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Randi Priluck Grossman: Assistant Professor in the Seton Hall University, New York, USA
Introduction
Marketers are using co-branding in advertising
A recent advertisement opened with scenes from the movie Mission Impossible. Logically, the viewer assumes that this advertisement is a trailer for the film. Suddenly, the Apple Macintosh logo appears and the scenes from the movie are interspersed with images of the computer company's logo. The end of the ad is pure Macintosh with the logo proudly displayed and the tag line "After you see the movie, pick up the Book," which refers to the Macintosh Powerbook.
The Macintosh ad is one example of a growing phenomenon in marketing known as co-branding. Co-branding occurs when two brands are deliberately paired with one another in a marketing context such as in advertisements, products, product placements and distribution outlets. A number of firms have recently entered into co-branding agreements including: McDonald's ten-year contract to dispense Disney toys and Pepsi's deal with Lucasfilm to promote Star Wars films through the year 2000 (Leonhardt et al., 1996). Further, consumers have been exposed to ads linking the California Milk Processor Advisory Board with the Trix cereal rabbit, products such as Betty Crocker Peanut Butter Brownies made with Hershey's Reese's Pieces, a Barbie doll that carries a milk carton and comes in a box featuring recipes for Nestle Toll House cookies, Subway sandwiches that are dressed with Grey Poupon or A-1 Steak Sauce and the Jello and Cool Whip brand names have been linked for years, though in this case both are marketed by General Foods.
Some successful and unsuccessful co-branding strategies
In the co-branding arena there are both success stories and dismal failures. Co-branding has been successful in the credit card industry and is believed to have helped Mastercard improve its position by teaming up with General Motors and AT&T to offer specialized cards (Voss and Wells, 1993). The movie GoldenEye is credited with the success of BMW's Z3 automobile. Convenience stores that co-brand locations with fast-food outlets report that same store sales increase by about 10 percent with this arrangement (Kramer, 1995) and California Pizza Kitchen admits that co-branding, with Hormel bacon on pizzas and Myer's rum, Oreo cookies and Haagen-Dazs ice-cream in desserts, helped generate consumer acceptance of...