Co-branding and the impact on inter-organizational relationships

During the last decade branding has developed to be one of the main focus areas in consumer marketing. In the industrial marketing area there has only been limited attention to this phenomenon in this paper we elaborates more on the connection between corporate branding and value creation in industrial network. We especially points to the fact that the effects of industrial branding very much is under influence of the perceived uncertainty of industrial buyers. Industrial firms not only make use of branding they also use co-branding as a joint action to enhance their position within a network. In the paper we present a case of the Danish firm JUNCKERS one of Denmark’s largest wood industries who has launch a co-branding project together with DEVI (a part of the Danish DANFOSS group) and WIRSBO (a part of the Swedish UPONOR group). Even though DEVI and WIRSBO could be considered to be competitors they together with JUNCKERS show a high degree of coopetition. The case shows that co-branding is an efficient tool in lowering the uncertainty by the customers and by signalling combined resources and skills of three actors each firm enhance their position in the network.

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