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Striving for brand recognition internationally throws up many issues, advantages and disadvantages. Some of these are highlighted below.

Why some ‘local’ brands in thinking of local, consider brands that are currently only seen in countries of their origin cannot make it to the international market?
What are some of the obstacles faced by ‘local’ companies when developing their brands for international markets?

Brand equity is formulated and built up over time. To just go from one country to another and expect that your Brand recognition will be there will not happen. A brand has an evolving process that is associated visually and by the name. Therefore it takes some time for Brand equity to build up. A particular Brand has built up loyalty, reputation, relevance, awareness etc in that particular country to be able to achieve its Brand Equity.

Obstacles: what ‘local’ companies are faced with when developing their brands internationally.
- Competition: they will be likely to be faced with direct competition that may not have brand equity where you are currently operating but most certainly will in the country you are attempting to expand to.
- Cultural understanding: understanding the particular culture thoroughly, making sure that your product will be accepted into their society. Cultural sensitivity. Building brand awareness.
- Brand Relevance
- Price: bringing the product at an acceptable price to the consumer of that country. What is acceptable in the brands origin may not be acceptable there.
- Building brand loyalty
- Understanding what will be visually stimulating to that particular country
- Building Reputation to increase Brand equity.

Advantages of Co-branding
- Synergy of two brands that share the same market place – using this to increase sales
- To give a brand access to the market place for that particular product that it may not been able to reach otherwise.
- Saving of advertising money – sharing the cost with the co brander
- Easier access to retail shelf space. By co branding with a brand that has the access already.
- Combining brands to produce a product concept that will work in the market place.
- Quickly transfer the stature, imagery and approbation of one brand to another.
- Rapidly increases almost every aspect of the marketing funnel from initial awareness to building loyalty
Types of Co-branding
- Promotional/Sponsorship Co-Branding
- Ingredient Co-Branding
- Value Chain Co-Branding – Product Service Co-Branding, Supplier-retailer and Alliance Co-Branding.
- Innovation-Based Co-Branding
‘One of the most successful and well-known innovators of co-branding is VISA card. With selective partnering, VISA has gained worldwide recognition with over a billion cards in use today spanning across more than 130 countries!’

Disadvantages of Co-branding
- If a brand has too many Brand Liabilities this can be detrimental to the other brand.
- Customer dissatisfaction
- Environmental problems
- Product or service failures
- Lawsuits and boycotts
- Questionable business practices
- Devaluation
- If one partner files for bankruptcy – an unexpected challenge
- Bad press re criminal activity – if made public this can be detrimental
- Threats to operation – the partnering organizations may not be able to work well together
- Conflict of interest if two organizations are looking to attract the same customer, this can be detrimental to sales of one or both partners
- Believing the partner brand is omnipotent
What is the lesson? How does it relate to any concept so far?

Lessons and Relation to concepts so far:
- Strong differentiation can be less effective than hiding behind an existing
- New brand with strong differentiation is a stronger concept
- To produce a product that consumer’s see relevant to them for their use, combing this together with differentiation will be successful in the market place.
- To make consumers aware of the difference – Customer Awareness
- Innovate in small increments – then take a larger step – strategic innovation
- Customers generally follow products in their repertoire
- Understanding your customers habits and behavior
- Use effective marketing to support the innovation
- Avoid persuasion – doesn’t work
- Research the negative actions – i.e. relative to purchasing the old (replacement product)
- Influential groups/people – Opinion leaders – know the people who influence/use the innovation.
- Offer something with that point of difference, keeping on track to what is relevant to your target market. NEEDS/WANTS.