Key Steps for Successful Corporate Branding
Corporate branding is potentially a strong tool for realigning a corporate strategy and ensures that the corporation – big or small – is leveraging adequately on the untapped internal and external resources. I believe – and my experience across clients show – that a strong CEO and a dedicated management team are always seeking to raise their own bar and be change agents for their corporations backed by a strong corporate branding strategy. A well-drafted and professionally managed corporate branding strategy and implementation plan can be a powerful component of the board room work.
Identified here are 10 crucial steps a successful corporate branding strategy, entails serving as a useful guide for any corporate branding project.
01. The CEO Needs to Lead the Brand Strategy Work
The starting point for corporate branding must be in the board room, which also serves as the most important check-point during the project. The CEO must be personally involved in the brand strategy work he/she must be passionate and fully buy into the idea of branding. To ensure success, despite the daily and stressful routine involving multiple duties. The CEO must be backed by a strong brand management team of senior contributors, who can facilitate continuous development and integration of the new strategy.
02. Build Your Own Model as Not Every Model Suits All
All companies have their own specific requirements, their own set of business values, and a unique way of doing things. Therefore, even the best and most comprehensive branding models have to be tailored to meet these needs and requirements. Often, important adjustments are required to align them with other similar business models and strategies in the company to create a simplified toolbox. Remember that branding is the face of a business strategy so these two areas must go hand in hand.
03. Involve Your Stakeholders Including Customers
Who knows more about your company than your customers, employees and various other stakeholders? This is common sense, but many companies these simple and easily accessible sources in providing valuable information for the branding strategy. A simple rule is to use 5% of the marketing budget on research and at least obtain a fair picture of the current business landscape including the current brand image among stakeholders, brand positioning and also any critical paths ahead. Put Simply, do not forget the valuable voice of your customers in this process.
04. Advance the Corporate Vision
The corporate branding strategy is an excellent channel for advancing the corporate vision throughout the company. It allows management to involve, educate and align everyone around the corporate objectives, values and future pathway. It provides a guiding star and leads everyone in the same direction. (The internal efforts counts towards least 50% of making a corporate branding strategy successful)
05. Exploit New Technology
Modern technology should play a part in a successful corporate branding strategy. Technology contributes to improving effectiveness and improving the competitive edge of the corporation. A well-designed and fully updated Intranet is a must in today’s working environment which has become increasingly virtual with employees working from home, from other locations and traveling across the globe. An Extranet can facilitate more seamless integration with strategic partners, suppliers and customers, avoiding time consuming paper work and manual handling of many issues. A company website is not only a must, but rather a crucial channel for any modern corporation regardless of size. If the corporation is not accessible on the Internet, it does not exist! The more professional the website is, the better the perception among the Internet savvy modern customer. More and more corporations are also adopting the use of social media networks, such as facebook, to connect with their clientele.
06. Empower People to Become Brand Ambassadors
The most important asset in any organization are its people. They interact every day with colleagues, customers, suppliers, competitors and industry experts. As well as interacting with an impressive number of people totally disconnected to the corporation in the form of family members, friends, former colleagues and many others. Hence they serve as the corporations most important brand ambassador as word-of-mouth can be extremely valuable and have agreat impact on the overall corporate brand image. The most effective way to turn employees into brand ambassadors is to train everyone adequately in the corporate brand strategy (vision, values and personality etc.) making sure they fully understand – and believe! – what exactly the corporation aims to be in the minds of its customers and stakeholders. Nike is a brand which is known for their efforts in educating and empowering everyone employed by the company to be strong brand ambassadors.
07. Create the Right Delivery System
The corporate brand is the face of the business strategy and basically it promises what all stakeholders should expect from the corporation. Therefore, the delivery of the right products and services should be carefully scrutinized and evaluated on performance before any corporation starts a corporate branding project. Think of the cradle to grave concept, of a lifelong customer and the value he/she will provide in such a time span. Make sure he/she is handled with outstanding care according to internal specifications and outside expectations. The moment of truth is when the corporate brand promise is delivered well – and it does not hurt if the corporation exceeds the customer expectation. Singapore Airlines runs a very rigid, detailed and in-depth description of any customer touch point with the corporation. Resources are spent on making sure it actually does happen every time to every customer. All employees regardless of title and rank from Singapore Airlines spend a significant amount of workdays being trained every year.
08. Communicate
To bring the corporate brand to life one needs to implement a range of well-planned, well-executed marketing activities, ensuring the overall messages are consistent, clear and relevant to the target audiences. Making sure the various messages are concise and easy to comprehend. Do not try to communicate every single point from the corporate branding strategy. Instead, use a selective approach, will make much more impact using the same resources.
09. Measure the Brand Performance
A brand is accountable and so too should a corporate brand. How much value does it provide to the corporation and how instrumental is the brand in securing competitiveness? These are some of the questions which need to be answered and which the CEO will automatically seek as part of his/her commitment to run the strategy successfully. The brand equity consists of various individually tailor-made key performance indicators (including the financial brand value) needs to be tracked regularly. A brand score card can help facilitate an overview of the brand equity and which gauge progress as the strategy is implemented.
10. Adjust Relentlessly and Be Ready to Raise Your Own Bar
The business landscape is changing almost every day in every industry. Hence the corporation needs to evaluate and possibly adjust the corporate branding strategy on a regular basis. Obviously, a corporate brand should stay relevant, differentiated and consistent throughout time, so it is a crucial balance. The basic parts of the corporate branding strategy like vision, identity, personality and values are not to be changed often as they are the basic components. The changes are rather small and involve the thousands of daily actions and interpersonal behaviors, which the corporations employ as part of the brand marketing efforts. But make sure complacency does not take root in the organisation and affect goal setting. The strongest brands are the ones which are driven forward by owners whom never get tired of raising their own bar. They become their own change agents – and brand champions for great brands.