The Polar WearLink transmitter and The Polar RS800 Running Computer

Let us take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of co-branding and discover how e-commerce strategy contributed to the nation's recovery in the recent economic decline. Our listing of co-branding examples indicate that the advantages happen to be prevalent in the current "participation economy."

Once the co-branding strategy was first introduced throughout the 1980s, its initial objectives included the optimization of the rising advertising costs for launching services. With billions of resources being spent on advertisement and marketing of brands, companies formed alliances, and the merger of the knowledge and reputation produced new and better quality products and services.
Yet in those days, business strategists were comfortable with the pros and cons of the marketing tool; hence, just a few ventured to tread this route.

However, the current decade's dragging recession, saw many companies struggling for survival, amidst a market that proliferated with products that were similar to theirs. Consumer goods carried different brands but basically promised the same values to the buying public at lower costs. Big named companies whose adverts provided the value to their products, soon found their positions being threatened by consumer items given by the less popular brands.
Thus, the company strategy of forming an alliance along with other established brands was a widely-held option, as a means for an organization to stay along with its industry. Successful these include Coach and Lexus, Diet Coke and Nutra-Sweet, Pillsbury Brownies and Nestle Chocolate, Crocs and Disney, IBM and Intel, Betty Crocker and Hershey, Breyers and Hershey, Lays and KC Masterpiece, Sony and Kodak, and so on. These co-brandings have formulated large benefits for stakeholders.
Smaller businesses also entered linking and co-branding with giant brands like Procter & Gamble, Nike, and Starbucks, which dispelled the parable that co-branding is just suitable for large international brands. Each one of these benefited the buying public, who found greater satisfaction using the new business set-ups.

Kevin Roberts, the CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi advertising agency whose industry was threatened by the advent of co-branding strategy, created their own method of counter the results of co-branding. At any given time when companies were beginning to regard advertising expenses as discretionary costs, Saatchi and Saatchi introduced a brand new marketing concept.

The organization launched an advertising and marketing movement where consumers were encouraged to recognize a product based on its values instead of its brand. In doing this, Saatchi's CEO formed a company called 'Lovemarks", along with the country's top wholesalers and retailers.
Their mission was to instill consumer awareness about the value of the product not through the popularity of its brand but by being able to satisfy sound, sight, smell, touch and taste. As the end-users, they have the right to demand products that were created from out of genuine inspirations, or out of a real understanding of their actual living conditions. products ought to be presented to all of them with total commitment and dedication.

Hence, products recommended by 'Lovemarks" carry with it a silent endorsement of the positive qualities ---that they possess more than just a well known brand but additionally have unquestionable value and quality. In no time, Lovemarks was accompanied by a long list of businesses whether big or small, which included the kind of GAP, Mary Quant, KFC, Tommy Hilfiger, Yakult, ATP World Tour, Nike and Kiehl's, simply to name some.

Image Credit: Tacobellkfcrestaurants Wikimedia Commons
It would be interesting to take a closer inspection at probably the most successful and recent co-branding examples, to find out how consumers are now enjoying the best of both brands at the best values.
1. Adidas (ADDDY) - Polar Electro and their Project Fusion. Sports apparel by Adidas that's integrated with Polar Electro's heart rate, speed and distance monitoring system, called "adiStar Fusion" and adiStar Fusion shoe, that are integrated with the Polar's s3 Stride Sensor, The Polar WearLink transmitter and The Polar RS800 Running Computer.
2. Apple - Nike Sports Kit - This team-up is an ensemble comprised of a pair of Nike+ shoes and a set of iPod nano, iPod touch, iPhone 3GS, or apple iphone 4 as well as the Nike + iPod Sport Kit or Sensor, that is tucked in the specially-designed built-in pocket under the shoe insole.
3. Gillette (PG) teamed-up with the Art of Shaving to produce a power razor called Fusion Chrome Collection that is compatible only with Gillette's blade cartridges.
eval(ez_write_tag([[336,280],'brighthub_com-banner-1','ezslot_4']));4. Asus - Garmin and also the N??vifone new cell phones which provides location-based service. The phone also has a 'Where Am I" tracker, which gives users ionformation about their exact location at all times. Garmin operates through its subsidiaries which are into designing, developing, manufacturing, and marketing gps (GPS) enabled products, along with other forms of navigation and communication devices.
5. Dairy Queen - The Girl Scouts and the Girl Scout Tagalongs - The Thin Mint Blizzard, a unique limited edition which was featured within the Tagalong product, sold a lot more than 10 million in a single month.
6. MasterCard - Virgin team-up which aims to offer a prepaid card for individuals who don't have a banking account or for those who have low credit scores.
7. Best Western - Harley - Best Western who owns, operates and franchises a chain of hotels in the United States and internationally, furnishes Harley Davidson riding enthusiasts with an exclusive nuove mercurial rewards program to get special treatment in their hotels including a clean wipe-down towel at check-in.
8. Benjamin Moore - Pottery Barn, the second as being a major provider of home furnishings, so it offers via website, catalog and outlets, This combined effort provides an excellent portal for consumers who are constantly seeking the latest Benjamin Moore color palettes to be used for his or her do it yourself projects.
9. Bonne Bell - Dr. Pepper - The second being the manufacturer of non-alcoholic beverages in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and also the Caribbean, became the cosmetic company's best ally when they scarpe calcio nike created Lipsmackers, a great favortie among teen girls.
10. Jack Daniel's - T.G.I. Friday's - An old time favorite among consumer's cobranded choices, since the companies' team-up in 1997. T.G.I. Friday's has an entire section of its menu dedicated to Jack Daniel's (BFA) flavored food.
It might be also worth mentioning that some negotiations for co-branding alliances didn't push through. An example was that of Penske Logistics, Penske Racing Inc., and Penske Racing South Inc. and GM's Saturn. The key reason could be that the Penske Group's car manufacturer's contract renewal didn't proceed either. Naturally, these businesses nike magista obra are aware that regardless of the benefits of co-branding, there are still the risks from the disadvantages to think about.