucks Rewards program.

Doritos and Taco Bell

You might remember back in 2014 when Taco Bell introduced the Doritos Locos Tacos, featuring a crunchy taco from Taco Bell with a Doritos Nachos flavored shell. Taco Bell and Doritos chips cater to roughly the same audience; lovers of flavorful junk food. Taco Bell had restaurant distribution and credibility in the fast-food industry, Doritos a loyal following associated with social gatherings and snacking. In the first 3 years, Taco Bell sold 1 billion Doritos Locos Tacos, leaving their co-branding effort with Doritos wildly successful.

Rihanna and Puma

In 2014 Rihanna became the creative director of Puma’s women’s collection. Rihanna’s reputation as a fashion icon and influencer, her great fanbase, and general fame in the music industry was a perfect match for Puma’s global athletic wear platform. Puma’s investment in the female leisurewear market matched Rihanna’s status as a streetwear influencer. Rihanna benefited from Puma’s platform as well as the association with other famous Puma co-brands, and Puma earned the “Shoe of the Year” award in 2015 as a result of partnering with Rihanna.

The Conclusion

Based on these examples, the most important part of co-branding seems to be to get the right partner. If you’re interested in using co-branding in your own marketing, be on the lookout for a company whose audience is similar to yours.

Make sure the co-branding is a mutually successful partnership. If both businesses bring something to the table, and the product or experience is viable, co-branding can be a great success.