This article discusses the integration of brand and business strategy for the benefit of a more holistic and seamless strategy development in the future. The cornerstones of business strategies and brand strategies are discussed and presented in an integrative framework with business strategy, brand strategy and market opportunity space. A checklist of questions for business and brand managers is presented and finally, future research areas are discussed.

Business strategy concerns business visions, business models, strategic assets, customer bases, competitive strategy and more (Aaker, 2004). Brand strategies involve brand equities and identities, brand architecture and other strategies to create and sustain meaning in value for the brands of the corporation (Uggla, 2005). Filipsson (2008) has argued that many business and brand strategies suffer from static and unrealistic theories that hardly reflect brand and business realities of the firm.

During the past two decades research has shown that brands are among the companies most valuable assets. However, in today's competitive landscape, it is not enough to just create strong brands. The focus lies rather in managing a range of brand leveraging strategies within complex brand portfolios. Moreover, the majority of today's established brand concepts do not represent the reality of contemporary brand management. (Filipsson, 2008, p. 1)

In a persuasive way, Filipsson (2008) showed that global brands like Adidas, Bang & Olufsen, Electrolux, H&M, Microsoft, Peak Performance and WL Gore & Associates integrate brand and business strategy in a way that is absent in the contemporary brand literature. Urde (1994) argued that the notion of core competency should be extended to strategic brand management and that brand oriented companies such as Nestlé and DuPont de Neumours views the brand identity as the immaterial dimension of the companies' core competency. Other researchers have argued for increased transparency between shareholder value and brand strategies. For example, brand extensions can reduce the volatility of cash flows and co-branding can increase cash flow through increased number of touch points between brands (Srivastava et al., 1998). Consider the beautiful convergence of brand and business strategy presented by Yum Brands, the world's largest restaurant company in terms of brand systems.

Business Strategy Journal, Business Strategy, Brand Strategy, Branding, Market Opportunity Space, Brand Identity, Brand Hierarchy, Endorsement Strategy, Brand Vision, Brand Extension, Business-to-Brand Relevance, Co-Branding, Strategic Brand Migration.