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A corporate brand by any measure is very important to contemporary organisations. Corporate brand has become a valuable asset for a company, which some times have value beyond the book value. To answer the question stated above it is important to explain what a corporate brand is. It is then also important to look into the issue how a corporate brand is beneficial to an organisation. What kind of financial benefit it can give to an organisation and to what extent it helps organisations to gain competitive advantages over its competitors. So being able to express its self truly and openly and then communicate the message to its consumers clearly. Corporate branding can be defined as "Corporate branding refers to the practice of using a company's name as a product brand name. It is an attempt to leverage corporate brand equity to create product brand recognition." Brand equity can be transferred to other products as well. This can be seen in the case of VW buying the Skoda. Before VW took over Skoda's sales were declining but in recent years Skoda has improved and its sales has gone up as well due VW's transferred its brand equity to Skoda. G.M motors have also bought different corporate brands such as Daewoo and Volvo and have transferred the brand equity to them brands. A corporate brand has a longer life as compare to other resources with in the company. For example Coca Cola the brand is much older then the plants and location used to make it. It is also older then the human resources those make the product. Grant (1991) stated that the corporate brand tends to decay slowly, and strong corporate brands can decrease the competition in the market. Products have shorter lifecycle so corporate brands are preferred over just product brand. A corporate brand is an intangible asset so it is difficult to copy as it is not a product from a production line. Corporate brand represents a logo or a slogan that is protected by laws, which are in place. Slogans or logos are more secure then the product it self as it is easy to copy a product but it is nearly impossible to copy a logo. Corporate brand helps achieving the economies of scope, which means it is less costly for a firm to produce two separate products than for two specialized firms to produce them separately. For example Nike has a slogan of "Just Do It" across the globe and through its advertising Nike can promote its different products and services. Due to advancement in technology and in communication world is becoming a small community. Consumers are more knowledgeable then ever. Globalisation is common between all the big organisations. Corporate brand is important for the globalise organisations to show that their core value is same wherever the product is. Corporate branding is also very useful when organisations want to enter into a new market. This can be seen when Samsung entered into mobile communication market, Samsung did not have much experience in mobile market but their recent mobile model Samsung D500 has outclassed Nokia and Motorola's models. This is gain mainly through innovation but brand equity played its part as well. Samsung is brand which consumers can trust and is known for a time. Corporate branding must be used properly and organisation with strong corporate branding must not take advantage of strong branding and keep the promises and behave in an ethical way. Coca Cola has used the advantage unethically when first introduced its water Dasani in U.K and it was later discovered it was nothing but Tap water from general water supply. It can also be seen in McDonald's case that they portray themselves as an organisation that care about its customers by offering them clean food but there has been occasions when some of McDonald's outlets were forced to close down due to supply of unhealthy food. It is important for the organisations with strong corporate branding such as Coca Cola, and Mercedes to stick with the values they present. Effective and strategic support of a corporate brand can make it easier for organisations to do business. Corporate brand is stronger then the quality and price of a product but to make it successful right strategies are required.
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