Читать книгу Launching & Building a Brand For Dummies - Amy Will - Страница 44

A business or corporate brand establishes and communicates an organization’s identity to all stakeholders, internal and external, including customers, investors, executives, managers, and staff. Corporate branding involves ensuring alignment of everything that goes into defining the organization’s identity, including the following:

 Mission statement: The organization’s overall purpose.

 Vision statement: How the organization plans to develop over time.

 Values: The beliefs, philosophies, and principles that guide the organization’s decisions and behaviors.

 Core competencies: The sets of resources and skills that enable an organization to deliver something special to the marketplace.

 Value proposition: What the company delivers to the market that drives consumer demand for it.

 Workplace culture: The way people within the organization generally think, behave, and interact. In a hierarchy, employees generally do what they’re told by their superiors, whereas in a more collaborative culture, everyone shares in decision-making and workplace management.

 Business strategy: The way an organization chooses to achieve its goals and remain competitive.

 Business activities: Daily operations, including marketing, sales, financing, customer service, and supply-chain management.

 Affiliations: Partnerships, associations, and relationships with other businesses and with consumers. An organization’s identity is defined by the company it keeps.

 Brand story: The narrative that relates the facts about a brand in a way that connects emotionally with people. (See Chapter 8 for details on how to compose a brand story.)

 Brand style: Guidelines (see Chapter 6) that establish the brand’s look and feel.

Note that corporate branding isn’t covered in detail in this book, although some aspects of product, service, and personal branding (which are covered in this book) may apply to corporate branding as well.

Corporate branding is long-term with a broad scope. Unlike product branding, which uses a narrow pitch and often adjusts its message to target different sectors and customer demographics, corporate branding strives to create a universal appeal over the long haul with strict consistency.