Corporate Branding

Abstract

This technical note provides an introduction to corporate branding, including a brief history, a discussion of differences between corporate and product branding, and some strategic implications for how corporate branding is used. Excerpt UVA-BC-0203 Corporate Branding The biggest hurdle in understanding corporate branding is to see the ways in which it is a separate phenomenon from product branding while at the same time sharing some of the attributes associated with product brands. Simply stated, a working definition might be whether stakeholders tend to relate to a company more in terms of its individual products or services or more in terms of the company as a complete entity. Some argue that the trend is toward the latter. The history of brands is fascinating and relatively short when considering how much a role they play in today's society. Not too long ago purchasing soap meant having a piece of soap sliced off from a long bar. Lever Brothers created Lifebuoy soap in 1895 and went on to become Unilever. Lever brothers also coined the term “BO,” which its soap was meant to address although the phenomenon was most likely present before 1895. Also in 1865, in a story that uncannily foreshadows the invention of 3M's Post-It Notes, a soap maker at Proctor and Gamble added too much air to his soap mixture and Ivory became the soap that would not sink. A famous New Yorker cartoon in the 1920s showed a group of harried executives gazing anxiously into an empty pool. The caption says, “The day Ivory Soap sank at Proctor and Gamble.” This suggests a wry take early in the century on the notion of brand promise. The power of corporate branding can be seen in Andy Grove's remarkable branding of a computer chip, creating enormous value where there was none before, with the slogan “intel inside” becoming more important than the plastic box it adorned. Like General Mills, Proctor and Gamble went on to become one of the most famous corporations known for the strength of its products. Cheerios: “The Breakfast of Champions” and Ivory Soap have become brands that hold more meaning for consumers than the corporate entity. Steve Page, CFO of United Technologies, said in the Wall Street Journal, “You cannot buy a UTC.” You can, or at least the government or a building contractor can, buy Sirkorsky helicopters, Carrier central air conditioning, Pratt and Whitney jet engines, Otis elevators, or Chubb insurance. Investors can buy UTX on the New York Stock Exchange. This led to a highly creative corporate advertising campaign called “blue momentum” carefully targeted at investors who had the most stake in the corporation as a whole. Take one of United Technologies' competitors, General Electric: It is fair to say that general perceptions of the company run along the lines of a well-managed and successful conglomerate (until recently headed by a celebrity CEO) and less toward an immediate association with light bulbs or refrigerators. Admired Companies . . .