‘Co-branding is a marketing strategy that utilises multiple brand names on a good or service as part of a strategic alliance’. (Kenton, 2018). The main reason large businesses synergise and use co-branding techniques is to combine their market strengths, increase their brand awareness and to fundamentally create a niche and exclusive product for their target consumers to enjoy. This form of marketing is also established in order for companies to expand their reach and attract a new range of customers for their target market.

There are two different forms of co-branding, these include:

1. Ingredient co-branding

this is when a business uses a ‘renowned brand as an element in the production of another renowned brand’. An example of this could be Dell computers and its co-branding strategies with Intel and its processors. This form of co-branding leads to higher quality products, increased promotions, significant distribution channels and larger profits.

1. Composite co-branding

When ‘two renowned brands join together for a promotion and collectively offer a district product or service that could not be possible individually’.

This being said, co-branding is a different concept to c0-marketing, which fundamentally ‘aims to deliver greater results in terms of visibility, reach, and sales advances that could not have been accomplished without the support of another brand’. (Stec, 2013). Marketing wise however, this means two brands do not need to create a new product together and it is seen as more of a partnership than a collaboration. An example of co-marketing could be Evian water partnering up with Wimbledon.

Campaigns such as:

• RedBull and GoPro
• Uber and Spotify
• Nike and Apple
• Netflix and ESPN (as seen in the picture above)

Are all prime examples of successful marketing strategies adopted by major multi national corporations. ‘This strategy often has advantages to companies bottom lines, and consumer reaction is often positive’. (Williams, 2016).

The Netflix and ESPN collaboration was a success with its ’30 for 30′ series. Unfortunately, Disney who are the parent company decided to create its own sports streaming service, and the series disappeared from Netflix. This being said, the companies will be teaming up again to create a new Michael Jordan documentary series that will debut in 2019. (Seppala, 2018).

Reference:

Humanservices.ucdavis.edu. (2019). Integrated Services and Co-branding | UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education | Human Services. [online] Available at: https://humanservices.ucdavis.edu/programs/resource-center-family-focused-practice/integrated-services/co-branding [Accessed 18 Mar. 2019].

Kenton, W. (2019). Co-branding. [online] Investopedia. Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cobranding.asp [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019].

Seppala, T. (2018). Netflix and ESPN are working on a Michael Jordan documentary series. [online] Engadget. Available at: https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/15/netflix-espn-michael-jordan-documentary-series/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_cs=iye4LIIRwthNXLzrFbZLrw [Accessed 19 Mar. 2019].

Stec, C. (2013). Co-Marketing Vs. Co-Branding: What’s the Difference?. [online] Impactbnd.com. Available at: https://www.impactbnd.com/co-marketing-vs-co-branding-whats-the-difference [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].

Williams, M. (2016). 6 Examples of Great Co-Branding. [online] Altitude Branding. Available at: http://altitudebranding.com/6-examples-great-co-branding/ [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019].

Global marketing is defined as ‘the process of adjusting the marketing strategies of your company to adapt to the conditions and values of other countries.’ (Martin, 2016). In fact, the concept goes far beyond purely selling a product or service globally. It entails the process of planning, creating, positioning and promoting the products you have to offer in a global market. Even though the internet makes it possible for all businesses to go global, a global approach is not always suitable for every business. (Bullock, 2013).

As the world is becoming more and more globalised and digital businesses are able to reach more international consumers, it is fundamental that they identify and adapt to specific cultural norms and values. For example, easyJet’s website ‘features translation into 18 different languages which supports its global market expansion’ resulting in, ‘consumers being able to log on at anytime from anywhere around the world to purchase an easyJet product’. (Foster, 2011).

When Airbnb first launched its business, the brand faced a significant obstacle within its strategy: ‘convincing people around the world that staying in a stranger’s home isn’t weird or frightening’. They were able to do this successfully by immersing local story telling techniques within their website to create a strong level of trust and a sense of community between the hosts and their consumer group. (Animucka, 2015).

Another valuable example which explores the significance of global marketing strategies could be the recent influx of cross cultural partnerships between Western and Chinese firms. Chinas high culture and main ideologies revolves around vertical collectivism (high power distance, long term gratification and overall low trust society), whereas the West is directly opposite. This shows just how important it is for a foreign businesses moving to China to understand the outline of Chinese values and to make a solid first impression with the workers and suppliers. Pepsi created a campaign in China in 2014, which translated as ‘Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave’. This was not a popular marketing strategy as there is a huge level of respect towards their elders, and ancestor worshipping in China is a significant part of their culture. (Zakkour, 2014).

A worldwide digital company such as Netflix were able to do this perfectly. Instead of rushing and entering into all of the markets at the same time, they carefully handpicked a couple markets to enter based on their geography and psychic distance. In fact, its first international expansion was in 2010 to Canada, which is culturally very similar to that of the USA. This fundamentally enabled them to learn about how to expand and enhance their strategy and capabilities beyond its home market. In its second phase, it expanded to a further 50 countries, focusing purely on those with shared similarities, affluent consumers and access to the internet. Presently, the company are in their third phase, with access available in approximately 190 different countries around the world. Each with movies and tv series that have been tailor chosen in regards to the country they are in. Netflix are now able to focus their attention on adding more languages, optimising its personalisation algorithms for a more diverse global library of content and expand its support to a range of other devices. Another reason why these digital marketing giants became so successful was down to win-win partnerships with other big brands as well as using social media as a story telling device. With all of this being said, the main acumen behind all of its global marketing success was due to its ability to demonstrate sensitivity and responsiveness when entering new markets and cultures which shows that it has mastered its global marketing strategy. (Brennan, 2018).

Reference:

Animucka, A. (2015). 5 Examples of Powerful Global Branding in Action – K International. [online] K International. Available at: https://www.k-international.com/blog/5-examples-of-powerful-global-branding-in-action [Accessed 22 Feb. 2019].

Brennan, L. (2018). How Netflix Expanded to 190 Countries in 7 Years. [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2018/10/how-netflix-expanded-to-190-countries-in-7-years [Accessed 22 Feb. 2019].

Bullock, F. (2013). The Importance of Global Marketing Strategy. [online] Allbusinessideas.net. Available at: http://www.allbusinessideas.net/the-importance-of-global-marketing-strategy/ [Accessed 22 Feb. 2019].

Foster, H. (2011). easyJet an Increasing Matter of Globalisation. [online] Innovativereflection.blogspot.com. Available at: http://innovativereflection.blogspot.com/2011/12/easyjet-increasing-matter-of.html [Accessed 21 Feb. 2019].

Martin (2016). Global Marketing: Strategies, Definition, Issues, Examples. [online] Cleverism. Available at: https://www.cleverism.com/global-marketing-strategies/ [Accessed 22 Feb. 2019].

Zakkour, M. (2014). China’s Golden Week – A Good Time To Make Sure You Don’t ‘Bite The Wax Tadpole’. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelzakkour/2014/10/02/chinas-national-day-golden-week-a-good-time-to-make-sure-you-dont-bite-the-wax-tadpole/#2dd426c7560f [Accessed 22 Feb. 2019].

‘Netflix is a streaming service that allows its customers to watch a wide variety of award winning TV shows, movies, documentaries and more’ without any advertisements. (Netflix, 2018).

The digital business was founded in 1997, by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph who birthed the concept of online movie rentals. (Rodriguez, 2017). Currently, Netflix is the worlds leading entertainment service with over 130 million paid memberships in 190 different countries, bragging a staggering:

• 52.5 million likes on Facebook
• 5.4 million followers on Twitter
• 11.6 million followers on Instagram
• 6.3 million subscribers on Youtube

The companies main competitors are known to be Amazon Prime Video and Hulu. (Moskowitz, 2018). These two highly digital companies provide similar services to Netflix when it comes to a subscription plan for unlimited video streaming. A recent survey in the United States studied 1,500 different consumers with the objective of finding the most popular service. The results highlighted that 59% of the sample used Netflix, 46% used Amazon Prime Video and 33% had accounts with Hulu. (Vena, 2018). The main reason Netflix has been attracting so many new customers comes down to its thorough social media marketing plan.

Netflix’s main social media platform is Facebook. The company uses geo-tagging marketing techniques as its primary tool, which means the brands content can be found by ‘users looking for information relevant to a particular location’. (Carmon, 2017). 89% of their target group are between the age of 18 and 24 (Yang, 2017) which is why it is important for Netflix to adapt to a more up to date social media platform in order to cater to the needs of their millennial consumer group.  The three ingredients to effective advertising are relevance, originality and impact. Influencer marketing techniques such as celebrity endorsements can help in the process of attracting new consumers, whilst also keeping their large number of loyal fans actively engaged. (Choi, Lee and Kim, 2013). Furthermore, planning and structuring their promotional campaigns originally can encourage consumers to click on their constantly updating content.

Netflix’s customer journey map is tailored to all of its subscribers and personas. Whether the consumer is a child, a teenager or an adult, the process from having the desire to watch a movie to actually being able to watch a movie can be done within seconds, as long as the customer has a working internet connection.

Netflix relies heavily on word of mouth advertising, especially through social media. However, a significant proportion of their own members are able to recommend and market the service to their friends and family face to face for them. Loyalty deals are also a fundamental aspect in the company luring in ex customers as they include special perks such as 1 month free trials and constant email updates which can be too mouth watering to turn down.

Reference:

Carmon, N. (2017). 5 Ways to Use Location Based Marketing For Your Brand. [online] Digital Branding Institute. Available at: https://digitalbrandinginstitute.com/5-ways-use-location-based-marketing-brand/ [Accessed 1 Dec. 2018].

Choi, S., Lee, W. and Kim, H. (2013). [online] Tandfonline.com. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00913367.2005.10639190 [Accessed 7 Dec. 2018].

Moskowitz, D. (2018). Who Are Netflix’s Main Competitors?. [online] Investopedia. Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/051215/who-are-netflixs-main-competitors-nflx.asp [Accessed 13 Dec. 2018].

Netflix. (2018). What is Netflix?. [online] Available at: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/412 [Accessed 1 Dec. 2018].

Rodriguez, A. (2017). Netflix was founded 20 years ago today because Reed Hastings was late returning a video. [online] Quartz. Available at: https://qz.com/1062888/netflix-was-founded-20-years-ago-today-because-reed-hastings-was-late-a-returning-video/ [Accessed 1 Dec. 2018].

Vena, D. (2018). Netflix’s International Penetration Is Soaring — The Motley Fool. [online] The Motley Fool. Available at: https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/09/07/netflixs-international-penetration-is-soaring.aspx [Accessed 13 Dec. 2018].

Yang, L. (2017). A Look Into a New Target Audience: Netflix Subscribers. [online] Business2community. Available at: https://www.business2community.com/marketing/look-new-target-audience-netflix-subscribers-01813457 [Accessed 8 Dec. 2018].