Corporate branding
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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. It is a type of family branding or umbrella brand. Disney, for example, includes the word "Disney" in the name of many of its products; among many other examples are IBM, Pepsi, and Coca-Cola.
Corporate branding can result in significant economies of scope since one advertising campaign can be used for several products. It also facilitates new product acceptance because potential buyers are already familiar with the name. A corporate branding strategy is generally only useful when the company is already well known with a very positive image in the target market.
One potential disadvantage of corporate branding is that the corporate name can become synonymous with a product category. Examples of this phenomenon are Kleenex and Tampax. Even purchasers of Charmin, a competitor to Kleenex, sometimes refer to the product as Kleenex. Although having such a dominant mind share is usually encouraged, the drawback is that products may not be treated individually, which reduces the focus on the products' unique characteristics.