A literature search on papers published between 2000 and 2020 was conducted to explore the
influence of sport celebrity on co-branding strategy. Ten papers were found relevant. After
reviewing the papers, the potential factors affecting the co-branding strategy
have been identified. They are: celebrity fit, face marketing management, product fit, consumer
socialization, charity fit, motives of purchase, service fit, identity association, conformity to
culture.
During a recent interview with Ms. Vivian Yagisawa, an experienced brand building with OEM and cultural
understanding expert/ Founder of Mastige Japan LLC mentioned that consumer socialization is the
fundamental stage to identify the needs and wants of potential customers before the two stages of product/
service fit and face marketing management.
“Under COVID-19, most people realize that materialistic satisfaction is not their main concern. They are
looking for spirituality and wellness to nurture their life and community. I think culture with sustainable
partnership to back up culture-related products/ services are a trend in the future”, said Ms. Yagisawa.
For Total Quality Management (TQM) – Manpower, Machinery, Materials and Methods, they are all
equally important to go along with the key findings of Yeung (2020, p.23) under or beyond COVID-19. On
top of these 4 elements, we need to re-invent and re-bundle existing products/ services with the use of
virtual and physical spaces for educating the community with a price that they are willing to pay for
spirituality and wellness satisfaction.
Through the interview, we understand that the talents for the future is to know the source of demand,
identify the needs and wants with fluid thinking for designing products/ services and re-structuring
supply chain management flow for transformations.
