Your corporate brand needs to be thoroughly thought out,
planned, nurtured, executed, monitored and, when necessary, modified. It
is the organisation's most valuable commodity and deserves to always be
treated as such.
Development and management of the corporate brand is one of the most
potent tools available for senior executives to use in ensuring the
viable execution of the corporate vision.
Not only does the corporate image management process provide
entrepreneurs and business leaders with the highest level of functional
control of the organisation, it also provides one of the most powerful
strategic marketing weapons available in the corporate arsenal.
Progressive corporate leaders will use this new management and marketing
discipline to drive their organisations forward to victory in today's
and tomorrow's marketing battlefields.
The underlying principle of this discipline is this:
if it touches the customer, it's a marketing issueTM. Nothing touches the customer more than how they perceive your corporate image.
This fundamental perception will be the major factor that determines
whether the customer will decide to conduct business with you and, more
importantly, enter into a long-term and mutually rewarding relationship
with your organisation.
There may be no greater marketing issue than corporate image management
in today's increasingly competitive markets. In short, corporate image
management will be a key marketing discipline well into the next
century.
The ultimate battleground for winning and maintaining customer
relationships now takes place in the minds, hearts, emotions and
perceptions of the customer.
Developing a powerful corporate brand is a circular, continuous,
five-phase process that can be applied at any stage of an organisation's
development.
Unfortunately, the process is usually marketed as a once-off "corporate
identity exercise", which CEOs resort to in times of turmoil, during
periods of sweeping change, or when they desire to leave their mark on
the organisation for future generations.
Corporate image management should not be an occasional stimulus that
prompts the senior management of the organisation to regroup and analyse
how to project the "best" image for the organisation.
It should not be a sporadic or irregular process of re-thinking key
issues facing the company, and then packaging a plan of action items
bundled under an inflated "mission statement" that gets communicated
to the people in the organisation.
It should definitely not be a series of temporary measures that are
reactions to market conditions that do not change the primary value
systems or conduct of the organisation.
When organisations start to think "our customers just don't get it", or
"if they really knew and understood us, they'd want to be our partner",
the organisation has a corporate image perception problem that is not
necessarily going to be fixed through marketing communications.
Most likely, the problem requires internal procedures and behaviour
patterns to change and be communicated through action, not via a media
campaign.
The consultants who come in and tell you that senior management needs to
take time away from their busy schedules to participate in a short-term
corporate identity exercise are wrong.
This leads to the attitude that the corporate image can be fixed through
an assigned task force that will tell the rest of the organisation what
and how to communicate the corporate identity.
Corporate brand management should be the driving force for a continuous
process of thinking and evaluation on how the organisation can leverage
its strengths and its corporate persona to evolve into the kind of
organisation it desires to be.
It is the constant need for self-understanding and systemic feedback
from employees, customers, stakeholders and the marketplace that is at
the heart of an authentic corporate image management process. It is also
a never-ending process that must be integrated into all aspects of the
organisation.
The five phases of the corporate image management process are:
- Preliminary audit, research and evaluation
- Analysis, strategy, planning and development
- Creative exploration
- Refinement and implementation
- Monitoring, managing and marketing of the corporate image
This corporate image management process helps to ensure that channels of
communication within the organisation, and with all appropriate
external audiences, are both fluid and multi-directional.
Such fluidity helps to prevent mis-communication and better ensures that
the organisation has a conscious and collective finger on the pulse of
evolving market forces, marketing environment trends, changing customer
needs and desires, and relationship development and maintenance
requirements.
Internally, the multi-directional and cross-organisational
communications result in almost everyone within the organisation
understanding and accepting the collective goals and knowing the
importance of the path being embarked upon by the organisation.
This becomes crucially important when the organisation begins to include
partnering and external partnerships as part of its future growth
strategy.
The objective of the corporate brand management process is to provide
the organisation, on an on-going basis, with a cohesive corporate image
management structure, corporate culture and a set of acceptable internal
and external behavioural patterns.
A powerful corporate brand will provide optimum competitive advantages,
increased employee morale and loyalty, and a future direction for the
organisation.
A qualitative process
Part of the initial process to developing a powerful corporate brand
comprises qualitative interviews with internal and external audiences.
The internal interviews are conducted at all levels of the organisation,
from front-line staff and backroom support personnel, to senior
management and the Board of Directors.
The interviews with external audiences will include key customers, end
users, joint venture or other business partners, shareholders or other
stakeholders, suppliers, distributors, retailers, prospective customers
and partners, government officials, senior media people and other
outside influences, competitors, and members of the general public.
The interviews focus on how the organisation is currently perceived by
these key audiences and what perceptions are held about the company's
direction for the future and its capabilities to handle or execute
change.
The objective is to gain an understanding of the market's perception of
the organisation by its customers, partners and competition, and to
contrast these perceptions with those held by various levels within its
own employee and management staff. Another aim is to identify the
organisation's internal willingness and current acceptance levels for
change.
While this research is qualitative in nature, the issues to be examined
and discussed during the interview process are highly strategic in
nature.
The benefit of the one-on-one qualitative interview methodology is that
it allows each respondent to focus on those points that are of the
greatest importance to them..
Due to the extreme sensitivity of the topics to be covered during the
discussions, an outside resource is definitely required to handle and
analyse these interviews. Also, the outside resource must completely
ensure the confidentiality of each participant and in no way reveal to
the client any details or particulars about which comments came from any
individual.
The number of interviews required for this process to be effective is
usually a minimum of between 25 and 40, depending upon the size and
complexity of the organisation.
It is best if the interviews are conducted by two or more researchers or
consultants, who then compare notes at the one-third point to see if
any trends are already developing or if the questionnaire needs
adjusting.
This methodology will yield a tremendous insight into the present
corporate image of the organisation, as perceived both internally and
externally. Because of the open-ended nature of the specific questions
used, the feedback can be readily interpreted into specific observations
and recommendations that can be actioned later in the corporate image
management process.
The interview process answers these key questions:
- How is the corporate image being portrayed and projected today?
- How is the organisation perceived by its key internal and external audiences?
- How does the image of the organisation compare with those of its competitors?
- How does the image of the organisation compare to the image desired by management?
- Will the current corporate image enable the organisation to reach
the goals and objectives set for it over the next three to five years?
By starting the corporate brand development process with a review of the
existing corporate brand perceptions, the organisation has a clear view
and understanding of where it is today, an important criterion when
trying to decide how one wants to be perceived in the foreseeable
future.
From here, it is a matter of relatively simple steps to create a
well-defined corporate brand positioning platform, that is supported by
the core attributes of the organisation and a series of strategic image
marketing objectives that will help to guide future business directions
and brand development.
Source:ceoonline.com
