Corporate branding refers to the practice of promoting the
brand name
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
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. Although 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
A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and ...
. 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 stud
Fetscherin and Usunier, 2012. It therefore can result in significant
economies of scope
Economies of scope are "efficiencies formed by variety, not volume" (the latter concept is "economies of scale"). In economics, "economies" is synonymous with cost savings and "scope" is synonymous with broadening production/services through div ...
since one
advertising campaign
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). An IMC is a platform in which a group of people can group their ideas, beliefs, and conc ...
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
A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wo ...
,
customer service
Customer service is the assistance and advice provided by a company to those people who buy or use its products or services. Each industry requires different levels of customer service, but in the end, the idea of a well-performed service is that ...
, treatment and training of employees,
packaging,
advertising
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
,
stationery
Stationery refers to commercially manufactured writing materials, including cut paper, envelopes, writing implements, continuous form paper, and other office supplies. Stationery includes materials to be written on by hand (e.g., letter pape ...
, 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. Corporate branding can also be viewed from several approaches, including critical perspectives.
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
Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...
,
communications
Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...
and
corporate social responsibility into corporate branding. This trend is evident in campaigns such as
IBM Smarter Planet,
G.E.
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energy ...
Ecomagination,
The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrup ...
Live Positively, and
DOW
Dow or DOW may refer to:
Business
* Dow Jones Industrial Average, or simply the Dow, a stock market index
* Dow Inc., an American commodity chemical company
** Dow Chemical Company, a subsidiary, an American multinational chemical corporation
...
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
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
.
Top 10 Most Valuable Brands
According to Forbes, these are the world's highest ranking brands in 2021.
# Apple - $241.2 B
# Google - $207.5 B
# Microsoft - $162.9 B
# Amazon - $135.4 B
# Facebook - $70.3 B
# Coca-Cola - $64.4 B
# Disney - $61.3 B
# Samsung - $50.4 B
# Louis Vuitton - $47.2 B
# McDonald's - $46.1 B
See also
*
Brand architecture
*
Corporate Identity
A corporate identity or corporate image is the manner in which a corporation, firm or business enterprise presents itself to the public (such as customers and investors as well as employees). The corporate identity is typically visualized by ...
*
Corporate Image
A corporate identity or corporate image is the manner in which a corporation, firm or business enterprise presents itself to the public (such as customers and investors as well as employees). The corporate identity is typically visualized by ...
*
Corporate Social Responsibility
*
Brand management
In marketing, brand management begins with an analysis on how a brand is currently perceived in the market, proceeds to planning how the brand should be perceived if it is to achieve its objectives and continues with ensuring that the brand is pe ...
*
Brand orientation
*
Brand
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create ...
*
Employer branding Employer brand is branding and marketing the entirety of the employment experience. It describes an employer's reputation as a place to work, and their employee value proposition, as opposed to the more general corporate brand reputation and val ...
*
Family branding
Umbrella branding (also known as family branding) is a marketing practice involving the use of a single brand name for the sale of two or more related products. Umbrella branding is mainly used by companies with a positive brand equity (value o ...
*
Individual branding
Individual branding, also called individual product branding, flanker brands or multibranding, is "a branding strategy in which products are given brand names that are newly created and generally not connected to names of existing brands offered b ...
*
Marketing
Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...
*
Trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from othe ...
*
Umbrella brand
Umbrella branding (also known as family branding) is a marketing practice involving the use of a single brand name for the sale of two or more related products. Umbrella branding is mainly used by companies with a positive brand equity (value o ...
References
Further reading
#Balmer, John M. T. and Greyser, Stephen A. (eds.), ''Revealing the Corporation: Perspectives on identity, image, reputation, corporate branding, and corporate-level marketing'', London: Routledge, 2003, .
#Schultz, Majken; Hatch, Mary J. and Larsen, Mogens H. (eds.), ''The Expressive Organization: Linking Identity, Reputation and the Corporate Brand'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, .
#Pratihari, Suvendu K. and Uzma, Shigufta H. (2018), "CSR and corporate branding effect on brand loyalty: a study on Indian banking sector", Journal of Product and Brand Management, Vol. 27 Iss: 1, pp. 57–78,
#Pratihari, Suvendu K. and Uzma, Shigufta H. (2018), "Corporate Social Identity: An Analysis of the Indian Banking Sector”, International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol 36 Iss: 6, pp. 1248–1284,
#Pratihari, Suvendu K. and Uzma, Shigufta H. (2019), "A Survey on Bankers’ Perception of Corporate Social Responsibility in India”, Social Responsibility Journal,
#Ind, Nicholas, ''The Corporate Brand'', London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1997, .
#Marc Fetscherin, Jean-Claude Usunier, (2012) "Corporate branding: an interdisciplinary literature review", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 46 Iss: 5, pp. 733 – 753
#Gregory, James R. and Wiechmann, Jack G., ''Leveraging the Corporate Brand'', Chicago: NTC, 1997, .
# Godin, Seth., "Purple Cow",
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Brand management
Brands
Collective identity
Product management
Types of branding