CO-BRANDING - THE INDIAN WAY

 Hi readers how are you all?..Its been a long time since i wrote my last article. And i got excellent response from all of you. Thank you very much for  your unconditional support. I have been thinking about my next topic for my article.. Then i came across a crazy topic , with which our generation is completely obsessed with. And that is Brand..  Our generation want brand in everything ranging from Shirt to Shoes , Food to Milk. We want brand presence everywhere. Brand is something  that is considered as 'Social Currency' that gives us a a reputation and recognition.  My last article was about branding only. But this time i want to talk about another component of branding that is Co-Branding. 

  Co-branding is like promoting your company's product or brand name under the brand name of other company. This is one of the prominent and most successful branding strategy when it comes to global expansion of your business. We can take examples of lot many companies that used this way to enter into the global markets. One of the examples is Honda. When they entered in india they partnered with Hero motorcycles and 'Hero Honda' became the market leader in two wheeler bikes segment.



    
    The concept of co-branding can be found in our ancient indian scriptures like Ramayana and Mahabharata. They gives us the best strategy for co-branding, which will be verymuch useful in the current scenario. 
       
       Consider that there are two companies in mahabharata , they are 1. Pandava Ltd. 2. Yadava Ltd.
They had a common rivalry which is kaurava Ltd. Kaurava Ltd used unfair practices to gain advantage and enjoyed the position of market leader (ruling Hastinapura).And the main product of kaurava ltd was 'Adharma' which was neither market oriented nor marketing oriented. But customers have no other option except to use their products (In late 20th century we had only one washing powder brand. Then came another prominent brand that became the market leader). So, inorder to become the market leaders both pandava & yadava ltd joined their hands to defeat kaurava ltd and became the leader in the market. Their product was 'dharma' which was both market and marketing oriented. Their product became one of the prominent one in the market. 
This is a very good example of co-branding. From this we can draw the principles of co-branding & marketing, which can be applied to any company in any segment.
1. A Company must be market oriented & marketing oriented.
2. When customers have a better alternative, it causes ‘Brand Switch’.
3. When there is a strong brand is already in the market, then co-branding offers a great scope to gain advantage over the market leader.
4. Co-Branding helps companies change their brand position and allow them expand the product mix and depth.




It all depends on us, how we look at things. If we look at Mahabharata as a story it will  look like a story of war between two sides. And the perception changes from person to person, situation to situation. It all lies within us. Thank you for reading my articles..

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