What is corporate branding?
Corporate Branding refers to the marketing strategy that leverages the brand of a company to represent all of its advertising efforts. Instead of promoting the products and services based on their categories, the company name becomes the “umbrella” that presents them to the public. In that sense, corporate branding is much broader than typical product or service branding, but when implemented successfully it can set a company apart from its competitors and make it stand out to its stakeholders and target audience.
Why is it important?
Corporate branding forms a solid foundation for the core components of a brand’s identity, namely Mission, Vision, Culture, and Capabilities. With these components, a business improves its marketing and builds trust and equality with its consumers, resulting in lower promotion costs and higher conversion rates.
However, one must keep in mind that all these benefits can only come with a comprehensive corporate branding strategy. It is crucial to get corporate branding right the first time. Otherwise, it might result in dilution or loss of brand identity, and the whole thing might backfire and see a net reduction in brand presence.
Two different examples of successful corporate branding
Red Bull
The Red Bull corporate brand is all about fuelling the human body to reach its extremes. Through powerful brand messaging and marketing campaigns, Red Bull made its mark as the epitome of adrenaline, energy, and boldness. It attached its name to people and achievements, rather than pushing any novelty of its product.
Tesla
Two examples, two approaches:
- Red Bull invested more in its campaigns and built a powerful corporate brand identity around who and what it supported
- Tesla invested more in its research and products and made its brand identity organically by engaging the public across all forms of social media
Different approaches, same results:
These two corporate brands had very different approaches, yet both have achieved great success. What these two show is that the key to good corporate branding is consistency in messaging. Consider these companies and what they represent:
- Tesla – Progress
- Red Bull – Extreme achievement
- Nike – Performance
- Apple – Quality
Corporate branding is about sculpting the positive associations that are linked to your organisation. What’s most crucial is that these associations reflect the core components of your brand’s identity, so that you can really drive these connections with your public.
Steps to successful Corporate Branding
Now that you know what corporate branding is and how it will benefit your company, it’s time for you to discover how you can approach this in your own way. Follow the steps below and you can get a start on your corporate branding campaign.
Step 1 - Brand audit
The first step in any brand campaign is a brand audit. Before you start your marketing and brand strategy, make sure to identify the problem that holds back your business. Then, think of the outcome you want to achieve. From there, you can formulate a solid marketing plan that will help you remove all the barriers to success and lead you to your desired results.
Step 2 - Define your desired audience now and in the future
Your target audience is a key foundation of your corporate branding strategy. After all, the identity of a corporate entity must match your audience's values and preferences. Identifying your target audience will help convey your brand message more easily whilst providing them with the best customer experience.
Step 3 - Create a company culture
In building corporate identity and brand, your company’s own culture must be clear. Externally, this reveals a more empathetic side of your corporation, making it more relatable to your audience. Internally, culture also unifies your employees and makes it clear what kind of signals they should be sending out customers.
Step 4 - Design your visuals to match your vision
The visual identity of your brand will affect the first impressions of your audience. To put the best foot forward for your business, you need to think carefully about the brand images you want to use across your marketing channels. The fonts, logo, colours, and overall style must be consistent and reflect the associations you want to make for your business.
Step 5 - Develop your brand guidelines
For better brand management, you will need official brand guidelines to help you keep your marketing and messaging consistent. Your brand guidelines should contain all the necessary visual elements and brand messaging you'll use across marketing channels. This means all of the elements, tone, and style that can be applied to any platform of communication that distinguishes your brand to your audience at just a glance.
Conclusion
Corporate branding has several benefits that provide your company with a competitive edge. Through utilising a corporate branding strategy, many huge businesses of today have developed a strong brand that they have used as a launching pad for their skyrocketing growth. That said, businesses of all sizes still struggle to get a corporate branding strategy done correctly right off the bat. It’s important to remember that corporate branding strategies are long term investments, and they need to be stuck to for the long haul to avoid losses.
Spark Interact specialises in digital marketing, and we excel in helping and guiding businesses along their journey into corporate branding. Many of our clients, such as CCR and BuildFix, have improved their performance and sales with a comprehensive corporate branding strategy delivered by Spark.
Are you gearing towards your corporate branding? Get in touch with us and discover the best solutions for you.
