ABSTRACT
The history of corporate branding and its contribution to the marketing process, although fl ourishing in the United States, barely exists in Britain (Zunz 1990; Marchand 1998; Bird 1999; Lipartito and Sicilia 2004). Corporate branding encompasses the processes by which an organization, as a whole, is branded and its name then used to support its product brands. The process has many benefi ts. The corporate brand can endorse product brands, providing indications of trust, reputation, and recognition, and making powerful associations with innovation, public service, and national characteristics. Corporate brands act as effective platforms for brand stretching and brand extensions and provide a sense of gestalt for those brands that operate in diverse, and seemingly unassociated, categories. In addition, corporate branding is important for an organization’s reputation, image, and public acceptance. In this way corporate branding is closely allied to public relations. Brands do not operate in a vacuum, subject simply to the vagaries of supply and demand in the market place. Brands, and the organizations behind them, exist in complex social environments and have to garner trust and acceptance amongst the various publics with whom they interact to survive and thrive. The benefi t that individual product brands provide through their enhanced recognition, trust, and imputed characteristics often depends on public goodwill towards their parent, corporate brands.
