CORPORATE BRANDING

Corporations around the world are increasingly becoming aware of the enhanced value that corporate branding strategies can provide for an organization. Branding in the classic sense is all about creating unique identities and positions for products and services, hence distinguishing the offerings from competitors. Corporate branding employs the same methodology and toolbox used in product branding, but it also elevates the approach a step further into the board room, where additional issues around stakeholder (shareholders, media, competitors, governments and many others) relations can help the corporation benefit from a strong and well-managed corporate branding strategy. Not surprisingly, a strong and comprehensive corporate branding strategy requires a high level of personal attention and commitment from the CEO and the senior management to become fully effective and meet the objectives. 

Corporate branding is often, but wrongly, referred to as an exercise where the company logo, the design style and color scheme are changed. Naturally, these are important elements to evaluate and potentially change at a later stage once the strategy has been decided upon. It is often accompanied with a new corporate slogan, and then everyone expects results to occur during the project. Corporate branding is a serious undertaking that entails more skills and activities than just an updated glossy marketing facade with empty jargon.

A strong corporate branding strategy can add significant value in terms of helping the entire corporation and the management team to implement the long-term vision, create unique positions in the market place of the company and its brands, and not the least to unlock the leadership potential within the organization. Hence a corporate branding strategy can enable the corporation to further leverage on its tangible and non-tangible assets leading to branding excellence throughout the corporation.

There are thousands of unique corporate brands. Companies like Microsoft, Intel, Singapore Airlines, Disney, CNN, Samsung, Mercedes and many others are good examples to think of. The global financial powerhouses HSBC and Citibank have both in recent years acquired a vast number of companies across the globe and adopted them fully under their international corporate brands with great success and within a surprising short timeframe. A strong brand is about building and maintaining strong perceptions in the minds of customers. This takes time to establish and many resources to keep, but eventually no one remembers what the local banks used to be called, and HSBC and Citibank manage to transfer the brand equities from the acquired brands into their own corporate brand equity. 

An ancient and famous Indian proverb says: “If you don’t have a goal, how can you know when you have arrived?” In order to establish and grow a corporate brand successfully, the management team has to track and measure the strength of the current corporate brand and the entire brand portfolio. Research can help understand the business landscape in more depth and serves as a foundation for the future corporate brand strategy.

Modern research tools have become very sophisticated and at the same time easy to employ. There is no excuse for not trying to get a market and customer driven perspective of the brand portfolio including the corporate brand.

There are several benefits for employing a branding strategy that a corporation can exploit. First of all, a strong corporate brand is no less or more than the face of the business strategy, portraying what the corporation aims at doing and what it wants to be known for in the market place. The corporate brand is the overall umbrella for the corporations’ activities and encapsulates its vision, values, personality, positioning and image among many other dimensions. Think of HSBC, which has successfully implemented a stringent corporate branding strategy. HSBC employs the same common expression throughout the globe with a simple advertising strategy based on the slogan “The world’s local bank.” This creative platform enables the corporation to bridge between many cultural differences, and to portray many faces of the same strategy.

A corporate branding strategy creates simplicity; it stands on top of the brand portfolio as the ultimate identifier of the corporation. P&G has notoriously been known for a multi-brand strategy, and yet again, the corporate brand P&G is still what encapsulates all activities by the company. Depending on the business strategy and the potential need for more than a one-brand architecture in the case of P&G, which markets many different brands under its umbrella, a corporate brand can very often assist the corporation and the management to focus in on the core vision and values. Once this overall platform has been established and implemented, it serves as a great stepping stone for revisiting any other brands in the corporations’ portfolio -- to have a new approach to and look at its various brand identities. This ultimately will lead to the final brand architecture of the corporation and set the strategy for how branding and brands will play an important role to achieve the corporate objectives.

 When the corporation decides to implement a corporate branding strategy, some cost efficiencies can often be achieved as opposed to a large multi-brand architecture where the corporate brand plays a smaller or insignificant role. Today, there is a general requirement for high level of investments to maintain efficient production capabilities and scale in many industries (for example technology and pharmaceutical), and to stay competitive in R&D for new products and services. Product life cycles are getting shorter and shorter for many industries and products, and corporations have to seek solutions to recover their development and marketing costs within the shorter life cycles. These factors combined are forcing corporations to evaluate their cost structure, and a corporate branding strategy can help management achieve its goals by bridging across product categories and services as opposed to a multi-brand strategy.

There are obvious cost efficiencies in terms of reduced marketing and advertising spending as the corporate brand replaces budgets for individual product marketing efforts. Even a combined corporate and product branding strategy can often enable management to reduce costs and exploit synergies from a new and more focused brand architecture.

The Apple brand has established a very strong position of being a design-driven and innovative company offering many types of products and services. Its corporate brand encapsulates the body and soul of the company, and the main messages use the corporate Apple brand. Various sub-brands then help to identify the individual product lines.

But one should carefully avoid the potential trip of streamlining the brand portfolio just based on a raw cost perspective as secondary effects can play a significant impact of the overall revenue stream and on the stakeholders image of the corporation. The basic guideline is based on revenue contribution of the various brands. If profit contribution can be enhanced by reducing the number of brands, the portfolio is too big. Reversely, if the overall profit contribution can be enhanced by adding new brands, the portfolio is too small. Hence an individual wish for strong corporate branding must be evaluated carefully and all factors taken into consideration.

In the last couple of years, corporate brands have become very strong drivers of financial value for corporations. Corporate brands by themselves have become valuable assets on the company balance sheet with market values very often much beyond book value.

The founder of Sony, Akio Morita, once said: “I have always believed that the company name is the life of an enterprise. It carries responsibility and guarantees the quality of the product.” A strong and well-balanced corporate brand orchestrated throughout the corporation by a passionate CEO and his team can lead to very successful and sustainable financial results.

Some Important Terminologies in Corporate Branding

Brand The sum of all information about a company communicated by a name and its related visual symbols.

Brand Equity The power of a brand—through successful creation of a positive image—to shift demand and change customer behavior.

Brand Experience The sum of experiences driven by customers’ interactions with the brand across all touch-points (through agents, customer service, advertising, print and on-line communications, etc.).

Brand Identity (also Corporate Identity) The visual elements used to identify a brand. These include name, logotypes, symbols, advertising, signage, product configuration, service offering, packaging, stationery, etc.

Brand Image (also Corporate Image) The complete bundle of thoughts about a company, product, or service resulting from a combination of various communications and personal experience. These include the distinguishing character attributes of a brand or company(e.g., approachable and trustworthy).

Brand Measurement Measurement of the brand’s performance based on agreed-upon metrics such as share of mind, market share, or customer satisfaction.

Brand Personality The character of the brand defined through image attributes and conveyed through brand experience.

Brand Promise The enduring, relevant, and distinctive benefits that the brand offers. It differs from the positioning statement (see Positioning Statement), and it also differs from the value proposition (see Value Proposition).

Brand structure The framework that communicates the structure of the company brand portfolio and outlines the hierarchy and relationships within it. MetLife employs master brand architecture. See also Nomenclature System.

Corporate Mission Defines why the organization exists, its core values and intent, and serves to unite organizational behavior. The MetLife mission serves as a strong foundation for the MetLife brand and is captured through its statement of purpose: "To build financial freedom for everyone."

Culture and Style Distinctive attributes and competitive advantages relating to organizational beliefs, values, and traits—how the organization behaves as it uniquely goes about its business.

Image Attributes Help define the tone, manner, personality, and style of a brand. Often the differentiating factors between similar companies, products, and services.

Logotype/Logo A unique group of letterforms that represent the corporate brand. MetLife uses its name spelled in a unique font and narrow range of colors (blue, white and black) to represent its corporate brand.

Message The information (facts, strengths, culture/style, and future direction) that is most relevant to priority audiences and serve as major content points for all communications.

Nomenclature System/Brand Architecture Method for associating divisions, subsidiaries, brands, etc. with the parent company. There are three fundamental models: 1) master brand model, where the corporation and most of its operating units and brands share the same name (e.g., IBM); 2) asymmetrical model, where some divisions, products, or services utilize master brand, while others are branded separately (e.g., Coca Cola, The Gillette Company); and 3) holding company model, where the corporate brand operates as a holding company and operating units and products and services are individually branded (e.g., P&G).

Positioning Statement Provides the underlying platform for communications, reflecting the company’s/brand’s value proposition. Addresses 1) definition: how the company defines its business or how the brand defines its competitive set—who we are and what we do; 2) differentiation: what makes the company/brand special—how we do it; and 3) deliverables: benefits delivered to its customers.

Symbol A non-typographic element of an abstract or representational nature. Texaco, Apple, and Continental Airlines feature graphic symbols as important components of their identities.

Tone and manner The voice and style selected for the written word that supports the brand’s attributes (e.g., straightforward, easy-to-understand language that is open, friendly, and conversational).

Value Proposition The functional and emotional benefits the brand delivers that provide rationale for the customer’s choice of one brand over another.

Visual Identity System A selected identity and signature approach to visually represent MetLife’s brand, including information hierarchy and the use of MetLife’s name, logotype, typography, primary and extended color palettes, taglines, slogans, Snoopy/ PEANUTS characters, imagery (including photography and illustration), and a grid system to organize the communications elements.

 

Used to bring a consistent message to consumers and create a positive memorable impression, branding elements may include a name, term, sign, design or unifying combination of them, intended to identify and distinguish the product or service from competing products or services.

Slogan/Tagline - sums up the theme for a product's benefits to deliver an easily remembered message in a few words

Signature Colors - coordinated color scheme consistent to all marketing media.

 

Signature Fonts - coordinated fonts consistent across all marketing media. The exception to this lies in body copy. While Serif fonts are easier to read in printed materials, Sans Serif fonts are easier to read in applications viewed on a monitor.

 

Signature Image - unique element repeated in all marketing media.

Jingle/Signature Song - a commercial set to music, usually carrying the slogan or theme line of a campaign, making the brand name and slogan more easily remembered.

 

Development of corporate branding elements and style guide.

Describe your company's unique selling proposition (USP):
Define your target market:
What are the benefits of your products or services:
Describe how you will position your products or services:
Define your marketing methods. Will you advertise, use Internet marketing, direct marketing, or public relations?
Other Comments:

 

 

Elements of Corporate Branding

C BRAND LOOKS

C Brand Character

C Brand Logo

C Brand Name

           

C BRAND IDENTITY

C Mission

C Vision

C Products

C Packaging

C Showrooms

C Employee Uniform

C Stationary

 

C BRAND IMAGE

C Corporate Personality

C Company’s Reputation

 

C BRAND AWARENESS

C Media Relations

 

There are 10 crucial steps on the way to a successful corporate branding strategy and they can serve as a useful guide for any corporate branding project.

Ø  The CEO needs to lead the brand strategy work
The starting point for corporate branding must be the boardroom, which is also serving as the most important checkpoint during the project. The CEO must be personally involved in the brand strategy work; he/she must be passionate, with full buy in to the idea of branding. To ensure success despite the daily and stressful routine with many duties at the same time, the CEO must be backed by a strong brand management team of senior contributors, who can facilitate a continuous development and integration of the new strategy.

Ø  Build your own model as not every model suits all
All companies have their own specific requirements, own sets of business values and a unique way of doing things. Therefore, even the best and most comprehensive branding models have to be tailored to these needs and requirements. Often, only a few but important adjustments are needed to align your model with other similar business models and strategies in the company to create a simplified toolbox. Remember that branding is the face of a business strategy so these two areas must go hand in hand.

Ø  Involve your stakeholders including the customers
Who knows more about your company than the customers, the employees and many other stakeholders? This is common sense, but many companies forget these simple and easily accessible sources of valuable information for the branding strategy. A simple rule is to use 5 percent of the marketing budget on research and at least obtain a fair picture of the current business landscape including the current brand image among stakeholders, brand positioning and also any critical paths ahead. Simply do not forget the valuable voice of your customers in this process.

Ø  Advance the corporate vision
The corporate branding strategy is an excellent channel for advancing the corporate vision throughout the company. It allows the management to involve, educate and align everyone around the corporate objectives, values and future pathway. It provides a guiding star and leads everyone in the same direction. The internal efforts are at least 50 percent of making a corporate branding strategy successful.

Ø  Exploit new technology
Modern technology should play a part of a successful corporate branding strategy. Technology helps to gain effectiveness and improve the competitive edge of the corporation. A well-designed and fully updated Intranet is a must in today’s working environment, which has become increasingly virtual with employees working from home, from other locations and traveling across the globe to name only a few factors. An Extranet can facilitate a much more seamless integration with strategic partners, suppliers and customers, avoid time consuming paper work and manual handling of many issues.

A company website is not only a must, but rather a crucial channel for any modern corporation regardless of size. If the corporation is not accessible on the Internet, it does not exist! The more professional the website, the better the perception among Internet savvy modern customer. Gone are the days where corporations could get along with a business card portrayed on the Internet.

Ø  Empower people to become brand ambassadors
The most important asset in a corporation is its people. They interact every day with colleagues, customers, suppliers, competitors and industry experts to name a few. But they also interact with an impressive number of people totally disconnected to the corporation in form of family members, friends, former colleagues and many others. Hence they serve as the corporation’s most important brand ambassadors. This word-of-mouth can be extremely valuable and have a great impact on the overall image of the corporate brand image.

The most effective way to turn employees into brand ambassadors is to train everyone adequately in the corporate brand strategy (vision, values and personality etc.) and making sure they fully understand – and believe! – what exactly the corporation aims at being in the minds of its customers and stakeholders. Nike is a brand that is known for its efforts in educating and empowering everyone employed by the company to be strong brand ambassadors.

Ø  Create the right delivery system
The corporate brand is the face of the business strategy and basically it promises what all stakeholders should expect from the corporation. Therefore, the delivery of the right products and services with all the implications this entails should be carefully scrutinized and evaluated on performance before any corporation starts a corporate branding project. Think of the cradle to grave concept of a lifelong customer and the value he/she will provide in such a time span. Make sure that customer is handled with outstanding care according to internal specifications and outside expectations. The moment of truth is when the corporate brand promise is delivered well – and it does not hurt if the corporation exceeds the customer expectation.

Singapore Airlines runs a very rigid, detailed and in-depth description of customer touch points with the corporation, and several resources are spend on making sure this expectation is met every time with every customer. All employees from Singapore Airlines regardless of title and rank spend a not insignificant amount of workdays being trained every year.

Ø  Communicate
Bring the corporate brand to life through a range of well-planned, well-executed marketing activities, and make sure the overall messages are consistent, clear and relevant to the target audiences. Make sure the various messages are concise and easy to comprehend. Do not try to communicate every single point from the corporate branding strategy. Instead, a selective approach will make much more impact using the same resources.

Ø  Measure the brand performance
A brand is accountable and this is no different from a corporate brand. How much value does it provide to the corporation and how instrumental is the brand in securing competitiveness? These are some of the questions that need to be answered and that the CEO will automatically seek as part of a commitment to run the strategy successfully. The brand equity consists of various individually tailor-made key performance indicators (including the financial brand value) and needs to be tracked regularly. A brand score card can help facilitating an overview of the brand equity and the progression as the strategy is implemented.

Ø  Adjust relentlessly and be ready to raise your own bar all the time
The business landscape is changing almost every day in every industry. Hence the corporation needs to evaluate and possibly adjust the corporate branding strategy on a regular basis. Obviously, a corporate brand should stay relevant, differentiated and consistent throughout time, so it is a crucial balance. The basic parts of the corporate branding strategy like vision, identity, personality and values are not to be changed often as they are the fundamental components. Instead changes should be small and involve the thousands of daily actions and interpersonal behaviors, which the corporation employs as part of the brand marketing efforts. But make sure complacency does not take root in the organization and affect the goal setting.

Strong brands are those driven forward by owners who never get tired of raising their own bars. They become their own change agents – and brand champions for great brands.

Characteristics Of Great Corporate Brands

• Obsessed with being the best: these companies compete with themselves.
• Guided by a core ideology, not profit alone.
• Drive progress at the fringes.
• They are brave.
• Highly sensitive to customer needs.

 

A Strong Corporate Brand Can Accomplish

• Help you command a premium price for your products;
• Makes it easier to sell;
• Makes it easier to recruit and retain talent;
• Makes introduction to the company easier;
• Withstand the a crisis more readily;
• Slow or stop share erosion; and
• It is appealing to financial and investor markets.

  

Case Studies

1. Tiger Balm

Tiger Balm is an interesting example of a truly Asian brand that has gained international recognition. It is a herbal ointment remedy passed down through generations, with its origin in the imperial courts of China, whose warlords and emperors needed relief from aches, pains, and a variety of other ailments.

The Aw family were the ones who developed the product and the brand. Patriarch Aw Chu Kin passed his knowledge of Chinese medicine to his sons, Boon Par (meaning gentle leopard) and Boon Haw (meaning gentle tiger). The "Tiger" in the brand name comes from Boon Haw's name. Boon Haw was also the pioneer marketer of the product. The company name of Haw Par comes from the last names of both brothers. Tiger Balm is now an international brand based in Singapore, with sales in excess of S$100 million. Control of Haw Par and Tiger Balm has passed, as it inevitably does in such situations, from the family to a large corporate group. However, the packaging still retains the old reproduction photographs of the two brothers, with their names in Chinese and English.

The springing tiger logo, created by Boon Haw, has always been the trademark of the brand, successful creating a high degree of awareness and recall in global markets. The packaging - consisting of an official-looking, imitation paper seal as the cover over the small hexagonal jars and round cans - has made the product so unique that it stands out easily from other international competitors, of which there are many. Yet, the brand had managed to look modern while retaining its heritage.

To build a brand, a company must also have a quality product, and Tiger Balm scores well in this aspect. The original recipe for the ointment has been enhanced with additives from Western and Chinese medicines. It has multi-usage positioning and application - relieving headaches to muscular sprains and aches; both young and old people use it. It is also positioned as a sports-injury product, endorsed by sports personalities, thus giving it a wider customer base.

Tiger Balm has a tremendous heritage following in Asia, and it is now successfully marketed in over 70 countries worldwide. It has made the leap from its Asian beginnings as a folk remedy to a truly international brand.

Brand strengths: tiger symbolism, unique packaging, heritage, multiple usage created by strong target-user, multi-positioning strategy.

 

2. Philips

Philips is a hi-tech global company with a traditionally low profile. Until recently, if you asked anyone if he knew the Philips brand name, the likehood was that he would say yes. However, he might not have know what Philips provides in the way of its total product range, and might have associated the brand name and company with traditional technology. The "Let's Make Things Better" global brand campaign has raised the Philips profile, and provided it with a more focused and distinctive personality.

Royal Philips Electronics - its proper name - is a giant company. Established in 1891 is a lamp factory, it now has over 100 different business, over 200 production sites, and carries out research and development in more than 40 countries. Its sales and service outlets cover 150 countries, and it has a total workforce upwards of 230,000 employees. It has a strong technology base, spending over 5% of sales on research and development, and owning some 10,000 patents. Its portfolio covers a wide variety of product categories, including:

·   Semiconductors

·   Tv

·   Video

·   Audio

·   Pc peripherals

·   Digital networks

·   Lighting

·   Medical systems

·   Mobile phones

·   Domestic appliances

·   Personal care products

 

The "Lets Make Things Better" campaign is still part of a global corporate branding initiative aimed at motivating both consumers and employees. It was, to use Intel's own words, a brand "renaissance."

The company's slogan is all about emphasizing what technology, Philips products in particular, can do for people - it is essentially about the benefits they can bring to people and the world in general. A keystone of the campaign was the premise that, if you can convince people that you can help improve their lives, they will more likely believe that you can help improve the world. The campaign thus had to appear credible, real, and experiential. It had to be human as opposed to philosophical and philanthropic, and not just another typical corporate over-claim.

Ref: Notes by Prof. H. Kombrabail