BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HASS 2022 Volume 18 (2022) 278 Research on the Communication Strategy of Artists' Co- branded Brands Yujie Wang a, Ruichen Niu b, Zhongkai Ye c, * College of Art, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin 300384, China a1514066085@qq.com, b1430359807@qq.com, c1027753812@qq.com Abstract. In recent years, with the development of the Internet and the transformation of the consumer market, brand development is no longer limited to the full-time designers hired but to cooperation with artists, applying the representative artistic features of artists to brand products, and realizing brand products. While diversification develops, it increases the wide dissemination of artists' works. Among them, installation art, as a part of modern art, is widely used in the decoration and promotion of brand products because of its unique immersive art experience. This article studies and analyzes the communication strategies of artists and brands from various aspects of the era phenomenon of artist co-branded brands, hoping to bring inspiration to the widespread communication of artists, brands, and their co-branded products. Keywords: Artist; brand; joint name, communication strategy. 1. Introduction Driven by economic recovery, the world culture is gradually radiating new vitality. The original outdated and closed art form can no longer meet people's aesthetic needs. With the development of traditional easel painting, the forms are more diverse, and the creation is no longer limited to the art itself and begins to go deeper into life[1]. In life, more and more brands choose to cooperate with artists to create products with the characteristics of contemporary art. Art and business have unprecedented cooperation and development. Today, both art and the economy are developing rapidly. How can they be better[2]. Communication has become a new social issue. 2. The motivation of artist co-branding Many brands have chosen the marketing method of co-branding with artists. The main reasons for sub-brands to choose co-branding are as follows: 2.1 Increase visibility and influence From the case of artist co-branded brands, it can be seen that their common feature is "topical." It is difficult to talk about the development of brands that people forget, so the brand needs to be constantly exposed. The joint name itself is an eye-catching thing, which can bring good advertising effects for both brands. There are certain well-known artists and brands, and the joint cross-border cooperation between the two can superimpose supermarket attention and attraction[3]. 2.2 Promote consumption "Co-branded merchandise" integrates the two elements of artist and brand so that co-branded products have the dual added value of artist and brand and at the same time lead a new fashion trend. When consumers buy co-branded products, they will have the mentality of "purchasing two brands of products for one price" and feel that the value for money is excellent. In addition, brands usually promote co-branded products and use limited sales and other means to arouse topics. By promoting co-branded events, customers who are unfamiliar or unfamiliar with the brand can also be attracted to the store, increasing the probability of sales and expanding the customer base. Artists and brands have their own different positioning and target customer groups[4]. After co-branding, the brand can be extended to untouched consumer groups. The impact of artist-brand co-branding also includes BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HASS 2022 Volume 18 (2022) 279 improving consumers' attitudes toward co-branded brands. Some scholars have found that consumers' perceptions of one party can affect the other party in a co-branding partnership.see Fig. 1. Fig. 1 Factor analysis of artist co-branded brands 2.3 Realize resource sharing and complementary advantages Artists and brands have different ways and means of spreading their popularity. When artists and brands are united, they can share resources and achieve the effect of complementing each other's advantages and improving each other's competitiveness[5]. 3. Reflections on the cross-border behavior of art and artists Cross-border cooperation is not just a business combination on the surface. It has a deeper meaning. In the study of the phenomenon of cross-border cooperation, try to think about the expansion of the conceptual connotation and actual influence of art in the cross-border, the development process of the art context under the influence of the outside world, and look at the cross-border business behavior of artists from another angle, and put this kind of cross-border business. Seeing it as a new way of artistic practice and an attempt by artists to gain more independent economic power will allow this article to re-understand the phenomenon of cross-border cooperation, face up to the discordant part, and be wary of the negative effects of kitsch. In a complex era where diversification and globalization trends are blending, the definition and cognition of existing concepts are gradually disintegrating, and all the things that were not understood in this article are constantly appearing in front of the world with new looks. This is exactly what art is. Moving forward collides with various trends of thought or concepts in the real society, communicates and blends, and when it is injected with new concepts, it also affects other concepts. Cross-border behavior is the realistic expression of the expansion of the artistic concept. In the process of cross-border with fashion, art itself absorbs conceptual elements from fashion and fashion, enriches its own structure, and rethinks its own positioning, which is an expansion in connotation; cross-border also conveys the concept of art to Fashion and the entire consumer society expand the influence of art from the art circle and art audience to a worldwide scope, which is the expansion of art influence. Society is no longer the unified central structure of the past. The new networked social structure makes people no longer limited to controlling one thought. The divergence and diversification in concept is the trend of the times, and art will certainly take advantage of this trend. Gain development. 4. Common attributes and the inner relationship between art and brand Art and brand seem to be social products of two different directions and angles, but as academic research has found that there are some common attributes between art and brand, the common attributes between the two also promote the cooperation between artist and brand, one of the reasons. This section briefly discusses the common attributes between art and brand from two perspectives: the communication attribute of art and brand and the commodity attribute between art and brand.see Fig. 2. BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HASS 2022 Volume 18 (2022) 280 Fig. 2 The common attributes of art and brand and the relationship between inner design 4.1 Communication attributes of art and brand From the perspective of art communication function and brand communication, this paper can conclude that both art and brand have the function of disseminating information to the audience. Art communicates cultural and spiritual information to the audience, enhancing the audience's aesthetic experience and life emotion; the brand communicates the brand to the audience. The information is used to communicate with the audience, and by obtaining feedback from the audience, the brand connotation and assets can be improved and optimized. Therefore, this paper can understand that one of the common attributes between art and brand is the communication function. 4.2 Commodity attributes of art and brand The purpose of art production is to meet the aesthetic and spiritual needs of the public. Therefore, when understanding the commodity properties of art, this article can think that art needs to be traded or exchanged with other production sectors of society in order to realize its specific value. As a product of labor, its main function and purpose of the use are that the owner of the commodity obtains the item he wants or some kind of value return by trading or exchanging with others in the society. Therefore, this paper can equate commodities with products from the perspective of production and exchange. Then, this paper can understand the commodity attributes of art and brands as the product attributes of art and brands. 5. Advantages of Artist Co-branded Brands 5.1 Based on cooperation, brands are beginning to become younger. With the fragmentation of communication channels and the refinement of user stratification, the acquisition cost and service cost of a single user are getting higher and higher, and brands are unwilling to spend a lot of money in the case of an uncertain market. Time and effort to create an original design. Artist co-branding is still in the exploratory stage. Through this experimental design method, the artist expands the communication, and the brand shares the risk and achieves a win-win situation. At the same time, co-branded design can more effectively cater to the personality of young people and attract young consumer groups, thereby changing people's inherent impression of the brand. 5.2 Using innovation as a means co-branding is also a way of innovation and integration between brands. The larger the brand span, the more novel the combination point, the stronger people's curiosity, and the stronger the desire to BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HASS 2022 Volume 18 (2022) 281 buy. In the design process, the fusion of the artist and the brand breaks people's inherent impression of the product so as to achieve an innovative effect. In the past, new product releases of the brand could only be noticed by loyal users of the product, but in the new media era, the amount of background and exposure is very important for the brand. For this reason, the brand needs to break the previous design inertia and adopt the method of co-branding with the artist to attract the attention of the brand. More attention while providing a new path for the dissemination of Chinese art. 5.3 The emotional resonance with young consumers The brand story is the unique cultural value of the brand. Today's brands have begun to turn to promote the brand's cultural value. By telling their own brand story well, they attract loyal consumer groups to defend the product. Co-branded products that can tell stories can often bring consumers a different sense of experience. By combining artists and the artistic stories behind the artists with brand products, these products can break their own boundaries and try to attract consumers with different "experiences" so as to connect with consumers. Form an emotional, artistic connection. 6. Examples of Artists and Brands Co-branding 6.1 Prada Rong Zhai is now turned into a multi-functional space Hosting Prada Group's activities in China and sponsoring artists to prepare art exhibitions in it. Since the renovation of Prada Rong Residence was completed and unveiled in October 2017, four art exhibitions have been prepared so far. The Prada Foundation was founded in 1993 by designers Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli to focus on contemporary art and culture. The foundation has also hosted special projects and art exhibitions in international metropolises such as Venice, Paris, London, Seoul, and Tokyo. At present, the main venues of the Prada Foundation in various places include the Milan Exhibition Hall, the Milan Observation Deck, the Venice Square Pavilion, and the Shanghai Prada Rongzhai. 6.2 Cartier Foundation the Cartier Foundation The exhibition content of the Cartier Contemporary Art Foundation covers almost all fields of contemporary art, including film, design, painting, photography, performance, and fashion. It fully demonstrates Cartier's rigorous and inclusive attitude toward contemporary art and strives to make contemporary art more popular and open. This paper finds that more and more brands are co-branding with artists in the form of sponsorship of art development as an important marketing method. The fusion of contemporary art and luxury brands will be a win-win situation. For luxury brands, combining contemporary art can better establish a brand image, help expand consumer groups and improve performance. Conversely, the cooperation between contemporary art and brands can also promote art to more people and promote healthy development. 7. New Ideas for Artist Co-branded Brand Communication The main difference between co-branded and conventional brands is the content and product types. To enhance the vitality and attention of artist co-branded brands, innovative ideas should be realized from the perspectives of audiences, markets, and mechanisms. 7.1 Analysis of Artist Co-branded Audience As a branch of a brand, artist co-branded brands are irreversible and irreproducible. In other words, the communication of art co-branded brands in the era of big data needs to emphasize the personalized characteristics of the brand. Since the audience has individual differences that cannot be ignored, for the artist co-branded brand, the audience's perception and understanding is a crucial part of its communication strategy. Let artist co-brand communication develop in a more scientific direction. BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HASS 2022 Volume 18 (2022) 282 7.2 Determine the direction of brand communication When planning the communication of an artist's joint brand, enterprises need to clarify the development direction of the brand, highlight their uniqueness with the help of the art behind the artist and brand positioning, and leave a deep brand impression on consumers. Gain the initiative in competition in the art market. 7.3 Innovative brand culture mechanism The core of the artist co-brand lies in its cultural content and brand products. Improving the popularity of artist co-branded brands is inseparable from enhancing the fun of art content and the innovation of art forms. Taking the needs of the audience as the starting point of communication, the emotion of the audience and the brand culture are integrated and strengthened so that the audience can accept the communication information willingly and actively. In the process of cultural innovation of art brands, we use the Internet marketing model to find differences with other brands, continue the brand's value, and maintain our own brand image in cultural innovation. 8. Communication strategies of artist co-brands in the new media environment 8.1 Multi-channel online communication 8.1.1 WeChat The main communication channels of the artist's co-branded WeChat platform are mainly divided into subscription accounts, service accounts, video accounts, and advertisements in the circle of friends on the public platform. The subscription account focuses on communicating user information, and the account registration subject is not limited. The video account is a function generated in accordance with the current short video trend, and the current communication power is relatively weak. Moments advertisements are mainly in the form of original content similar to those sent by friends. The communication link is short, and users can choose to close the advertisements at their own discretion. 8.1.2 Weibo In addition to the Weibo account opened by the brand itself, the communication path of artist co- branded brands on Weibo, advertisements on Weibo usually appear on the opening page, advertisements in the information flow, hot search lists, and creators at the bottom of Weibo. Ad sharing programs and ads in comments. The social nature of Weibo dissemination is strong. Topics trigger forwarding, and comments can realize the secondary fermentation of information. Users can also participate in topic discussions by adding hashtags to their own tweets, realizing fission-type dissemination of information. 8.1.3 Douyin The promotion mode of artist co-branded brands in Douyin is mainly divided into advertising in video streams, launching challenges, live streaming of traffic, and linking e-commerce channels. The brand has commercial attributes, and the dissemination power on the decentralized Douyin platform is weak. Therefore, the artist's co-branded brand information is suitable for dissemination to opinion leaders on the Douyin platform. 8.1.4 Micro Amoy The dissemination of artist co-brands on Weitao mainly focuses on pictures, videos, and live broadcast links. As a content platform in incubation and marketing applications, Weitao's dissemination of content mainly revolves around marketing information. In the dissemination of Weitao, Most of the artist's co-brand information is pushed in the form of a combination of reviews of buyer shows and short videos of product displays. Other types of communication include special BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HASS 2022 Volume 18 (2022) 283 live broadcast information, event lottery information, and a small amount of official grass planting promotion. 8.2 Immersive offline brand experience The offline contact point of a brand is an information dissemination terminal that is directly related to the target audience, which plays a great role in deepening the customer's brand experience, shaping the brand image, and creating a brand atmosphere. 8.2.1 Fully upgrade physical stores At present, the brand's physical store is still the object of the brand's key investment in construction. According to incomplete statistics, more than 80% of consumers will keep in touch with physical stores. For, the most important thing is to export the values of the brand. The irreplaceable role of a brand store is the experience—the physical feeling of brand shopping. And this experience is not just simply trying on clothes but conveying the brand culture, brand concept, and the life aesthetics it advocates consumers through the interior space design. 8.2.2 Open pop-up stores worldwide In recent years, pop-up store is a very popular creative marketing method in the physical retail industry. It usually refers to a brand retailer opening a temporary store in an unfixed space and location. The store has a novel image and a short duration of existence. Often ranging from days to months. Due to the low cost of opening pop-up stores, high topicality, and good promotion effect for brands, this innovative form can drain traffic more efficiently, help brands provide new experiences, and deepen the relationship with consumers. Contact and form a differentiated competition with online marketing. Therefore, more and more brands are using pop-up fashion to attract customers 9. Conclusion Artists reach cooperation with brands and participate in the design of brand products and promoting later products. In this process, the cultural connotation and spiritual value of art endow the brand with a halo of deep culture and fashion, satisfying consumers' spiritual pursuit. Make consumers not only identify with the brand product itself but also identify with the brand's cultural connotation and spiritual value, establish a cultural and spiritual bond with consumers, and make consumers resonate in thought, emotion and aesthetics, thereby winning consumers. Favor and trust. The cooperation between brand and art will allow the brand to attract art-related consumer groups. At the same time, the combination of the two will attract more consumers based on the original consumer group, develop the brand market with the power of art, and enhance the brand's popularity. Reputation. Consumers find that their favorite art appears on brand products, which will increase consumers' emotional experience with the brand, thereby generating brand affinity and cultivating the image and emotion of art when art is combined with the brand. Cultural value, when the two are combined, consumers will not only get things from branded products. Quality enjoyment, but also spiritual enjoyment for culture and emotion. Therefore, when the brand is endowed with an artistic atmosphere, its brand added value is also increased invisibly. The integration of brand and art makes art enter the market, and there is competition when entering the market. Therefore, the integration with the brand also enables art to adapt to the diversification of competition. Only by communicating and cooperating with consumers and brands can art be developed. The inspiration has been burst out, making it better integrated into the market and better integrated into the brand. Therefore, the brand is an important bridge between art and life and the market, which makes art life-oriented and market- oriented. BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HASS 2022 Volume 18 (2022) 284 Acknowledgements Supported by the Fund: National University Student Innovation Training Major Project: Product Design and Research Project Based on the Combination of Innovative Seagull Watch and Intangible Cultural Heritage (No.: 202110060010). References [1] Dai Fuping. Phenomenological Interpretation of Mental Interaction Experience Design Method . Packaging Engineering. vol. 24 (2020), 75-79. [2] Sun in the country. Discussion on the joint marketing of brands . China Commerce and Trade. vol. 20 (2021), 123-125. [3] Zhang Hong Research on the Cross-border Cooperation of Fashion Brands from the Perspective of Rational Consumption . Academic Exploration. vol. 12 (2020),96-98. [4] Zeng Yue's research on the phenomenon of modern commercial brand and art cooperation . Central Academy of Fine Arts. vol. 14 (2021),211-213. [5] Zhou Da Research on the Branding of Contemporary Artists. Zhou Da. Central Academy of Fine Arts. vol. 16 (2020),102-105. 1. Introduction 2. The motivation of artist co-branding 2.1 Increase visibility and influence 2.2 Promote consumption 2.3 Realize resource sharing and complementary advantages 3. Reflections on the cross-border behavior of art and artists 4. Common attributes and the inner relationship between art and brand 4.1 Communication attributes of art and brand 4.2 Commodity attributes of art and brand 5. Advantages of Artist Co-branded Brands 5.1 Based on cooperation, brands are beginning to become younger. 5.2 Using innovation as a means 5.3 The emotional resonance with young consumers 6. Examples of Artists and Brands Co-branding 6.1 Prada Rong Zhai is now turned into a multi-functional space 6.2 Cartier Foundation the Cartier Foundation 7. New Ideas for Artist Co-branded Brand Communication 7.1 Analysis of Artist Co-branded Audience 7.2 Determine the direction of brand communication 7.3 Innovative brand culture mechanism 8. Communication strategies of artist co-brands in the new media environment 8.1 Multi-channel online communication 8.1.1 WeChat 8.1.2 Weibo 8.1.3 Douyin 8.1.4 Micro Amoy 8.2 Immersive offline brand experience 8.2.1 Fully upgrade physical stores 8.2.2 Open pop-up stores worldwide 9. Conclusion Acknowledgements References