TAKA DESIGNS

Traditional methods of gaining feedback about your brand or website online have typically relied on blogs, surveys or polls. With the emergence of social media sites and tools such as Twitter, Facebook and Google Alerts, you now have the ability to monitor and listen to your audience in an indirect way.

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The Guitar Hero franchise has become a cultural phenomenon and huge success for parent company Activision, with total revenue topping $2.9 billion. What started off initially as a guitar game, with the original logo conveying an edgy rock feel, has since branched out into several other areas such as DJ Hero and Band Hero. With this came a need to rebrand the overall identity to help represent the array of different products within the franchise. The result has been a subtle update on the logo type that better suits the overall brand.

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Pepsi has recently been having a series of backfires with its rebranding efforts. The rebranding of Tropicana’s packaging was met with huge resistance when consumers mistook it for a generic-looking carton (you can read this article from Fast Company for more information on what happened). Even Pepsi’s newly redesigned logo has been criticized by many.

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I recently read how Saturn dealers were proudly associating themselves with the Penske Automotive Group shortly after the announcement of the planned acquisition of Saturn by Penske. One Saturn dealer was quoted as saying there was a 35% sales jump in June over the prior year after the announcement was made. The apparent reason had been due to the power of co-branding.

Co-Branding has been in existence for a long time. Have you ever noticed that most Barnes & Noble bookstores have Starbucks coffee shops in them? Or how about when you get those little ketchup packets from In-N-Out and they’re from Heinz.

If done effectively, co-branding can combine the strength of 2 brands to help bring enormous benefits in growing new market share and awareness. However, it can also have its share of weaknesses as well.

One major hurdle in co-branding can be the differences in values that each brand imposes, and trying to find the right balance to complement each other. Take for example Tim Hortons and Cold Stone.

If you’ve ever been to Canada, you’ll know that Tim Hortons is huge over there. They have a cult like following and are virtually on every street corner. They’re like the Starbucks of the United States. Cold Stone is an ice cream parlor that is now in almost every major city and town in the United States.

This article from BusinessWeek entitled “Tim Hortons and Cold Stone: Co-Branding Strategies” explains some of the challenges, issues, and criteria that the two companies faced when deciding whether to initially partner.

Of course, co-branding can come with risks as this article from BusinessWeek entitled “The Pros and Cons of Co-Branding” helps highlight.

In the end, it’s important to remember that co-branding is about picking a partner who closely matches your brands value, strategies and image.