【文章內(nèi)容簡(jiǎn)介】 to operate in different industries and different markets, they want their own special brands and decision to apply a corporate brand, more generally called an organization brand (Aaker, 2004), must be made very carefully because the corporate brand is the identifier of a corporation and is used to support business unit munications. Consumers39。 perspective of the brand is transferred to other products that are marketed with the parent brand or corporate brand. The corporate brand is a valuable asset that enpasses the vision, core values, image and actions of the corporation. The corporate brand increases its profitability and sales, reduces its costs and creates a unique position in the marketplace if it is based on a wellrun promotion campaign following an effective corporate branding strategy (Hatch and Schultz, 2001。 Aaker, 2004). Consequently, one crucial decision in multibusinessAustralian Journal of Business and Management Research [5159] | September2011 corporations is to determine the use of corporate branding strategy, and corporations should assess whether the selected strategy effectively meets the intended oute our not. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW Corporate brand There is an important distinction between a corporate brand and a product brand. The product brand focuses on the product and the customer。 while the marketing activity as a short, long, and tactical function handles it. In contrast, the corporate brand clearly focuses on the whole organization where the CEO has a crucial role and ultimate responsibility for its management. It considers multiple stakeholders as a strategic factor in the organization. A corporate brand that has high plexity (Balmer, 2001) is a name, term, sign, symbol/ design or a bination of these elements, intended to identify and differentiate the pany39。s products from those of thepetitors in the minds of the subjects concerned (Ormeno, 2007). Essentially, it is about people, values, practices and processes (Balmer and Gray, 2003). The corporate brand contributes not only to customerbased images of the organization but to the images formed and held by all its stakeholders which are include employees, customers, investors, suppliers, partners, regulators, special interests and local munities (Hatch and Schultz, 2001, 2008). The ability to use the vision and culture of a pany as part of a unique selling proposition is brought by corporate branding to marketing (Hatch and Schultz, 2003). It also represents the agreement between the organization behind the brand and its multiple stakeholders (Balmer, 2004). Balmer suggested that corporate brands are underpinned by three elements: values, promises and behavior. Hatch and Schultz (2008) proposed successful corporate branding depended on the coherence between strategic vision, organizational culture, and stockholders39。 image. Branding strategy Branding strategy refers to the ways that firms mix and match their brand39。s name on their products (Laforet and Saunders, 1999)。 and a firm, through its products, presents itself to the world (Aaker, 2004。 Olins, 1990).The degree of synergy between the corporate brand and the product brand depends on the brand architecture (Keller and Aaker, 1996。 Varadarjan et al., 2006). The term brand architecture is sometimes used as a synonym of branding strategy.52 The concept of brand architecture, which explains how multiple product brands owned by a single pany relate to one another, helps some people understand the relationship between a product and a corporate brand (Hatch and Schoultz, 2008). Several authors have studied branding strategy and have identified some strategies with different taxonomy, listed below: a Individual product branding and corporate branding. b Branded house and house of brand, including 39。endorsed brands39。 and 39。sub brands39。 (Aaker and Joachimstahler, 2000a). c Endorsement branding strategy (Laforet and Saunders, 1999)。 strong endorsement, token endorser and linked name (Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 2000a). d No endorsement, weak endorsement, medium endorsement and strong endorsement (Van Riel and Bruggen, 2002). E Muzellec and Lambkin (2009) identified two types of branding strategies: integration (ascending brand extension) and separation (descending brand extension). They proposed three types of corporate branding strategy within the brand architecture: trade name, business brand and holistic corporate brand. F Olins (1990) delineated three types of branding strategy that are along a continuum: monolithic strategy endorsed strategy and branded strategy. g Kapferer (2008) distinguished some strategies that respond to the market. They are structured along two axes: 1) the indicator of origin source effect reassurance, and 2) product differentiation, personalization and identification. These strategies consist of product brand, line brand, range brand, endorsing source brand, umbrella brand, marker39。s mark, corporate endorsing brand, corporate source brand and corporate master brand. Most panies employ mixed strategies but the paper briefly characterizes the two extremes: corporate brand strategy and product brand strategy. Corporate branding strategy Corporate branding strategy seeks to create unique identity and position for its products, services and ensures that both product and organization create value beyond that of their petitors (Ind, 1997). Corporate branding strategy can create added value for the corporation and implement its vision and create unique position in the Australian Journal of Business and Management Research [5159] | September2011marketplace.Also it can enable the corporation to bring further leverage to its tangible and nontangible assetsIt is a degree of endorsement by the parent brand that has two extremes: First, the uniformity model where boththe corporate level and the business units are all positioned and profiled.Second, the variety model whe