Co-Branding

While brand crossover collaborationstrategies have become a business trend recently, crossover-branding is by no means new. Chinese consumers in particular seem to be postively stimulated by this approach. In this article, we'll take a look at three different crossover innovations: luxury, fast-fashion, and Chinese internet-famous co-brandings.

品牌联名合作并不是一件新鲜事，甚至品牌跨界合作战略已经成为了目前行业的一种趋势。中国的消费者似乎很容易被这个品牌效应所煽动。在这篇文章里，我们就一起来看一下奢侈品牌联名、快时尚品牌联名以及中国网红品牌联名这三种不同的跨界创新。

Luxury Brands

Co-branding can make a brand's image positioning more diversified and youthful, as luxury brands have a limited target consumer base, by updating their brand image, they can recreate a fresher and more distinctive brand image for consumers. At the same time, brands tend to lend to each other's individual strengths and work together when they find mutually beneficial value points.They can superimpose double or even stronger levels of attention and appeal, achieving a marketing effect of 1+1>2. 

联名能够使品牌的形象定位更加多元化和年轻化。奢侈品牌的目标消费人群较为局限，但通过对品牌形象进行更新，可以为消费者重塑一个更具有新鲜感和特色对品牌形象。同时，品牌与品牌之间相互借力，在找到互利价值点的情况下联手合作，叠加出双倍甚至更强的关注度和吸引力，取得1+1>2的市场营销效果。

One of the most impressive examples of luxury brands co-branding is the Louis Vuitton x Supreme collection from 2017. The most distinctive feature of this collection is that it features the logos of both brands: The white Supreme logo on the bright red Louis Vuitton leather material is quite eye-catching. More recently, in early 2021, Gucci's creative director Alessandro Michele launched a special Doraemon x Gucci co-branded collection to celebrate Doraemon's 50th anniversary and the Chinese New Year.

最令人印象深刻的奢侈品品牌联名则为2017年的Louis Vuitton x Supreme 系列。这一系列产品，最鲜明的特点便是同时拥有两个品牌的标志，其中大部分是在鲜红色的 Louis Vuitton皮具上附上 Supreme 的白色标志，非常鲜明醒目。而在2021年初，Gucci的创意总监Alessandro Michele为庆祝多啦A梦50周年和农历新年，特别推出了Doraemon x Gucci联名系列。

Fast Fashion Brands

The co-branding of fast-fashion brands has become increasingly normalized, from an initial collection launch once a year to several times a year in more recent times. In 2004, H&M collaborated with fashion guru Karl Lagerfeld for the first time to launch a limited-edition co-branded collection with the slogan "Karl Lagerfeld for everyone". The 30-piece collection was sold out within an hour of its official launch. In the 17 years since, H&M has also collaborated with Stella McCartney, Roberto Cavalli, COMME des GARÇONS, Lanvin, Versace, Maison Martin Margiela, Isabel Marant, Alexander Wang, Balmain, Kenzo, Erdem, Moschino and many other influential brands and designers. For luxury brands, co-branding with affordable brands can not only ensure that they will not lose their original target demographic by “lowering” their position, but also promoting their own brand and design concept to potential consumers. In that way, brands can meet consumer demand for "entry lux" with "relatively low costs".

快时尚品牌的联名已经成为常态化，从最初的每年推出一次到每年数次。作为高街品牌与顶级设计师联名合作的鼻祖，一年一度的H&M设计师联名系列已经成为时尚界的固定节目和城中热事。2004年，H&M首次和时尚大师“老佛爷”Karl Lagerfeld合作推出限量联名款，打出“人人都能穿上Karl Lagerfeld”的口号。共30件单品的合作系列，在正式发售一小时内全部售罄。此后15年间，H&M还分别与Stella McCartney、Roberto Cavalli、COMME des GARÇONS、Lanvin 、Versace 、Maison Martin Margiela、Isabel Marant 、Alexander Wang、Balmain、Kenzo、Erdem、Moschino等多个具有时尚影响力的品牌和设计师合作。奢侈品与平价品牌联名的情况，对于奢侈品牌来说，与平价品牌联名既能保证其原始高层受众不会因为品牌“下凡”而流失，同时也能将自己的品牌和设计理念，推行到潜在费群体当中去，以满足消费者用“相对低价”购买“轻奢”的需求。

Internet Famous Brands

Overall, brand crossovers aim to meet the latest trend and create internet buzz. The more popular the brand, the more powerful the effect of the topic. Last year, Cornetto and HEYTEA jointly presented the ice-cream “Zhi Zhi Tao Tao” (Cream Cheese & Peach) and Black Sugar Bobo which caused quite a stir on the internet. The two sides co-branded the launch of the cream cheese and peach flavored slush, with the slogan "Cream Cheese and Peach frozen to eat". From the product to the packaging as well as the taste, it satisfied consumers pursuit of high value packaging with a trendy product, which is a common characteristic of the consumer groups of both HEYTEA and Cornetto.

除此之外，品牌联名是可以迎合潮流趋势，制造热议话题，越是人气品牌，越能产生强大的话题效果。去年可爱多和喜茶联名的芝芝桃桃、黑糖波波在网络上引起了不小的轰动。双方联名推出的是芝芝桃桃蜜桃味雪泥，让「芝芝桃桃冻着吃」。从产品到包装到口味，都满足了追求高颜值、新潮的产品的消费者。而这正是喜茶和可爱多消费人群的共性特点。

In addition to this, we can find many other examples of successful co-branding strategies launched recently, such as: The joint launch of a floral water flavored cocktail by Liushen Florida Water and RIO which received hundreds of retweets and comments on both parties' promoted Weibo pages.; White Rabbit Rolls and MAXAM launched a co-branded lipstick, which was sold out in 0.5 seconds after its launch on Tmall; the first launch of Li Jiaqi's dog and the Perfect Diary co-branded eyeshadow palette was instantly sold out upon its live streaming sales drive. The abovementioned examples perfectly indicate the simple fact that cross-border brand marketing can not only create internet buzz surrounding the brands but can also effectively drive sales.

除此之外，六神花露水与RIO联合推出的一款花露水风味鸡尾酒，双方的推广微博均获得了成百上千的转发与评论；大白兔奶糖与美加净跨界推出的联名款唇膏，在天猫上线0.5秒就被抢光;李佳琦的狗与完美日记的联名款眼影盘，在直播间首发时瞬间被秒光。通过这些例子我们可以看到跨界品牌营销还能驱动销售。