Corporate brand effects in brand alliances

Published literature demonstrates that when a single well-known reputable brand is allied with a previously unknown focal brand, perceived quality evaluations of the latter will be more positive. Whether or not the corporate brand improves consumer evaluations of a cobranded product is a topic of interest to marketers. This is true because marketing managers must make decisions regarding investments in building both their corporate and product brands. The authors propose and empirically verify that the corporate brand's role as a parent of its product brands helps determine the extent of the corporate brand's influence on the consumer's evaluation of the focal brand in a brand alliance. Specifically, the corporate brand will be more diagnostic for customer evaluations of a cobranded product when its brand portfolio is more consistent in terms of the customer's attitude toward the brands that comprise the portfolio.