Cross-Brand Collaboration Strategies and Consumer Identity in New Tea Beverage Brands

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-609-3_41How to use a DOI?

Keywords

New Tea Beverage; Cross-brand Collaboration; Communication Strategy; Consumer Identity

Abstract

Currently, competition in the new tea beverage market has become intense, with growing product homogeneity. Cross-brand collaboration has become a key strategy for brands to break through development bottlenecks and connect with young consumers. Existing research mostly focuses on cooperation formats or consumer identity analysis, yet rarely explores their internal mechanism, leading to a disconnect between theory and marketing practice and forming a clear research gap. This study adopts a case-study approach, examining Heytea × Fendi and Nayuki × CCTV News collaborations to analyze how cross-brand communication strategies influence consumer identity, emotional connection, and group belonging. It summarizes two successful models: “democratization of luxury symbols” and “leverage of mainstream culture,” both shaping consumer identity through an integrated “symbol-narrative-interaction” communication system. The luxury symbol model constructs identity via accessible brand prestige and social capital, while the mainstream culture model strengthens emotional bonds by awakening collective memory and resonance. Findings show cross-brand cooperation essentially involves grafting and recreating symbolic resources. Long-term value depends on the alignment of symbolic meaning, brand core identity, and consumer values, offering a path for new tea brands to shift from short-term online traffic to long-term consumer value and identity building.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Ziyue Meng
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/04
TI  - Cross-Brand Collaboration Strategies and Consumer Identity in New Tea Beverage Brands
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 3rd International Conference on Public Relations and Media Communication (PRMC 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 370
EP  - 379
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-609-3_41
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-609-3_41
ID  - Meng2026
ER  -