Would a Brand Smell any Sweeter by a Corporate Name?
- PDF / 319,455 Bytes
- 19 Pages / 594.976 x 764.976 pts Page_size
- 94 Downloads / 163 Views
Volume 5 Numbers 2 and 3
Would a Brand Smell any Sweeter by a Corporate Name? Leslie de Chernatony Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham
ABSTRACT While there is growing interest in the topic of corporate brands, there is confusion about what this means and how to achieve brand coherence. This paper argues that the brand concept is context independent, thus the concept of the corporate brand is the same as the concept of the product or services brand — it is the enactment that is different. The brand triangle is proposed as a model to facilitate understanding and communication about a corporate brand. A process model is then advanced to encourage a more coherent approach to delivering the desired corporate brand. However, even with these models, there may still be tension in a corporate brand due to misaligned values. A third model is advanced to provide insights about diverse perceptions of the corporate brand’s values. Managerial implications to encourage greater brand coherence are explored. INTRODUCTION Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem, in my opinion, to characterize our age. Albert Einstein
Corporate Reputation Review, Vol. 5, Nos. 2/3, 2002, pp. 114–132 # Henry Stewart Publications, 1363–3589
Page 114
Alas, in the 21st century, this contention still holds true, particularly about brands. As a consequence of brands being intangible assets, senior executives have diverse interpretations of their brand (de Chernatony and Dall’Olmo Riley, 1998), emphasizing different objectives then using finely developed strategies to achieve their diverse goals. For example, the Marketing Director typically stresses the brand objective of
owning and sustaining an attractive positioning; the Finance Director strives to satisfy the goal of increasing the share price from the brand’s inherent goodwill, while the HRM Director aims for a strong culture, using the brand as a form of cultural glue. Just when there has been greater clarity and convergence about the meaning of ‘brand’, brought about by a proliferation of branding textbooks (eg Franzen and Bouwman, 2001; Pringle and Gordon, 2001; Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 2000; Jones 1999; Keller, 1998; de Chernatony and McDonald, 1998; Kapferer, 1997), so some authors have started to draw sophisticated distinctions between product brands and corporate brands (eg Willmott, 2001, Balmer, 2001a, Hatch and Schultz, 2001). There has been a move to corporate branding, because organizations recognize that their staff are the embodiment of the brand, providing a point of welcomed difference, not just through what the customer receives (functional values), but also how they receive it (emotional values). This has led to growing interest in how a sustainable competitive advantage for the corporate brand can be achieved through a unique organizational culture, reflecting the aligned values of employees (Pringle and Thompson, 2001). The new focus is no longer just on defining an externally-centered promise, but also considers whether and how staff can be orchestrated to
Data Loading...
