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A typology of brand alliances and consumer awareness of brand alliance integration

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Abstract

Brand alliances, which involve intentionally presenting two or more brands together, appear in many different forms. For example, Subway stores placed within Wal-Mart, Airbus A380 airplanes with Rolls-Royce Trent engines, and Nike + iPod co-developed personal trainers are among the more well-known manifestations of this strategy. Our study contributes to the literature on brand alliances by conceptualizing and measuring a typology of brand alliance types based on their degree of integration. We also empirically test and find that consumers are sensitive to varying degrees of brand alliance integration. We then link these findings to the managerial decision of how and with whom a brand should form an alliance. We use extensive examples, conversations with managers, and survey-based experiments to show that brand alliance integration is relevant and impactful to both managers and consumers.

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Notes

  1. A more comprehensive review is available by request.

  2. Results of a replication study using different participants, product categories, and brands are available upon request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank John Hulland, Vanitha Swaminathan, Sayan Chatterjee, and Jagdip Singh for feedback on previous versions of this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, 44106, USA

    Casey E. Newmeyer

  2. Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA

    R. Venkatesh & Rabikar Chatterjee

  3. School of Business – Camden, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ, 08102, USA

    Julie A. Ruth

  4. Department of Marketing Management, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Julie A. Ruth

Authors
  1. Casey E. Newmeyer
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  2. R. Venkatesh
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  3. Julie A. Ruth
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  4. Rabikar Chatterjee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Casey E. Newmeyer.

Appendices

Appendix 1

100 brand alliance examples

1

LG Android Nexus smartphone

26

Citi American Airlines credit card

2

Nike + i Pod Sport Kit 1

27

Happy Meals with Disney toys

3

Krups—Heineken BeerTender

28

Huggies with a coupon for Good Dinosaur

4

Coach leather Baker Furniture

29

Starbucks and Spotify

5

Color Your Room by Pottery Barn and Sherwin Williams

30

Southwest Airlines Rewards and Hertz

6

Tide with Downy fabric softener

31

Costco and Walgreens via Google Express

7

Frito-Lay chips with KC Masterpiece

32

ampm convenience gores and BP

8

Eddie Bauer edition Ford Explorer

33

KFC–Taco Bell–Pizza Hut outlets

9

DQ Oreo Blizzard

34

Starbucks and Barnes & Noble

10

Samsung phone with Android software

35

JC Penney and Sephora

11

Dell PC with Intel processor

36

Costco and American Express

12

Ford Explorer with Firestone tires

37

Costco and Visa

13

Airbus A380 with Rolls-Royce engine

38

Southwest Airlines Rewards and Chase

14

YoCrunch yogurt with separate Oreo pieces

39

Hilton and AT&T wireless service

15

Whirlpool appliance with CoolVox speaker

40

Capital One and Transunion Credit Wise

16

iPod with Bose mulct system

41

McDonalds and various brands for Happy Meals

17

Pfizer’s Human with BD pen needles

42

Fox and NFL

18

Bacardi Rum and Coke

43

Bonne Belle and Dr. Pepper: Flavored Lip Balm

19

Dell PC with a Canon printer

44

BMW and Louis Vuitton

20

Converse X Jordan 2-pack of basketball shoes

45

Uber and Spotify: Soundtrack for Your Ride

21

Tide with Febreeze

46

BuzzFeed and Best Friends Animal Society

22

Gap and RED

47

Alexander Wang and H&M

23

Historical iPhone and AT&T

48

CoverGirl and Lucasfilm: Light Side and Dark Side Makeup

24

Ford and Eddie Bauer

49

Google and Luxottica

25

GoPro and Red Bull

50

Snapchat and Square’s Snapcash

51

Christian Dior Fusion Sneakers and Colette

76

McDonald’s and Monopoly

52

Apple Pay and Mastercard

77

Crest Scope products

53

Kohls and Vera Wang

78

Glad trash bags with Febreeze

54

Target and Fixer-Upper

79

Lunchables with various branded components

55

Canon’s moters for other laser printers

80

Dodge and Yamaha co-promotion

56

Historic: NutraSweet/Splenda Diet Coke and Pepsi

81

University of Oregon and Nike

57

Beech Nut baby foods with Chiquita bananas

82

University of Maryland and Under Armour

58

Bayliner Boat/Volvo Engine

83

Sabra Hummus with Rold Gold pretzels

59

Healthy Choice Cereal by Kellog

84

Dole and Incredibles 2

60

Special K, Ego Waffles

85

Costco and Bali Blinds

61

Martha Stewart Paint by Sherwin Williams

86

Alienware Laptop with NVIDIA graphics card

62

Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty

87

Adobe and McAfee Software

63

CNN/Time News-stand episodes

88

Barnes & Noble and University Bookstore

64

Jack Hanna/Columbus Zoo animal experiences

89

Direct TV and AT&T

65

Coca-Cola and Ballpark sweepstakes promotion

90

Cooking Light and Living Magazine bade

66

Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland 66 Indians Youth Baseball

91

Target and Soul Cycle

67

Starbucks and Spotify

92

Sirius XM in various branded vehicles

68

Ziploc bags with Disney character images

93

Target and Mossimo

69

Metallica and the San Francisco Orchestra

94

J.Crew X New Balance

70

Historical: FedEx and Kinkos

95

NBC Olympic broadcasts

71

Cold Sone Creamery and Tim Horton’s

96

Corvette Racing and SONIC Tools

72

Jeep and Mopar

97

Casper mattresses and West Elm furniture stores

73

Google and Luxottica glasses

98

Chevrolet and Road America

74

Dodge HEM I engines

99

Mastercard and Apple Pay

75

Starbucks and Safeway

100

Dick’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon

Appendix 2

Personal interviews with executives: profiles of participants and research methods

 

Profile/Characteristics

Participants

Exchange type

Business-to-business (primarily)

16

Business-to-consumer (primarily)

11

Industry

e-Commerce/information technology

8

Food

3

Consumer goods (inexpensive, nonfood)

4

Technology

5

Consulting

2

Other

5

Position

Chief executive officer/managing director

3

President, vice president, or director

15

Manager, senior manager

9

Function

Marketing (including advertising)

14

Sales

5

Business consulting

1

Senior management

5

Corporate planning

2

Total

27

Interview Protocol (Guideline Questions)

  • Could you talk about brand alliance examples that your firm has pursued or overseen? Why did your firm pursue these relationships?

  • How do your customers view your cobranding efforts? What do they stand to gain or lose?

  • In the above examples, how would you assess the actual outcomes vis-à-vis the intended outcomes?

  • How do you see the different types of brand alliances? When and why would firms pursue these types of partnerships?

  • What characteristics do you look for in your partners? Why?

Appendix 3. Experimental stimuli

1.1 Higher Integration: Co-development

Barnes & Noble bookstores has announced that they have teamed up with Starbucks coffee to co-develop and co-produce a special summer blend of coffee. The blend will be sold in Starbucks outlets located within Barnes & Noble stores. Barnes & Noble spokesperson Chris Rayes said “This coffee blend – co-developed and jointly produced by Barnes & Noble and Starbucks – will be perfect for the warmer seasons.”

1.2 Lower Integration: Co-promotion

Barnes & Noble bookstores has announced that they will be selling a special summer blend of Starbucks coffee. The blend will only be sold in Starbucks outlets located within Barnes & Noble stores. Barnes & Noble spokesperson Chris Rayes said “This coffee blend – developed and produced by Starbucks and sold at Barnes & Noble – will be perfect for the warmer seasons.”

1.3 Control

Barnes & Noble bookstores has announced that they will be selling a special summer blend of coffee developed and produced by Starbucks. The blend will be sold in Starbucks outlets located within Barnes & Noble stores as well as other Starbucks locations. Barnes & Noble spokesperson Chris Rayes said “This coffee blend – developed and produced by Starbucks – will be perfect for the warmer seasons.”

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Newmeyer, C.E., Venkatesh, R., Ruth, J.A. et al. A typology of brand alliances and consumer awareness of brand alliance integration. Mark Lett 29, 275–289 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-018-9467-4

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