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Brand alliances : a definition - or more than one definition

There are quite a lot of definitions of brand alliances around. Some brand alliance definitions are presented in order to both distil the commonalities and highlight some differences in point of view:

 
·         brand alliances involve brands from different firms that combine to engage in effective strategic or tactical brand building programs or to create co-branded market offerings[1]

 

·         the involvement of two or more firms that associate their brands together to create superior marketing offerings, or to engage in effective strategic or tactical brand-building programs[2].

·         a partnership of at least two companies on the value chain level of marketing with the objective to tap the full potential of a market by bundling specific competences or resources[3].

·         short- or long-term association or combination of two or more individual brands, products, and/or other distinctive proprietary assets[4].

·         an arrangement whereby various producers cooperate in the marketing of their products or services[5]

 

·         working partnerships where the mutual recognition and understanding that the success of each firm depends in part on the other firm[6].
 
Taking some of the most common elements from these definitions, brand alliances can be defined as:
·         the associating or partnering of different firms;
·         for mutual gain;
·         in (at least) a marketing context.
 
While this definition is very broad, it does touch upon the essential elements of a brand alliance.  
But maybe there is something more to add? Brand alliances can after all be defined in a lot more detail. For instance, Bucklin and Sengupta construct a much more elaborated definition by naming these characteristics[7]:
 
·         Involvement of contractual relationships
·         Undertaken by firms whose respective products are complements in the marketplace
·         Intention to amplify and/or build awareness of benefits derived from these complementarities
·         Involvement of coordination amongst the partners in one or more aspects or marketing
·         Potential to extend into research, product development and even production
·         They are lateral relationships between firms at the same level in the value added chain

While this definition has the benefit of being very specific, some of the characteristics named are not universally accepted. 
 
For example the requirement that brand alliances need to occur between ‘firms at the same level in the value added chain‘ contradicts the existence of ingredient branding, where there is a vertical integration of existing products within one product by producers of different value chain steps[8].
 
Or in another example, do the firms really need to have complementary products? It’s not unheard of to see brand alliances occur between competitors.
 
There is however one aspect in the definition above which seems crucial to include in a definition, namely the involvement of coordination amongst the partners. If one firm brings in marketing and other resources into a partnership and then lets the whole implementation and development to the other partner, it’s probably more correct to speak of a sale then off an alliance.

This coordination is furthermore already implicitly present in the words partnership and association. But for clarity’s sake, it may be a good idea to state explicitly that a brand alliance is only an alliance if both partners coordinate their efforts. This will have its implications, as it means the partners need to communicate and organise their marketing efforts together.

A brand alliance can therefore be defined as

 
-          the associating or partnering of different firms;
-          for mutual gain;
-          in (at least) a marketing context
-          involving coordination amongst the partners .



[1]AAKER, David A., “Brand Portfolio Strategy, Creating and sustaining brand equity long term”, Free Press, New York, 2004, page 20
[2]AAKER, David A., “Brand Portfolio Strategy, Creating and sustaining brand equity long term”, Free Press, New York, 2004, page 161
[3] Wikipedia definition, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_co-operation (written by Noshokaty, Doering & Thun)
[4] SIMONIN, B. L. and RUTH, J. A. “Is a company known by the company it keeps? Assessing
the spillover effects of brand alliances on consumer brand attitudes”, Journal of Marketing
Research, 35, 1 1998, page 30
[5] IVANOVIC, A; COLLIN, P.H., “Dictionary of Marketing”, third edition, 2003, Bloomsbury, page 60
[6] BUCKLIN, Louis P; SENGUPTA, Sanjit, “Organizing successful co-marketing alliances”, Journal of Marketing, v57 n2 (Apr 1993), American Marketing Association, page 32.
[7] BUCKLIN, Louis P; SENGUPTA, Sanjit, “Organizing successful co-marketing alliances”, Journal of Marketing, v57 n2 (Apr 1993), American Marketing Association, page 32.
 
[8] HELMIG, Bernd; HUBER, Jan-Alexander; LEEFLANG, Peter, “Co-branding: the State of the Art”, Schmalenbach Business Review, Vol. 60, October 2008, Available at SSRN, page 3
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samfromintroniche — February 1, 2009 - 21:05
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