This notion might be contrary to basic role of PR and marketing - to tweak public perception to spawn a constructive image of how company is doing. Still, virtue of honesty and sincerity is one of core moral values of our society, and - believe it or not -- elegantly admitting our own mistakes actually wins us others sympathy and respect.

In a similar vein, such ploy commands a greater deal of respect than typical corporate image-building tactics like community development or finding cure for a deadly disease. Companies already enjoying first-rate reputation reinforce their positive image, while those stuck with poor public perception actually confirm that sincerity is one of their overlooked, yet desirable qualities.

For starters, remember that too much of a good thing can actually do us more harm than good. Overtime, anyone sane enough to understand nitty-gritty of corporate world is going to wonder how your company manages to go through tribulations virtually unscathed. After all, such ups and downs as mismanagement, employee misconduct, and labor unrest to name a few, have always been an integral part of corporate America for past two decades. Persistently glowing reviews only generate suspicion on part of consumers, press, and investors, especially now when public trust is at its lowest, thanks to series of accounting scandals that threw corporate credibility into gutter.

The practice of keeping a multitude of individual brands, as well as sticking to company brand to identify products of diverse range of categories, have long defined branding strategies in marketing history. Each comes with its own advantages and drawbacks, spurred primarily by nature of business, social and economic environment, and consumer perceptions. So here's a list of imperatives you can reflect on when choosing and developing proper branding strategies for your business. Though I refer to Internet at a few lines, they are not exclusively applicable to Internet branding, but to branding in general marketing context.

Availability of resources

Managing multiple brands naturally spawns demand for more financial, human, and technical resources. Effective use of Internet for branding and customer-relationship purposes connotes competent technical, management, and marketing team at back end, buttressed by sufficient available funds. From early stage of planning and development to regular maintenance and periodical improvements, combination of human, technical, and financial capital are building blocks of successful Internet marketing programs.

At very least, you need one site for each brand with its own individual domain and brand characters, maintained by exclusive teams of developers, editors, designers, and marketers. Some might suggest merging all brands under one major site and divide them into a series of smaller ones under sub domains, all of which are managed by one single team. But this approach would dilute real identity of each brand as well as weigh down productivity and performance of supporting team.

A case in point is AOLTimeWarner, whose plethora of brands spans across Time, Fortune, Business2, People, Money magazines, America Online, Warner Music, and CNN, to name some. Recognized by its independent identity and target audience, each brand maintains an online territory of its own that conveys individual character, spawned by design, content, and domain name. There is a very little - if any - feel of and reference to AOLTimeWarner as parent brand.

Credibility of corporate brand