Corporate Branding and The Effect It Has On Business

Corporate Branding and the Effect it has on Business

By Bryan Calabro

What is a corporate brand?

• A corporate brand represents the image and essentially the message a consumer receives from a company

• Single or multiple points of attack

• Logo, color, type treatment, product packaging, advertisements, stationary

• Quality of the product and or service

^Investopedia.com

Context of the problem

• Branding is often overlooked

•“Consumers can form explanatory links and favorable perceptions of fit when parent brand associations are salient and relevant in the extension context, e.g., when dominant parent brand associations and the brand-to-extension relationship are consistent.”

^Bridges, S., Keller, K., & Sood, S. (2000). Communication Strategies for Brand Extensions: Enhancing Perceived Fit by Establishing Explanatory Links

Justification for research

• Branding is often overlooked

• Highlight the relationship between a brands and the effect they have both positively and negatively on business

• A base for experiments done on effective brand strategies for companies or universities

• Every successful product has a successful brand image

Review of related literature

• Communication Strategies for Brand Extensions: Enhancing Perceived Fit by Establishing Explanatory Links

• Colors, Brands, and Trademarks (Cadbury Brand)

• Executive Insights: Integrating Branding Strategy Across Markets: Building International Brand Architecture

• Establishing the Charles Kennedy Brand: A Strategy for an Election the Result of which is a Foregone Conclusion

• Evaluative Conditioning Procedures and the Resilience of Conditioned Brand Attitudes

Communication Strategies for Brand Extensions: Enhancing Perceived Fit by Establishing Explanatory Links

• Perceived fit of a brand extension results when consumers can establish explanatory links that connect the parent brand

• Explanatory links are created when noticeable parent brand associations are seen as relevant in the extension context

• Salience and relevance of associations depends, in part, upon the dominant parent brand associations Ex. Just Do it

Colors, Brands, and Trademarks (Cadbury Brand)

• Legal aspects of registering trademarked

• Legal problems can arise in terms of establishing the distinctiveness of a particular color

• Many methodologies used to support claims of distinct brands are noted in research

• Comparison of three alternative methods is presented, showing results in the case of an association between the candy firm Cadbury and their particular shade of purple

• Advantages are a brand being known are discussed

Evaluative Conditioning Procedures and the Resilience of Conditioned Brand Attitudes

• Evaluative conditioning, or the pairing of a brand name product with a positive to change brand attitudes

• The brand attitude changes happens either by establishing a memory link between the brand and a positive

• Eliminate interference from external information in regards to the brand and use moral persuasion tactics for brand trust

• Repeatedly affecting a person with a brand image has been shown to link the brand to that mood

Establishing the Charles Kennedy Brand: A Strategy for an Election the Result of which is a Foregone Conclusion.

• Eliminated after further research

• Outlined history of the UK Liberal Democratic Party

• How the strategy for the General Election campaign evolved within the party

• Traces the presentation of Charles Kennedy MP as the new leader of the Liberal Democrats

• The allocation of campaign resources and key events impacting upon the campaign

Q1:

Does a corporate brand play a role in the success of a business?

H1:

A corporate brand plays a significant role in the success of a business because the brand represents the message of a company.

Research questions and hypothesis

• Textual Analysis- Evaluate level of effectiveness (of brands overtime)

• Note reasons for impact to business and society as a whole

• General examination of meaning- Burkean Analysis’s Dramatistic Pentad

Examining the act, scene, agent, agency and purpose

Why are brands necessary?

Methodology used

• EbscoHost database used to obtain five peer reviewed, scholarly journal articles in regard to different aspects of the corporate branding spectrum

• Each of these articles had a significant focus regarding brand

• Three corresponding articles were chosen because they covered the relationship of color, a perceived fit of a parent brand using explanatory links and because they dissect the process of conditioned brand attitudes overtime

Methodology used (cont.)

Methodology used (cont.)

• Color trademarking

• “Although initially developed as an identifying device, trademarks also simplify a consumers purchase process.”

• Trademarked brand becomes a description of what the product it is, it may fall into the generic category although even when it is already trademarked (Ex. Scotch Tape)

Results: Colors, Brands, and Trademarks: Cadbury Brand

^Hoek, J., & Gendall, P. (2010). Colors, Brands, and Trademarks. Journal Of Advertising Research, 50(3), 316-322. doi:10.2501/S0021849910091476

• “Over the last decade, several companies have registered colors as trademarks after demonstrating that a particular color has become consistently linked with a specific brand this it has acquired a secondary meaning.”

• Courts found consumers might use a color to identify products where trademarks were undistinguishable (Ex. Qualitex)

Results: Colors, Brands, and Trademarks: Cadbury Brand (Cont.)

^Hoek, J., & Gendall, P. (2010). Colors, Brands, and Trademarks. Journal Of Advertising Research, 50(3), 316-322. doi:10.2501/S0021849910091476

• Color-card method• The color purple was strongly associated with

the Cadbury brand and few other respondents cited purple with any other brands

• A color-wheel method• All three existing brands had strong

associations with the colors that dominate their packaging

• Choice modeling method• Cadbury-purple brand/color combination had

the highest utility in the choice-modeling analysis, indicating that other brands were less attractive

Results: Colors, Brands, and Trademarks: Cadbury Brand (Cont.)

^Hoek, J., & Gendall, P. (2010). Colors, Brands, and Trademarks. Journal Of Advertising Research, 50(3), 316-322. doi:10.2501/S0021849910091476

• “ Any parent brand association, including category, brand concept, or brand-specific associations, can connect the parent brand with an extension and serve as a basis for a perceived fit.”

• Brand was described as a memory with dominant inner meanings and symbolism with consumers, attributes, benefits and image/graphic related associations

• Conceptualized the cementing of a good brand in memory by its relationship to a certain attribute, benefit or image-related association

Results: Communication Strategies for Brand Extensions: Enhancing Perceived Fit by Establishing Explanatory Links

^Bridges, S., Keller, K., & Sood, S. (2000). Communication Strategies for Brand Extensions: Enhancing Perceived Fit by Establishing Explanatory Links

• There is a a perceived fit between a parent brand and a consumer’s attitude when they evaluate a new product

• If a product is bad, it negatively impacts the parent brand and ruins the reputation of the brand identity and brand trust

• “Brand associations by definition can be any association linked to the brand in memory, including attributes, benefits, users, packaging, pricing, etc.

• Ex. Tiffany’s Jewelry

Results: Communication Strategies for Brand Extensions: Enhancing Perceived Fit by Establishing Explanatory Links (Cont.)

^Bridges, S., Keller, K., & Sood, S. (2000). Communication Strategies for Brand Extensions: Enhancing Perceived Fit by Establishing Explanatory Links

• “Evaluative conditioning is evidenced by an affective response to an initially neutral conditioned stimulus subsequent to its pairing with a valence unconditioned stimulus”

• Proven that the repeated pairings of a brand and a pleasant event create a memory association between the two, therefore the brand with a pleasant event, theme, motif, or symbol attached to it has a more of a favorable effect on the consumer

• Sweldons experiment on effective stimulus reevaluation provided evidence that both indirect and direct responses can result from evaluative condition processes

Results: Evaluative Conditioning Procedures and the Resilience of Conditioned Brand Attitudes

^Sweldens, S., J. Van Osselaer, S. M., & Janiszewski, C. (2010). Evaluative Conditioning Procedures and the Resilience of Conditioned Brand Attitudes

• Brands do this overtime with evaluative conditioning and continuous marketing, promotion and advertising with common ideas, images and themes

Results: Evaluative Conditioning Procedures and the Resilience of Conditioned Brand Attitudes (Cont.)

^Sweldens, S., J. Van Osselaer, S. M., & Janiszewski, C. (2010). Evaluative Conditioning Procedures and the Resilience of Conditioned Brand Attitudes

• Firms that are involved in closely related product lines or businesses that share a common technology rely on similar core competencies

• Cultural embeddedness is the ingrained beliefs inherent in a market a brand is trying to target. There are different variants depending on the culture of the people in each market

• Cater to the needs of people• Ex. Food, Tea vs. Beer

Results: Executive Insights: Integrating Branding Strategy Across Markets: Building International Brand Architecture

^Douglas, S. P., Craig, C., & Nijssen, E. J. (2001). Executive Insights: Integrating Branding Strategy Across Markets: Building International Brand Architecture

• Competitive market structure

• “If strong local, national, or regional competitors as well as global competitors are present in a given national or regional market, the use of multitier branding structure is desirable”

• Coca-Cola (Multitier Branding Structure)

• Coca-Cola has a particular pear tasting Coca-Cola soda for Turkey and a berry version of Fanta for Germany’s market

Results: Executive Insights: Integrating Branding Strategy Across Markets: Building International Brand Architecture (Cont.)

^Douglas, S. P., Craig, C., & Nijssen, E. J. (2001). Executive Insights: Integrating Branding Strategy Across Markets: Building International Brand Architecture

• A brand plays a significant role in the success of a business because the brand represents the message of a company

• Proven and also repeatedly reaffirmed throughout all research done in these peer reviewed, scholarly articles

• Successful branding campaigns were proven effective throughout most mediums

• If a brand does not accurately represent the parent brand and shows any kind of disarray in regards to the parent brand, it loses the credibility of the established and well-known brand

Discussion

• If the company loses their parent brand’s credibility because the product fails to live up to the satisfaction of a consumer, the company’s overall image will suffer

• A positive branding strategy should be in place so consumers have much more of an easier time connecting with the product whilst knowing the ideals embodied in that product

• Customer satisfaction is the true reason for a successful branding strategy (Ex. Qualitex)

Discussion (Cont.)

• Much easier to buy or consume products from a particular brand if it is iconic, has its own style, themes, and motifs that correspond with the style, themes and motifs a consumer themselves thinks they would like to embody

• A good example of a consumer’s embodiment of product style is a brand’s movement to be environmentally friendly

• Recyclable T-Shirt at PacSun - Appeals to a consumer’s sense of self-worth and

well being knowing they are doing something to help the environment

• Ex. Tom’s Shoes

Discussion (Cont.)

• There are many options when it comes to researching the effectiveness of corporate brands that were not mentioned in this research mainly because of the space allotted

• Experimental results from each of the scholarly, peer-reviewed articles reviewed in this paper should be used in future research

• Base experiments off the highlighted studies

• Eliminate the Charles Kennedy Brand source

Recommendations for further research

• A visual style guide from an existing successful company should be showcased

• Highlight the necessity of maintaining the parent-brand image throughout branching products

Recommendations for further research (Cont.)

Parent Brands

• This research shows the absolute positive or negative effectiveness a brand has on a successful company or organization

Accomplishments

Brand On!