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Lecture 7

The Corporate Brand: An Organization’s Covenant

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Objectives• An introduction to different branding types• The characteristics of corporate brands• Differences between corporate brands and

product brands• Differences between corporate brands and

corporate identities• Similarities between corporate brands and

corporate identities• Corporate Branding Relationships (corporate

branding architecture)• “Model of the Moment”: Adjusting the AC2ID

TestTM so as to accommodate the corporate brand p.251

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Understanding Branding Types: i

• Brands, in their various guises, have become a lingua franca

• Traditionally, two types of branding have been identified:

• ERSTWHILE BRANDS• ESTABLISHED BRANDS

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Understanding Branding Types: ii

• Erstwhile: in its simplest sense a brand is a name, logotype, or trademark. Often used as a mark of ownership.

• Established: refers to the added values that a brand brings to a product. For the main, such values are synthetic in that they are superimposed on the product by marketing and communications managers and creatives

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Understanding Branding Types: iii

• However, there a new, and quite distinct, type of brand has emerged over recent years. This refers to those brands which refers to brands as applied to corporate entities. This branding category is called

EMERGENT

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Understanding Branding Types: iv

• Emergent: equally applicable to countries, regions, cities etc it is most often applied to corporations and to their subsidiaries

• Corporate brand values (unlike product brands) are not contrived but are bona fide.

• The corporate branding philosophy, at its core, represents an explicit COVENANT between an organization and its key stakeholder groups, including customers

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Corporate and product brands: the differences:

iPRODUCT CORPORATE

MANAGEMENT middle manager CEO

RESPONSIBILITY middle manager all personnel COGNATE marketing strategy/multiDISCIPLINE discplinary

COMMUNICATIONS marketing total corporateMIX communications corporations

FOCUS/FOCI mainly customer multiple internal and external

groups and networksVALUES mainly contrived those of founder(s) + mix of

corporate + other sub

cultures

Balmer (2001)

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Corporate and product brands: the differences:

iiOf particular importance to the establishment, maintenance, and comprehension of corporate brands are company personnel and company culture(s).

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Moreover, corporate brands often boundary-span organizations.

Consider the Rolls Royce corporate brand. The Rolls Royce brand is, on the one hand linked to(a) an aero engines group, and (b) an automotive manufacturer. Two companies, sharing the same, quintisentially British corporate brand name: the latter is a subsidiary of the German automobile group BMW.

Corporate and product brands: the differences: iii

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Corporate brands and corporate identities:

the differences: i• The identity concept is applicable to all

entities in a way that the corporate branding concept is not.

• A corporate brand will, almost certainly, have its origins in an identity.

However, once a corporate brand has been established an organization’s identity elements need to be in alignment with the corporate brand covenant (the promise that is explicit in a corporate brand).

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Corporate brands and corporate identities:

the differences: ii• In addition corporate brands differ from

identities in that they typically have a:Longer gestationExternal fociHigher profileParticular reliance on corporate communications,

and strong verbal and visual identifiersPortability (can be bought, sold, and may be

extended to other corporations, products, and services)

Financial value that may be independent of the corporation itself.

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Similarities between corporate brands and corporate identities

• The importance of:

• Personnel and of sub cultural groups in their formation, maintenance, and comprehension.

• Their multidisciplinary roots

• The necessity for ongoing CEO/Senior Management support and sensitivity.

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Corporate Branding Relationships: i

(corporate branding architecture)

• Olins’s categorization of the three principal types of branding relationship remain influential.

• Monolithic: the use of a single (corporate) brand name. This is used to identify the organization in addition to its’ products and/or services.

Example: Shell

• Endorsed: the use of a distinct brand name by a subsidiary (corporate brand) is accompanied by explicit reference to the the holding corporation’s brand (the same may occur for a product and/or service.)

Example: General Motors.• Branded: the use of a distinct brand name by a subsidiary, product or

service which makes no reference to the holding corporation’s brand. Example: Jaguar, a subsidiary of the Ford Group.

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Corporate Branding Relationships: ii

• It is important to note, however, that:

• the aforementioned categories (monolithic, endorsed, and branded) primarily relates to the degree of profile they wish to give to their corporate brand/corporate brand. The focus is very much on the corporate brand/name as a VISUAL IDENTIFIER.

• Most large corporations do not ascribe solely to one of the three branding categories.

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Corporate Branding Relationships: iii

• In recent years, it has become apparent that there are other types of corporate branding relationships. As such, behind a single corporate brand may lurk a variety of strategic arrangements. Thus, in addition, to monolithic, branded, and endorsed branding categories the following, additional, categories may be added:

• FAMILIAL• SHARED • SURROGATE• MULTIPLEX• FEDERAL• SUPRA

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Corporate Branding Relationships: iv

• FAMILIAL: the adoption of the same corporate brand by two entities within the same industry. Example: HILTON

• SHARED: as above, but with companies operating in distinct, markets.

• Example: ROLLS ROYCE

• SURROGATE: a franchise arrangement whereby one organization’s products/services are branded as those of another.

• Example: British Regional Airways use of the BRITISH AIRWAYS brand

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Corporate Branding Relationships: v

• MULTIPLEX: the muliple use, and sometimes multiple ownership/rights, of a corporate brand among a variety of entities in a variety of industries.

• Example: VIRGIN • FEDERAL: the creation of a new corporate brand by

separate companies that pool their resources in a joint venture.

• Example: AIRBUS

• SUPRA: a quasi, “arch” brand used to supra-endorse any number of corporate brands. Common in the airline sector (airline alliances)Examples: ONE WORLD/STAR/QUALIFIER

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“Model of the Moment”: the AC3ID

TestTM: i• Building on the AC2ID TestTM pp.15-30

a corporate brand can be viewed as an independent organism and, as such, may be viewed as a sixth identity type. This identity type we call the

• COVENANTED IDENTITY. • (underpinning any corporate brand is an explicit

covenant, or promise, that acts as a standard by which an organization or group organizations interact with key internal and external groups and networks.)

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“Model of the Moment”: the AC3ID

Test TM: ii• See page 251 The same principles relating the AC2ID TestTM can be

applied to the AC3ID TestTM as shown on page 251 (including the REDS2 methodology for operating the model.

Note that the covenanted identity is depicted as a five pointed star OUTSIDE the original pentagon. This reflects some of the abiding characteristics of corporate brands in that they can be applied to:

other identities and entities shared with other organization have a life, reputation, and financial worth of their

own.

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AACTUAL

C2CONCEIVED

CCOMMUNICATED

IIDEAL

DDESIRED

C3

C3

C3

C3C3 Balmer 2002 [28]

C3 = Covenanted Identity

THE AC3ID TESTTM

Section V Exhibit One

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Decus et tutamen“An ornament and a safeguard”

This Latin inscription is used as one of the inscriptions on the rim of British pound coins.

To us it epitomizes the worth of another currency: that of corporate branding.