- Online annual reports
- Building corporate brands
- Getting more from your annual report
- Sustainability 101
- Maximizing value from an M&A deal
- Harnessing the magic medium: Sight, sound and story
- Building engagement: Connecting your people to your brand
- Telling your ESG story: Trends in corporate responsibility reporting
Why corporate brand-building makes sense
The Company is a Brand
Corporate brand-building is the art and science of building awareness, loyalty, preference and value for companies directly, as opposed to the product brands they manage and market. It is founded on the premise that brand communications, experiences and initiatives benefit companies in important ways. Specifically, it aims to provide a broad range of financial and strategic benefits that align with the company vision, mission and business strategy.
For corporate brands, business customers, channel partners, financial analysts, employees and others take the place of consumers as primary audiences. (At the same time, consumers might remain a significant audience, too.)
Brand value is real
A strong corporate brand might or might not directly help a company to charge a premium for its products or to command a premium on the trading floor. In principle, however, a strong corporate brand can help to build a differential of attraction and loyalty among customers and channel partners. Growing from that, a strong corporate brand should also be able to command a differential of margin that comes from economies of scale of being the market leader. Metrics can be developed around both of these differentials to assess how brand value is being created over time.
One brand, many uses
That said, most companies look to their corporate brands to provide value in other, more specific ways; from facilitating the introduction of new products, access to new markets, entry into new channels and expansion of existing channels to more clearly articulating the company’s purpose and promise to the media and financial markets.
Internal brand building
Corporate brands can also play an important role inside organizations as well as outside: A strong corporate brand, like a strong consumer brand, can help to make “believers” of a company’s employees, helping to drive morale, performance, and a consistent, positive impression of the brand and the company behind it. These efforts, too, can be tracked and measured as “value on investment” (VOI)—a return on investment in a soft initiative—rather than “return on investment” (ROI), which is much harder to measure in most corporate brand-building scenarios, and not always the best indicator of “brand dollars well-spent” in any event.
Corporate brands can deliver many of the same benefits to companies as product brands.
Personality key traits
What it is: A list and summary description of the key traits comprising the brand personality, together with information that details the source of these traits in the brand’s or parent company’s heritage, operations and values.
Why it matters: Detailing the qualities woven into the personality overview, the breakdown of key brand traits provides a strong foundation for shaping the brand’s visual identity and copy tone.
Promise
What it is: A one-sentence statement of the single most important value proposition a brand can credibly make to its primary audience.
Why it matters: Provides a clear instant read on the key benefit the brand delivers. Helps to organize and prioritize all other benefits.
Tagline and descriptor
What it is: The tagline is the most succinct expression of the brand’s unique spirit. The descriptor is the most succinct thumbnail categorization of its business.
Why it matters: Provides an engaging “instant read” on who and what the brand is.
Messaging matrix
What it is: A complete set of basic messages for each audience the brand addresses. These messages include promises, supporting benefit statements, factual proof points, and desired beliefs and actions, organized by audience segment.
Why it matters: Greatly streamlines and simplifies the time and effort required to create consistent, targeted communications.
A powerful brand-building asset. An organization’s employees can be the brand’s greatest ambassadors as well as its living embodiment. That said, it makes sense to foster a cohesive culture to provide them with inspiration and guidance. Corporate values are one of the most powerful tools for accomplishing these goals. By defining and detailing the beliefs that direct company and employee priorities, corporate values set the stage for the way the corporate brand itself is expressed.
Positioning
What it is: A tight, one-sentence statement that defines the brand relative to the marketplace. A good positioning is one that no other brand or company can legitimately claim with the same level of credibility and conviction.
Why it matters: A clear-cut positioning helps the brand to stand out—and stand above—the competition. It is the most succinct expression of what makes the brand different. It focuses what the brand has to say, and has to offer.
A positioning statement is accompanied by a rationale that details the credibility, defensibility, ownability and relevance of the position.
Description
What it is: The approved, single sentence “elevator” description of the brand. If the company already has such a description at the time of our engagement, we will incorporate it into the brand platform. If the description requires further development or refinement, we will provide it.
In addition to a master description, note that a brand may benefit from different descriptions tailored to different audiences.
Why it matters: A key ingredient of clear communications. Helps to ensure that everyone within an organization is speaking and writing “on the same page.” Especially important to businesses in emerging categories or with innovative products.
Personality overview
What it is: A tight, one-paragraph statement that describes the “soul” of the brand—the qualities and values that live at its core, and that help to make the experience of interacting with it satisfying and memorable.
If the brand’s positioning has to do with its substance, then its personality has to do with its style.
Why it matters: Summarizes the distinct impression the brand should make—both visually and in written and spoken communications—on those who interact with it. Guides the development of a clear, well-integrated visual and written identity.
GETTING STARTED
What’s needed to begin
Since the corporate brand exists to express the company mission, vision and business strategy, the first step is to make sure that these foundational business tools are clear, compelling and up-to-date.
Roles and responsibilities
A good brand development initiative engages senior management for leadership and direction; employees from throughout the organization for perspective and buy-in; and outside audiences for a reality check.
Making the most of it
To derive the greatest value from your corporate brand, do not view it as the exclusive purview of marketing. The most successful brands deliver value in a variety of ways throughout an organization.