Bread brand Kingsmill and cheese brand Cathedral City have recently announced a new collaboration, which will include in-store cross-merchandising tools to help independent retailers maximise basket spend opportunities and drive lunchtime purchasing. This will include POS material for bread and chiller sections.
Usually, you see brand collaborations intended to help consumers who need inspiration to 'make' products work together. For example, we have seen this with bagels and cream cheese. In this case, though, bread and cheese buyers may not require inspiration, but in crowded categories up against other branded and own label products, a collaboration with another well known product can help push these two brands to the fore.
Brand collaborations are nothing new, and as a result, consumers are increasingly receptive to a collaborative approach. Take the fashion industry as a case in point, where collaborations have been the norm for some time, with for example Versace creating a range specifically for retailer H&M.
Although collaborations can be successful, the challenge of asking separate companies to collaborate on messaging and communications could be one reason why they don't occur as much as they might. However, giving the collaboration the best chance of success remains important and we advocate combined online qualitative and quantitative research to facilitate client-consumer interaction to gain insights on how to maximise the positives of both client brands. But the link does not necessarily need to be formal.
We have seen how certain products, for example prawns and smoked salmon, sometimes don't do as well as they might because consumers struggle to find occasions to serve them and perhaps only know one or two recipes for using them. In these situations, retailers and brands can collaborate effectively to provide 'inspiration' and prompt purchase.
Frequency of purchase can be supported in other ways through in-store signage, perhaps showing an occasion or a delicious meal involving the products, recipe cards and placing other category products, perhaps sauces, alongside so that an easy meal is signalled.
