Damn! Why are these brands better at choosing targets than I am! | Monthly Case

In 2023, there was a wave of co-branding, and co-branded products emerged in an endless stream. So how to avoid low-quality eye-catching co-branding and make a successful co-branding marketing? The author of this article disassembled and analyzed six successful brand co-branding cases, let's take a look.

Collaboration can be light or heavy, and is one of the preferred marketing methods for many brands.

From the underlying logic, on the one hand, consumers can spend one dollar to label themselves with two labels. On the other hand, brands can bypass large platforms and directly connect private domain traffic to each other, and attract more attention by breaking the circle. Why not?

However, when some brands flooded their co-branding campaigns with weekly sales, consumers’ demands for co-branding became increasingly high. Many co-branding campaigns were met with market feedback like, “It’s weird, let’s take another look.” And then nothing happened.

It is true that under the guidance of meritocracy, many brands pay more attention to the short-term benefits of joint ventures. However, as the "novelty" internal circulation becomes more and more serious, the marginal effect of joint ventures made for the purpose of attracting attention is constantly decreasing, and the popularity comes and goes quickly.

A good collaboration must be one where 1+1>2. From selecting the collaboration partner, to interpreting the interconnectivity of their brand cultures, to confirming the format and actually implementing it, there are traces of success in the metaphysics of collaboration.

Among the many joint venture cases in November, the Knife Skills Research Institute has selected the following 6 cases: some of them have achieved the results of sweeping the entire network, or have deeply penetrated into a certain group of people. Some brands have also renewed their brand culture through joint ventures and created high-premium popular products.

Let’s look at how they do it.

1. Manner x Jo Malone: ​​Brand tonality + usage value are fully utilized

Manner has another hit.

On November 12, Manner and Jo Malone collaborated to get a Jo Malone perfume gift bag when you buy a caramel cocoa latte. The gift bag contains a 1.5ml perfume sample and a badge. On the first day of the event, many stores were overwhelmed with orders, and the mini program also crashed briefly. However, this wave of collaboration is indeed real. As a high-end perfume, Jo Malone's samples have real use value. Not only that, Manner has always been online in terms of appearance and tonality. The perfume sample package delivered by Jo Malone this time is a Christmas cane wrapped in two-color striped candy paper, and the badge is also a mini version of the Christmas cane, showing the Christmas atmosphere.

It can be said that this wave of buying coffee and giving perfume away has full use value, winter atmosphere, and brand tone. Apart from the event itself, coffee has become more and more popular in luxury brand collaborations. But before, it was more of a "form" collaboration, with luxury brands becoming famous and coffee producing products and peripherals. But this time, Jo Malone directly released samples and used real money to support the platform.

Traditionally, samples are mostly given to targeted customers through counters or online purchases, and Manner’s previous collaborations with high-end brands such as Helena Rubinstein and LV have already verified the traffic value of Manner. Jo Malone’s choice this time is a matter of course.

For many retail brands, offline formats such as milk tea and coffee are natural traffic pools. The more focused the crowd is and the clearer the portrait is, the more valuable the traffic is. If both parties show their utmost sincerity, consumers will naturally pay.

2. Cha Baidao x Chang Xiangsi: Respect every circle

On November 3, "Cha Baidao" officially announced its collaboration with the popular IP "Chang Xiangsi" to "express lovesickness" with a cup of good tea.

This collaboration covers all the protagonists of the "Chang Xiang Si" IP. Each character corresponds to a popular product of Cha Baidao, and the peripherals include character cup sleeves, paper bags, stickers, tissue paper badges, and Polaroid cards.

On the surface, tea drinks co-branded with big IPs are mainly for sales, but Cha Baidao and "Longing" have also successfully used IP to give specific products deeper connotations. In the comment area of ​​the co-branded official announcement, many users can be seen to have given feedback that "the character personality and product combination are relatively reasonable", especially Xiaoyao + Yangzhi Ganlu, the keywords are: freedom, strength, independence and sobriety, and bitterness and sweetness; Xiangliu + Huangjin Yeye Oolong, the keywords are: long-lasting love and righteousness. It is not difficult to find that the brand's familiarity with the IP is evident.

The joint activities also take into account the user's purchase scenarios, including single-person meals, double-person meals and five-person meals, and match the corresponding peripheral materials for different meal sizes. For example, the Sauvignon Blanc five-person meal = 1 cup of each of the five drinks (no limit on cup type) + 5 joint cup sleeves (drinks corresponding to characters) + 1 sticker + 2 paper bags + 5 joint Polaroid cards (drinks corresponding to characters) + 1 set of joint tissue paper badges.

On social media such as Weibo and Xiaohongshu, in addition to sharing strategies for obtaining peripherals for this joint event, users will also spontaneously display secondary works about the peripherals. Overall, positive reviews dominate.

Since the collaboration with "Undetermined Event Book" in July this year, which became popular due to the quality of its peripheral products and services, although Cha Baidao's collaborations are not as frequent as those of first-tier tea brands, they always trigger active discussions among the public, including the later collaboration with Sugisawa's "Viewing Mountains and Seas", the collaboration with e-sports player THE SHY, and this collaboration with Chang Xiangsi.

Dao Fa once analyzed Cha Baidao , saying that its products were stable and its brand culture needed to be expanded. Now, Cha Baidao is gradually strengthening its cultural foundation through joint ventures.

What is valuable is that they neither do fast-food style collaborations for the sake of collaborations, deviating from the characteristics of their own products, nor do they try to be clever and deconstruct the IPs a second time, offending the IP fans. Instead, they do each step steadily and make consumers from all walks of life feel "respected" beyond their expectations.

3. McDonald’s x Crocs/Verdy: Reviving an old IP with the help of a trendy brand

There was a lot of news about McDonald's in November. On the industry side, McDonald's Global announced that it would increase its stake in Golden Arches, and is optimistic about the opportunities that the long-term development of the Chinese consumer market will bring to McDonald's. On the consumer side, McDonald's has cooperated with Crocs and Verdy this month to create joint products, which not only brought surprises to McDonald's believers, but also brought a new trend to the joint-branded industry, not only creating topics and traffic, but also enhancing the recognition of McDonald's IP characters and brand potential.

Both of these collaborations were inspired by McDonald's character IPs. The images of Ronald McDonald, the Burger Thief, Milkshake Brother, and Big Bird Sister were used in the design of peripherals and packaging materials, bringing dopamine color and American-style sensory stimulation to McDonald's believers. The two partners belong to the fashion and trend circles, which not only allows the character IPs to reach a new generation of young consumers, but also injects powerful potential energy into these long-forgotten IPs, giving them the opportunity to create a new face of trendy culture and empower the brand.

When McDonald's launched the four major IP characters in the last century, it was mainly to attract the most important customer group at the time - children. They not only appeared in advertisements, but were also common protagonists in children's meals. Until the 1990s, as a generation of children grew up, McDonald's also adjusted its customer base and focused on communicating with adults. These IP characters representing childhood memories were also forgotten, and only Ronald McDonald occasionally appeared in charity activities.

Since 2022, McDonald's has been trying to cooperate with the fashion industry to give new life to the four major IP characters. In the United States, McDonald's has launched joint meal packages, handicrafts, and clothing products with the trendy brand Cactus Plant Flea Market. McDonald's Japan has also cooperated with the fashion brand graniph to launch a series of clothing and accessories.

In a fragmented media environment, IP images can not only increase memory points, but also enrich the content of a brand's external output. When Disney relied on IP to continuously gain exposure on social media, attracted countless fans, and made a lot of money, more and more brands began to try and hope to create their own IP images.

4. Arc’teryx x BEAMS: Double high potential energy superposition

Whose co-branded product, originally priced at 3,000 yuan, can be sold at a premium of 10,000+ yuan in the secondary market?

On November 17, Arc'teryx and Japanese trendy department store brand BEAMS ushered in a new round of joint cooperation, continuing the popular patchwork style of the past two years, choosing a quiet monochrome called "TRANQUIL", integrating it into the main colors of black, white and gray, expressing the spirit of "wabi-sabi". This joint cooperation will be released on December 2, but it has not yet been opened to domestic channels for sales. The representative single product Beta Jacket is priced at 69,300 yen (about 3,290 yuan).

The high premium and high value retention of the co-branded items are inseparable from BEAMS, the trend touchstone of the outdoor brand. BEAMS is a trendy department store from Japan. It was founded in 1976 and started out by selling American imported clothing. It is known as one of the "Big Three" in the Japanese trendy clothing industry. Celebrities such as Edison Chen are also frequent customers of his store.

Many brands are willing to collaborate with BEAMS for the following reasons. On the one hand, BEAMS’s co-branded products have a tradition of limited release: they are rare and in small quantities, and are often released in a limited-region mode. On the other hand, BEAMS “players” are very loyal and are even willing to queue up late at night to buy. In the past, many BEAMS co-branded products have reached the collection level. Once BEAMS announces a co-branded plan, consumers will also have the mentality of “missing out if you don’t buy it” and are willing to pay a higher price to buy it.

This is not the first time that BEAMS has collaborated with outdoor brands. It has previously collaborated with niche but long-established American brands LLBEAN and Sierra Designs. In the past two years, it has also frequently collaborated with popular brands such as Arc'teryx and HOKA.

In exploring the fashion value of these hardcore brands, BEAMS's logic is actually very simple: choose the popular items of these brands and change the color matching. In the cooperation with Arc'teryx, BEAMS chose Beta hardshell jackets and Mantis shoulder bags; when cooperating with HOKA, it chose One One Tor Ultra shoes. In terms of color, BEAMS created a signature joint color for Arc'teryx, and chose a fresh color scheme for HOKA that was contrary to the previous brand image.

It is worth noting that Arc’teryx and Beams have collaborated on similar products for three consecutive years, with the same color scheme and no “aggressive” design adjustments. However, the recognition is still high and the market response is very hot. With the foundation laid in the past two years, the “collection value” of this year’s co-branded model in the minds of players may be even higher.

5. FlLA FUSION xTEAM WANG design: Fashionable sports brand

How to maximize the star effect while not being overshadowed by celebrity brands when collaborating with them? FlLA FUSION has demonstrated this.

On November 29, FILA's trendy sports brand "FlLA FUSION" and Wang Jiaer's trendy brand "TEAMWANG design" officially launched the joint series "DONG".

The day before the sale, the two jointly held the "DONG" immersive concept show in Shanghai. The show integrated creative parkour elements, presented the co-branded series of items, and simultaneously broadcasted online.

This is the first time that TEAMWANGdesign has crossed over to a sportswear brand, and it is also the first joint show of FlLA FUSION. With Wang Jiaer as a big IP, the brand will naturally not miss the good opportunity of leveraging marketing.

The official Reuters mentioned that Wang Jiaer, the head of TEAMWANG design, personally served as the creative director of this collaboration. This gives fans another reason to buy it. The joint series "DONG" can be understood as the movement of the East or the movement of power. The logo is reconstructed by deconstructing the Chinese characters "东" and "力". The creative inspiration comes from the niche sport of parkour. The product design focuses on gender-free, multi-scene wear and minimalist design style.

When brands collaborate across industries, the biggest fear is that the potential of the two brands is too different, which results in one brand being questioned for "riding on the popularity" and the other being mocked for "lowering its value." Only when the brand tone and user groups are sufficiently matched and the capabilities can complement each other's strengths can the effect of 1+1>2 be achieved.

As a trendy sports brand, FILA FUSION has always been more about sports than fashion. In the past two years, it has been moving closer to the fashion circle more frequently. On the one hand, its clothes appear on various European and American celebrities and fashion icons, creating an atmosphere where trendy people love single products. On the other hand, it deepens its own market trend mark by co-branding with trendy brands such as BEAMS.

Fashioning sports brands is one of the means to build differentiation and increase brand premium. FILA FUSION's continuous efforts in the field of fashion trends have begun to bear fruit.

6. HEYTEA x NORITAKE: Whether to stay in the circle or go beyond the circle may be a choice

Attention and discussion may also come in a not-so-positive way.

On November 17, HEYTEA and NORITAKE launched their joint product nationwide. The product is a 19-yuan buffalo milk roasted tea, and there are many peripherals, such as joint illustration drink cups, joint illustration cup sleeves, paper bags, joint badges and coasters. In addition, if you buy any freshly brewed drink at HEYTEA GO, you can get a NORITAKE joint travel bag for an additional 45 yuan, and a NORITAKE joint travel cup for an additional 50 yuan.

There are many products, but many discussions about this collaboration did not focus on the products themselves, but on exclaiming "I've never seen a collaboration between the genuine and the pirated". The origin of the matter is that Heytea's unique minimalist brand logo was once believed to have plagiarized Japanese designer Noritake, the originator of the minimalist line trend and one of the representative figures of Japanese commercial illustrations.

Therefore, some Xiaohongshu netizens called this collaboration "making up the ticket" or "out-of-court settlement". Of course, there are also voices that since Noritake is willing to cooperate, it actually indirectly proves that plagiarism may not be established, or at least the original developer does not care.

Putting aside the controversy over plagiarism, to be fair, the products of this collaboration are indeed good-looking. The black and white minimalism combined with ancient poetry has been commented by many consumers as "i can't walk after seeing it." Minimalism and orientalism, the two key words in Heytea's design style, are clearly reflected.

But perhaps it is precisely because they are too harmonious and well-matched, lacking some sense of conflict and unexpectedness, and thus lacking topics and discussions. Some consumers said on Xiaohongshu that this wave of collaborations "has no presence."

From this perspective, it is important for brands to have clear goals when they collaborate. The two brands have very similar tones and styles, and the more likely goal is to continue the brand's tone, consolidate the existing customer base, and achieve the effect of "self-cultivation in a circle". Unexpected collaborations are more likely to trigger discussions and attention on social media, increase attention, and achieve breakthroughs.

Author: Knife Skills Content Team, Editor: Siete

Source: Knife Skills Research Institute (ID: DigipontClub).