Leveraging the Corporate Brand

Brand assets are difficult and expensive to develop, maintain, and adapt. The offering environment is cluttered, confused, and complex in part because of the proliferation of products, brands, and sub-brands. Dynamic market contexts with the emergence of new sub-categories make it necessary to adapt and stretch brands, putting additional strain on their ability to deliver the needed support. In this context, the corporate brand (or, more generally, an organization brand) can be dialed up to play a more prominent role in the brand portfolio. The corporate brand defines the firm that will deliver and stand behind the offering that the customer will buy and use. The brand has access to organizational as well as product associations and the flexibility to play several roles within the brand portfolio. Of most significance is its potential in some contexts to be a master brand with a significant driver role. In fact, in the case of Dell, UPS, Sony, Samsung, IBM, and others, it can been seen as the ultimate branded house, where the product brands consist largely of the corporate brand plus a descriptor. In these cases, the use of a corporate brand as a master brand maximizes brand portfolio goals such as generating leverage, synergy, and clarity.