Application of Co-Branding Strategies in Mass Rapid Transit System: A Case Study of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC)

Abstract

Branding is a process of creating identification of the products by creating a name, symbol, logo, etc. Co-branding is a strategic alliance between two or more brands with the purpose of leveraging benefits. A similar strategy of co-branding is adopted in Delhi Metro Rail Corporation also through naming different metro stating, coach wrapping through advertisements, marketing through metro tokens, etc. The purpose of this study is to understand the co-branding strategies of DMRC and to study the perception of commuters towards this co-branding. The study begins with a brief review of Co-branding as a concept and its various types through literature study. A brief understanding of DMRC, a multi-modal transport system of India’s capital Delhi is discussed. Further, co-branding strategies adopted by DMRC is discussed in detail. The study is also intended to understand the perception of commuters towards co-branding. For the same purpose, a structured questionnaire was prepared. The sampling frame of the study is metro commuters of Delhi-NCR and is multi-level sampling focusing on systematic convenience sampling with a sample size of 100. The study finds that the majority of respondents perceive that Coach wrapping enhances brand awareness of the Co-branding partner. 49% of the total respondents have noticed the brands promoted on smart cards and tokens. The majority of respondents have noticed the renaming of metro stations. The majority also believes that co-branding has enhanced the aesthetics of metro stations and given a unique identity to the co-branded metro stations. Further, 2-tailed Z-test has been used for testing six hypotheses. The present study only covered the perception part of the Co-branding strategy with smaller sample size. The scope of the study may be can be broadened to study the effect of other parameters such as brand positing, brand equity and brand innovation with larger sample size.