| While branding is a subject given much attention in marketing literature, there is little written regarding the risk that is involved with different co-branding or brand alliance strategies. This leads to the question, in what ways does developing and promoting a brand constitute promises regarding the product or service?; It has been proposed that forms of brand alliances range along a continuum from reputation based efforts, which revolve around abstract or symbolic characteristics of the brand to those which are based on product related or functional brand attributes and which involve a physical combination of resources. The opposing ends of this continuum reflect the strategic objectives and nature of these different forms of alliances: reputation endorsement and collaboration on core competencies.; Based on this framework the dissertation examines the risk involved in reputational types of brand alliances in multiple industries and sectors. Participants, selected from a Fortune 500 technology company in Chandler, Arizona, were nearly twice as likely to do business with private organizations that were high in advertising claim honesty and social responsibility.; Additionally, participants showed a consistent and statistically significant lower willingness to contribute to non-profit organizations with low levels of honesty of claims and social responsibility.; Also, when two like organizations partnered together in a brand alliance, participant willingness to do business scores remain high, at about the same magnitude as a single organization with a positive reputation.; When a private business with a positive reputation joins a brand alliance with a non-profit with a positive reputation, the willingness to do business mean scores are high, but---as was the case for same sector partnerships---not higher than the scores obtained by a single private or non-profit organization with a positive reputation.; Finally, when a private organization with a negative reputation joins a brand alliance with another private organization with a positive reputation, the willingness to do business score increases relative to the score for a single private organization with a negative reputation. |
