The Role and Development of a Corporate Brand Personality for Modern Businesses

In this essay I intend to assess the growing roll that corporate branding is playing in today’s business environment. This assessment will be based on three peer reviewed academic journal articles, core texts and notes from the class.

Academic Journal Articles Reviewed:

Keller, K.L. (2006), �The Importance of Corporate Brand Personality Traits to a Successful 21st Century Business.’ Journal of Brand Management. Vol. 14. Nos. 1/2, 74-81.

Reckom, J. V. (2006), �Capturing the Essense of a Corporate Brand Personality: A Western Brand in Eastern Europe.’ Journal of Brand Management. Vol. 14. Nos. 1/2, 114-124.

Hulberg, J. (2006), �Integrating Corporate Branding and Social Paradigms: A Literature Study.’ Journal of Brand Management. Vol. 14. Nos. 1/2, 60-73.

Part A

Introduction

The first thing to be considered in this essay is just what corporate branding is and how it differs to product branding. Corporate branding may be considered as the use of a company’s name to create a desired perception of the company and the products / services it produces. The key difference between product branding and corporate branding is that corporate branding encompasses a wide variety of factors (a number of which are internal), which it bases itself upon. These include aspects such as employees, values, beliefs of the company. Product branding is more specific and tends to focus on external factors and consumer perceptions.

With this in mind, we will now begin to look at corporate brand personality. Brand personality, as described by Reckom (2006), �can be seen as the set of human characteristics associated with a brand which is connected in consumer memory to numerous other brand features.’ Therefore, a corporate brand personality is the human characteristics or traits that a consumer associates with a company.

In order to establish a positive corporate brand personality, it is essential that a company has an in depth understanding of itself, who it wants to be and how it can become what it wants to be. There are six traits which are necessary if a company wishes to succeed in today’s environment and these have been grouped into three dimensions - heart, mind, and body (Keller 2006).

Within the heart dimension are passion and compassion. The employees of the company must be passionate about what they do and believe in it. If they are not then it will have a negative impact on their work. Keller (2006) points out that it is �especially imperative that employees be passionate about what they do for their customers…as customers are the core asset of any company.’ Equally, the company must be highly considerate its stakeholders – customers, employees, investors, local communities, etc. Customer care, employee care and community care are all important and must be catered for with approaches such as customer care programmes, employee recognition