Celebrities in the Shark Tank: Co-Branding Strategies for Media Products

Media companies have a long tradition of employing a large multitude of branding strategies depending on what is required by particular business settings. It is therefore surprising that media branding is an understudied topic both in general management and marketing as well as media management and economics. While the latter has contented itself with research into brand extensions and neglected branding in business-to-business settings other than advertising, general management and marketing rarely uses the complex branding issues of media organisations in highly volatile multi-tier market environments as study objects of brand architecture. As most consumer media products are financed by advertising and direct sales, the brands need to fulfil functions for recipients and advertisers simultaneously. Brand alliances in the form of co-branding have been established scenarios from the early days of the soap opera and cross-marketing is a must in multi-media advertising financed environments. Additionally, business-to-business strategies in media branding affect the intricate relationships between product and corporate brands within the brand architecture. As a result, media organizations with their volatile multi-tier markets and diverse consumer and business customer combinations are prime examples to investigate alignment between corporate and product brands and maintenance of strong relationship franchises with different stakeholder groups. Empirical studies on branding strategies of media companies can thus enhance theories on the evolution of branding architectures in both general and media management. This paper uses the case of the television show Shark Tank to explore the extensive and intricate co-branding relationships and brand extensions for product and corporate brands of the numerous incumbents involved both in the B2C and the B2B settings. In part one the paper introduces the terminology, functions and strategies of media branding. The second part analyses the business model of Shark Tank , the objectives of the people and companies involved as well as their respective products and services within the overall business setting surrounding the TV show. Based on the discoveries the paper devises theoretical and practical implications for media branding theory and management practice. The key findings of the paper are that Shark Tank can serve as an essential case for studying the complex settings of media branding. Although at first sight it merely seems to be an increasingly popular TV show and hence of great interest to advertisers, it is the nucleus for various extended relationships beyond the traditional setting for consumer media products. The successful format that originated as “Dragon’s Den” in Japan has been leveraged to numerous countries and in the course has been cautiously branded in line with local cultures and tastes (cultural product branding). A common element is to turn all “Sharks” (“Dragons” or “Lions”) and some prominent contestants into celebrities (person brands). The success of having of a TV home shopping queen on the panel for even higher product sales (co-branding of (non-media) product with both person brand of a celebrity and the product brand of another TV channel) was adopted for a recent format launch in Germany. The Shark Tank brand itself has also made its way from TV into retailing with products being marketed as “as seen on Shark Tank”, some physical shops even opening exclusive Shark Tank sections (merchandising/co-branding). Consequently, a companion TV series Beyond the Tank will cover selected stories of funded entrepreneurs and their products after their tank appearance (brand extension). US Shark Tank attracted more than 35,000 submissions for the 2014 season, indicating the value of the platform as an excellent marketing venue with its audience of around 6,000,000 viewers per show. Even without a shark investment an appearance on the show typically pays off in increased sales and higher brand awareness (brand equity). Interestingly, a consortium of format owner, TV channel and production company (co-branding corporate brand) reserves rights to opt either to receive equity or profits of successful businesses presented on the show which essentially expresses a meta-level of both brand exploitation and venture capital investment, and – quite importantly - an additional (and risk-free) revenue stream. The merits of this innovative research are twofold. Detailed analyses into executed co-branding strategies involving B2B-relationships of media companies are prerequisites to understanding developments of media brand architectures beyond the limited investigations into the brand dichotomy regarding consumers and advertisers. Furthermore, the results can serve as excellent input for media and entertainment companies to exploit brands through product developments, co-branding with product owners and celebrities as well as strategic brand licensing deals in- and outside media.