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The paper, then, talks about a concept called 'Brand Flavoring', which is a variant of co-branding. Brand flavoring is a way of presenting the established brands in a new perspective. Different brands can come together to lend different flavors to a unique final product. Flavors are distinctive brand attributes. Think of the unique taste that you get when you eat a plain Vanilla Ice Cream on which Pepsi has been poured.

I have used this concept to propose some ideas, which will take co-branding to a higher level. Ideas like public-private co-branding (Incredible India-Taj-Hotels-Airtel-Cox & Kings); inter-country co-branding (SAARC-ASEAN); intra-sector co-branding (Doordarshan-Star-Sony); value chain co-branding (Rane Brake Linings-TATA-Toyota); and national-regional brand partnerships (MTR Foods-Haldirams-Heinz) have been discussed with relevance to the Indian context.

Co-branding is here to stay in India and get even better in the times to come. Incidentally, I had also submitted this paper to a competition which was co-branded!

Co-Branding: Marriages are Good!

Physicists have a term amplification reserved for the phenomena behind the working of transistors and lasers. Management specialists have a word synergy to convey more or less the same effect. Biologists prefer symbiosis. But then, how often is the equation 1+1=3? For that matter, can the equation actually hold?

The IBM-Intel, Diet Coke-Nutrasweet, Sony-Kodak products are some classic examples that have proved the above point. All of these products have created enormous value for the stakeholders involved. Co-branding is a meeting of expertise and reputation of individual partners; the combination of whom creates a whole new product/service and occupies a unique position in the minds of consumers.

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* Contributed by -
Santosh Kumar Vuppala,
Batch of 2007, PG Program in Communications Management,
Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad.