A successful brand is the most valuable resource a company has. In fact, one authority speculates that brands are so valuable that companies will soon include a “statement of value” addendum to their balance sheets to include intangibles such as the value oftheir brands. Brands are used as external cues to taste, design, qualify, prestige, value and so forth. In other words, consumers associate the value of a product with the brand. For example, the value of Kodak, Sony, Coca-cola, Toyota and Marlboro is indisputable. One estimate of the value of Coca-cola, the world’s most valuable brand, places it at over $35 billion. How does a brand create value to the customer? Why do certain brands have more value than others? Naturally, companies with such strong brands strive to use those brands globally (extend them).

The purpose of this paper is to review literature on the core associations ofbrands used to position brands as strategies to create competitive advantages.

1.1 Meaning of a brand and Its Importance

A brand is a distinguishing name and/or symbol! intended to identity the goods or services of either one seller or a group of sellers, and to differentiate those goods or services from those of competitors (Aaker, 1991; Stanton, 1994, and Kotler, 1996). A brand thus signals to the customer the source ofthe product, and protects both the customer and the producer from competitors who would attempt to provide products that appear to be identical.

Ancient history provides evidence of the importance of brands. In those days, names were put on such goods as bricks in order to identify their maker (Farquhar, 1989). It is also known that trade guilds in medieval Europe used trademarks to assure the customer and provide legal protection to the producer. In the early sixteen-century, Whisky distillers shipped their products in wooden barrels with the name of the