Abstract
The cornerstone of many companies' marketing strategy is to develop loyal customers willing to pay premium prices for branded goods and services. Throughout the 1980s, brand marketing moved from its stronghold in the consumer goods industry to the mainstream of business activity. Companies in almost every industry invested heavily in building brands for their products, services, business units. By the mid-1990s, it had become apparent that the investment in creating a brand was no longer a guarantee of long-term and defensible advantage in the market place. One famous brand after another found that it could no longer command strong price premiums to their competitors nor expect the automatic loyalty of its customers Choice modeling implications of the branding concept and the challenges of incorporating main and interaction effects of branding as well as the impact of competition are discussed.