Brand Alliance and Value Creation: An Inter-Organizational Approach - Application to Fair Trade and Healthy Food Market[Alliance de marques et création de valeur : une approche interorganisationnelle - Application aux marchés du commerce équitable et de l’alimentation santé]

Brands, often perceived as quality signals, are reaching their limits on the market today. So to differentiate themselves and strengthen their position, many companies embark on brand alliance relationships defined as the combination of two brands in a given product or service. Previous studies on brand alliances have focused primarily on the marketing dimension of the consumer. Yet brand alliances take place in a very aggressive competitive environment and the problems of profit-sharing, cost reduction and ultimately value creation arise for the companies involved. Thus, we seek to determine how to create and maintain the value of brand alliances in an inter-organizational perspective. Starting from the work of literature on the foundations of brand alliances, we highlight the importance of organizational issues. We propose a framework for analyzing brand alliances from different key components: the alliance environment, the actors, their objectives, their behaviors, the resources and the organizational mechanisms mobilized. Through a qualitative approach applied to case studies, we implement this analytical framework for three types of brand alliance, in the markets of fair trade, health nutrition and food supplement, by conducting 40 interviews. semi-directive centered supplemented by 10 questionnaires. We draw two main results. First, we show that brand alliances can be analyzed from a static angle and in a dynamic situation through key components that are at the core of the value creation process. Secondly, we produce knowledge through the conceptual framework developed on the functioning of brand alliances from an inter-organizational point of view.