Corporate branding refers to the practice of promoting the
brand name of a corporate entity, as opposed to specific products or services.
The activities and thinking that go into corporate branding are different from
product and service branding because the scope of a corporate brand is
typically much broader. It should also be noted that while corporate branding
is a distinct activity from product or service branding, these different forms
of branding can, and often do, take place side-by-side within a given
corporation. The ways in which corporate brands and other brands interact is
known as the corporate brand architecture.
Corporate branding affects multiple stakeholders (e.g.,
employees, investors) and impacts many aspects of companies such as the evaluation
of their product and services, corporate identity and culture, sponsorship,
employment applications, brand extensions (see study Fetscherin and Usunier,
2012). It therefore can result in significant economies of scope since one
advertising campaign can be used for several products. It also facilitates new
product acceptance because potential buyers are already familiar with the name.
However, this strategy may hinder the creation of distinct brand images or
identities for different products: an overarching corporate brand reduces the
ability to position a brand with an individual identity, and may conceal
different products' unique characteristics.
Corporate branding is not limited to a specific mark or
name. Branding can incorporate multiple touchpoints. These touchpoints include;
logo, customer service, treatment and training of employees, packaging,
advertising, stationery, and quality of products and services. Any means by
which the general public comes into contact with a specific brand constitutes a
touchpoint that can affect perceptions of the corporate brand.
It has been argued that successful corporate branding often
stems from a strong coherence between what the company’s top management seek to
accomplish (their strategic vision), what the company’s employees know and
believe (lodged in its organizational culture), and how its external
stakeholders perceived the company (their image of it). Misalignments between
these three factors, may indicate an underperforming corporate brand. This type
of corporate brand analysis has been labeled the Vision-Culture-Image (VCI)
Alignment Model.
Changes in stakeholder expectations are causing an
increasing number of corporations to integrate marketing, communications and
corporate social responsibility into corporate branding. This trend is evident
in campaigns such as IBM Smarter Planet, G.E. Ecomagination, The Coca-Cola
Company Live Positively, and DOW Human Element. As never before, people care
about the corporation behind the product. They do not separate their opinions
about the company from their opinions of that company's products or services.
This blending of corporate and product/service opinions is due to increasing
corporate transparency, which gives stakeholders a deeper, clearer view into a
corporation's actual behavior and actual performance. Transparency is, in part,
a byproduct of the digital revolution, which has enabled
stakeholders—employees, retirees, customers, business partners, supply chain
partners, investors, neighbors—with the ability to share opinion about
corporations via social media.
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