As the corporate brand becomes linked to other brands and other entities, a coherent corporate brand architecture becomes a crucial component in a firm's overall marketing strategy, as it provides a structure to leverage the corporate brand in different product market contexts. This paper discusses how a corporate brand can develop a more expansive brand architecture through image-transfer to and from brands and other entities in the internal brand hierarchy and surrounding brand network.

Brand strategists and theoreticians alike often claim that the corporate brand should be the most important source of brand equity and have a pure monolithic status in strategy (Van Riel, 1995; Ind, 1997; and Hatch and Schultz, 2003). In reality, however, corporate brands are often decapitalized and under-leveraged at the level of implementation (Kapferer, 2001). Moreover, many corporate brand owners fail to see the whole opportunity spectrum of links between the corporate brand and other brand assets in the portfolio. In particular, corporate brand managers tend to ignore the inherent power and possibilities in brand architecture through sub-brands (such as Hewlett Packard's Laser Jet) and endorsed brands (Courtyard by Mariott); instead, they are stuck in the myopia of "the corporate brand is an island trap.''

`The brand is an island trap' refers to the implicit assumption that brand strategy involves the creation of a strong brand like Hewlett Packard, 3M or Tide. Looking at brands as stand-alone silos is a recipe for confusion and inefficiency (Aaker and Joachimstahler, 2000a).

Corporate brands can gain pre-established benefits and credibility by licensing ingredient brands (Aaker, 1996; and Desai and Keller, 2002) Gore-Tex collaborates with strong corporate brands such as ECCO and BOSS, and so it has stronger purchase intent scores in the apparel category than corporate brands such as Adidas, Nike, Levis and ECCO (Uggla, 2004). The Adidas corporate brand has reinforced its brand value and reached new target groups through corporate co-branding with the New Zealand Rugby Union and the All Blacks rugby team (Motion et al., 2003). Through links to internal and external brands, the corporate brand can build a sustainable organizational value proposition (Knox et al., 2000). The purpose of this paper is to explore the full range of strategic relational links that can be established between a corporate brand and other brands, reflecting less narrow and more expansive, yet realistic, brand architecture. Before moving to a conceptual analysis of corporate brand co-driver strategies, however, the salient literature on corporate brands, brand architecture and brand leverage theories has also been discussed in the paper.

Brand Management Journal, Corporate Brand, Brand Architecture, Marketing Management Discourse, Strategic Relation, Organizational Value, Portfolio Structure, Corporate Strategy, Brand Leveraging, Corporate Brand Strategy, Marketing Strategy, Emerging Aattributes, Managerial Implications.