What is Co Branding and How Can It Benefit Brands?

Co branding is one strategy to reach new consumers and expand the sales market. Businesses can collaborate with other brands, whether related or not, to form new products.

The goal is to attract attention from each brand's consumer group and introduce products that are sold in limited quantities. However, in some cases, famous co branding products will be maintained by the brand.

Want to start co branding for your business? Find out the various considerations, advantages, disadvantages, success metrics, and examples of co branding below.

What is Co Branding?

Co branding is a sales strategy carried out by two or more brands to produce new products, quoted from Sprout Social. These new products are usually sold in limited quantities or within a certain time frame only.

The products issued still have the characteristics of each brand, from shape, taste, packaging, to slogans. This collaboration can be done between brands with similar or very different products.

However, to increase the uniqueness of the new product, the collaborating brands have very different business units or products. For example, cosmetic and food brands or shoe and food brands.

Things to Consider before doing co-branding

If you are interested in co-branding, consider the following important things:

• The goals of each brand: of course, before starting a collaboration, you must align your vision and mission. Is the goal of co-branding only limited to awareness, trying new products or increasing sales?
• The prominent values ​​of the brand: find out the prominent values ​​that consumers like from your brand, also find out similar things from other brands. Can these values ​​be combined in a product?
• Brand profile and image in the market: don't just choose a brand to collaborate with, make sure their image is good in the market or public. This is also to maintain the good image that has been formed from your brand. Don't let your brand change its goals or image because of co-branding.
• Form of cooperation between brands: this includes the metrics used to assess success, profit sharing, duration of collaboration, and targets or expectations from the results of co-branding.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Co-Branding

Advantages of co-branding

• Make the brand known to more people.
• Reach new markets and consumers.
• Provide awareness through viral products.
• Increase brand credibility and reputation.
• Increase sales.
• Promotion budget is borne by both brands (depending on agreement).

Disadvantages and risks of co-branding

• Agreement can be violated by one party because they feel disadvantaged.
• Only one brand's product is used.
• One brand only "piggybacks" on the name in the product.
• If one brand has a problem, the other brand can suffer the consequences.
• Not going viral can mean low sales.

How to Assess the Success of Co-Branding

According to HubSpot, here are some ways to assess the success of a collaboration or co-branding.

Determine the right metrics

Some metrics that can be used are:

• ROI (return on investment)
• revenue growth and sales
• consumer retention
• website traffic
• social media engagement

Limit KPIs

Two brands can determine their respective KPIs first, then later they can discuss which is the best.

Monitor together

Use one metric measurement tool so that each brand knows the performance of the product and the results of the collaboration.

Have the same goal

As mentioned above, the goal of the collaboration should be the initial discussion between both brands. Is it to increase awareness? Increase sales? Or do you want to go viral?

Co Branding Example

Chitato and Indomie

In 2016, Chitato introduced the Indomie Goreng flavor variant. The product went viral and was sought after by consumers. It was discontinued after the co branding ended, but finally in 2022 the product was remade and became Chitato's permanent product. At the end of 2023, they released a new flavor variant, namely Chitato Lite Indomie Ayam Bawang flavor.

Aerostreet and Khong Guan

Aerostreet is one of the local shoe brands that often does co branding. One of the most sought-after co branding is the collaboration with the Khong Guan biscuit brand. The product is Aerostreet shoes with a Khong Guan jar design which was sold in a limited edition in 2023.

Tolak Angin and Upmost

In 2019, Upmost collaborated with Tolak Angin to create an eyeshadow palette. There are eight variants of Upmost eyeshadow with the signature Tolak Angin scent.

Etude House and KitKat

Etude House also released a co-branding eyeshadow palette in 2019. Collaborating with the KitKat brand, they released two variants with six different colors each. The shape is similar to a KitKat bar.

Oreo and Supreme

In 2020, the Oreo brand co-branded with the high-end fashion brand, Supreme. The product released was a red Oreo with a red velvet flavor.

Indomie and Swallow

Indomie also collaborated with the Swallow flip-flop brand. The product released in 2022 was the Swallow sandal with three Indomie designs. This co-branding was a celebration of Indomie's 50th anniversary.

Taco Bell and Doritos

Taco Bell is a fast food restaurant with Mexican specialties. They sell tacos with skins from the Doritos brand of chips. This collaboration became a favorite of their consumers, as a result the product has survived until now.

Are you interested in co-branding? Don't forget to make sure the considerations above and what form of cooperation and agreement are expected. Take the successful examples above and create other viral co-branding!

You can also learn about how to develop a brand through a short program from Prasmul-Eli entitled Strategic Brand Management.

Branding experts and specialists are ready to share their knowledge and experience with you. Visit this page to learn more and register for the program!