Femtio Nyanser av Co-branding - En kvantitativ studie om effekterna av co-branding på konsumenters varumärkes- och produktutvärdering beroende av kvalitetssegment och hedoniska shoppingmotivationer
The retailing industry has an extremely high density of brands. In order to differentiate its offer, both retailers and suppliers, are constantly forced to come up with new ways to launch their products. A collaborative strategy between two brands is called co-branding, which means that both the private label and the supplier's brand are displayed on the new product packaging. Several studies have shown that a co-branding strategy is successful, but many operators are still reluctant to use co-branding in fear of long-term losses due to potentially damaged business relations. The objective of this study is to explain how the product- and brand related value for customers, retailers and suppliers is affected by co-branding between private labels and national brands. The study also examines whether the results are correlated with the quality level of the private label and how hedonic shopping motivations influence the outcome of the collaboration. Ultimately the study will discuss whether or not a successful co-branding will overcome the barriers associated with the strategy. For this study, the authors have designed a main survey that was answered by 346 randomly selected respondents. In addition, a supplementary survey answered by 180 selected respondents was combined with a tasting to ensure the accuracy of the results. Finally, three interviews were conducted with operators from the private label perspective as well as the national brand perspective to support the analysis. The combined result of these studies draws the conclusion that co-branding between private labels and national brands affect the product- and brand related value for customers, retailers and suppliers in various degrees depending on the quality of the private label. It also states that hedonic shopping motivations do affect the product- and brand related value for customers, retailers and suppliers. The final implications states that although the study's results show strong positive effects of co-branding between private labels and national brands for as well product- as brand related values, the utility of these positive effects do not exceed the barriers associated with co-branding.