Maniatis, Spyros; Schwarzkopf, Stefan --- "Co-branding" [2009] ELECD 277; in Simon Fhima, IIanah (ed), "Trade Mark Law and Sharing Names" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009)

Book Title: Trade Mark Law and Sharing Names

Editor(s): Simon Fhima, IIanah

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847202796

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: Co-branding

Author(s): Maniatis, Spyros; Schwarzkopf, Stefan

Number of pages: 16

Extract:

10. Co-branding
Spyros Maniatis and Stefan Schwarzkopf

1. CO-BRANDING AS STRATEGIC ALLIANCE
Trade marks enable choice and competition; they allow consumers to distin-
guish between products and allow businesses that compete by offering
rivalling products. Brands, on the other hand, are trade marks with a `persona'.
They encapsulate images, social values, and emotional attachments.
Businesses use brands and branding in order to make their products and
services more relevant and attractive for a number of key market stakeholder
groups that include not only consumers, but also suppliers, business partners,
and retailers. Strong brands help deliver superior customer value and fight off
attempts by the competition to capture a firm's target market. The key to these
branding activities is the successful transformation of consumers into brand
loyal customers, who feel that their needs, demands, and expectations are not
only met but exceeded by their favourite brand.1 In order to make brands
meaningful to a larger number of prospective customers and to capitalize on
the advantages of a strong existing brand in a new market, businesses are
increasingly diversifying their brand- and customer-base. Brands allow them
to transfer their customer loyalty into new product markets either on their own
or by exploiting synergies with other brand owners; the latter is particularly
relevant for the theme of this volume.
Various techniques are known in this field and have extensively been
analysed in the marketing literature.2 Corporate brand licensing, for example,
allows manufacturers to use an existing and ...