Brand allianees are more widespread than current aeademie research would seen to suggest, and the reality seems to indicate that this type of allianees between companies will undergo unsuspeeted growth in the years to come. This paper will attempt to help fill this literature gap by analyzing and developing the eoneept of the brand alliance on the basis of Williamson's transaetion eost theory and the brand identity models presented by Aaker (1996), Upshaw (1995) and Kapferer (1992). In addition, it will diseuss the problems inherent in this type of allianee, primarily as regards eomplementarily and eonsistency between the brands. To this end, and analytieal model will be developed based on Kapferer's "Identity Prims" (1992) and Rao and Ruekert's brand allianee evaluation model (1994). This model will be used to seleet potential brands for a possible alliance, evaluate this seleetion and track the alliance's value. Finally, we will diseuss the limitations inherent in this work and will suggest potential future areas of research that would be of interest within the field of brand managemen
