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”.
Traditionally branding has been all about creating unique identities and positions for products and services to distinguish the offerings from competitors’. Corporate branding employs the same methodology and toolbox used in product branding but has taken prominence over product branding. The fact is that companies can no longer rely on service or product differentiation strategies as their mainstay for sustainable competitive advantage. Consumers are increasingly sophisticated, and no longer subscribe to a journey but instead want to create their own.
While the branding effort for products is the domain of company marketers, corporate branding requires organisation-wide support. The whole organisation is involved in realising the success of the corporate brand with the audiences the brand is meant to attract and engage.
“Successful corporate brand is formed by the interplay between strategic vision, organisational culture and the corporate images held by its stakeholders.” (Taking the Brand Initiative; Hatch and Shultz).
Not surprisingly, a strong and comprehensive corporate branding strategy requires a high level of personal attention and commitment from the senior management to become fully effective and meet the objectives. Successful corporate branding involves synchronised efforts of all departments. It is not just about a dialogue with the organisation’s customers. It is about interaction with all the organisation’s stakeholders. Therefore, successful corporate branding requires the alignment of internal and external communications to create a single clear image and message about: who you are, what you stand for, what you are like to do business with and what you will deliver. This must be across multiple channels and media.
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