Short Essay 2 HUANG Ziyun(1155217222)

999 x Bananain: the crossover in health marketing

The 999 & Bananain co-branding campaign is one of the most creative co-branding in health marketing in China. 999 is a cold medicine brand, while Bananain is a thermal underwear brand facing young generation. In 2024, two brands collaborated to release a "no catching-cold gift box" and organized a series of following promotion campaigns.

Why could they collaborate?

The mean slogan of the co-branding campaign, "no catching-cold", also means not interested in or not recognize some concept or fashion in Chinese. From this slogan, we can somehow see the brand image that the two brands hoped to build.

• Bananain has always been recognized as a trendy brand for the youth, so the slogan is fitted in their original brand style. By co-branding with 999, what Bananain wanted to show may be its functionality. As 999 is known as an effective cold medicine, the collaboration itself, but not the slogan, increased brand expertise for Bananain.
• On the other hand, 999 is a brand facing customers of all ages, especially elder people and mothers. By using youthful slogan, 999 tried to improve its brand identity in youth, stressing that it is a brand "caring young people".

How did they collaborated?

The co-branding is mainly in form of complementary branding. 

• The two brands designed a gift box which contained Bananain's yoga wear, 999's masks and co-branded stickers. All of the contents are original products of two brands with the co-branded logo added.

• While selling the co-branding gift box, two brands also posted campaign posters on various social media platforms. Posters are text-based, with contents reflecting the rebellion attitude against a range of social phenomena and popular culture, from dieting, marriage to overtime working.

Is it a successful co-branding?

Sadly, the co-branding doesn't seem to be widely discussed or spread. While the health marketing industry sees this as an excellent example of health co-branding, the average consumer doesn't seem to recognize it as such. What makes this happen?

• Non-product-related marketing campaign. Although using "no catching-cold" to relate two brands that aim to keep people warm and healthy is a creative idea, relating the slogan to popular culture seems confusing. When consumers see the textual content, it's hard to associate the advertisement with these brands, which weakened the effectiveness of brand image communication.
• Limited channels. The co-branding campaign set its place mainly on social media since 999 doesn't have offline stores while Bananain only owned a few stores. However, online infomercials are also limited in scope.
• Mismatch between desired effect and marketing mode. The co-branded gift box wasn't created to boost sales, but more to do branding. To increase consumers' awareness, brand ads should buy more open screen and banner space for ads rather than infomercials and increase the frequency of reveal.