There have also been co-branding activities between luxury brands and
companies in the non-luxury sector. For example, British designer Ozwald
Boateng redesigned the charge card of Coutts bank, United Kingdom as part
of its re-imaging project in 2004. Alexander McQueen also created a new
version of the American Express Centurion exclusive credit card as part of its
fifth anniversary in 2004. Remarkably, Giorgio Armani designed a limited
edition CLK for Mercedes-Benz in 2003 and Emilio Pucci linked up with
Champagne and fine wines brand Veuve Cliquot in summer 2004 to create a
limited edition packaging design for Cliquot’s La Grande Dame 1996 vintage
wine. Also in 2004, LVMH owned Moet & Chandon teamed up with
Swarovski to design an edition of the champagne bottle decorated with
Swarovski crystals. Versace also recently collaborated with private charter
airline TAG Aviation to redesign the interiors of its airplanes.
In addition, Coca Cola and luxury cosmetics brand Shisheido have signed
a deal to create a health drink and a new cosmetics and drinks brand. Kate
Spade also took the co-branding exercise beyond the fashion arena by collab-
orating with stationary company Crane & Co. to create personalized
stationery and wedding invitations, which were launched in January 2006.
Also designers Versace redesigned the limited edition version of the Nokia
7270 mobile phone in 2005, while Dolce & Gabbana designed a limited
edition version of the Motorola V3i Gold in 2006. In addition, designers
Christian Lacroix, Philippe Starck and Nicole Farhi collaborated with Danish
pedal bin company Vipp between 2005 and 2006 to design a special collec-
tion of bins, which were auctioned for charity. The list goes on...
The important strategic questions related to co-branding are the following:What is the tactical objective behind these collaborations and what implication
do they have for individual luxury brands and the luxury goods sector as a
whole?Co-branding is a new phenomenon that indicates the departure of luxury
brands from the core single-brand strategy. This co-branding strategy was
previously termed ‘controversial and risky’ and was generally unacceptable
until this decade. It was viewed as having a potentially negative impact on the
‘luxury’ and ‘exclusive’ image attributes of luxury brands. However, the
changing luxury market environment and democratization of luxury are
factors that co-branding addresses in addition to providing competitive lever-
age for the brands.
There are four major methods of co-branding for luxury fashion brands:1 Co-branding among luxury brands such as between Swarovski and Moët
& Chandon.
2 Co-branding between luxury brands and mass fashion brands like Karl
Lagerfeld and H&M, which has generated much discussion and analysis.170
luxury fashion branding