An interesting master thesis was written about Brand Alliances at the University of Brussels/Belgium. Brand Alliances is a beast with many heads: cross-marketing, brand endorsement, co-branding, joint promotion. The paper (in two parts) by Sam Desimpel from IntroNiche sums up the different aspects of brand alliances, the advantages & disadvantages, the pitfalls and how to avoid them. In a second part of the paper he draws a comparison between brand alliances and Web 2.0 and lays out a possible framework for a “Brand Alliance 2.0”.

The paper was submitted for his degree as an Executive Master in Marketing & Advertising at the Solvay Business School in Brussels and is available online at http://introniche.w3point.be/en/about/publications.

Title: Brand Alliances

Author: Sam Desimpel

Type of publication: Master thesis, University: Solvay Business School;
Université Libre de Bruxelles,/Belgium

Publication Date: December 2008

Methodology: the paper has been written inspired by classical academic & practicioner
literature as well as interviews with Belgian marketing professionals.

Keywords: Brand Alliances, Trade marketing, web 2.0, brand alliances 2.0, affiliate marketing, Marketing cooperatives, marketing alliance, marketing partnership, marketing joint venture, co-marketing, marketing co-operation, cause marketing, cause related marketing

Abstract: The brand alliance paper first covers the different advantages and disadvantages of strategic and tactical brand alliances with close attention to rules of thumb on how to organise a good brand alliance and of the regal frameworks applicable to brand alliances. In the second part, the paper discusses the similarities between a brand alliance and the web 2.0 philosophy and lays out a possible framework for a brand alliance 2.0.