Co-branding: A brand partnership and a new product

Co-branding is a form of cooperation between two brands with significant consumer recognition that results in the creation and introduction of a new product on which both brands are visible. Although co-branding results in the creation and introduction of a new product through collaboration, the current literature on cobranding focuses on either the creation (i.e., NPD literature) or the introduction (i.e., marketing literature) of the product. As new product success partly depends on a properly executed brand strategy (Keller, 2008), it is relevant to better understand the interaction between these two aspects. The main aim of this doctoral thesis was to provide an integrated view of both the marketing and NPD literatures and hence to discuss both the brand partnership and the new product simultaneously in relation to the co-branding strategy. This research project had four underlying goals. First, this project provided more conceptual clarity on the co-branding strategy by examining the use of cobranding in the past and present (studies 1 and 2). Second, it aimed to improve our understanding of the consumer evaluation of co-branded products by explicitly taking the role of the new product into account (study 3). Third, this project examined the consumers’ perception of a new co-branded product and it showed how consumers may consider the presence of one brand on the new co-branded product to make more sense than the other brand’s presence on the new product (study 4, 5 and 6). Fourth, this project aimed to clarify the relevance of simultaneously discussing the collaboration between the brands during NPD and the perception of the new product after introduction by focusing on the influence of the new product’s visual design on new product perception and evaluation (study 6)