Defining a Corporate Branding and Communications Strategy

The research process enables an organisation to determine a corporate branding strategy. This is more complex than a brands strategy because, as Chapter 4 has shown, organisations have a wide diversity of audiences who may have countervailing interests. The corporate branding strategy has to determine the relationships — both actual and visual — between the component parts of the organisation and with all audiences. It needs to recognise the people and the product issues of the corporate brand. It needs to work with the strengths and weaknesses of the corporate culture. And it needs to support the organisational strategy. This chapter will address two core issues: the nature of corporate branding structure and the ways and means of developing a corporate communications strategy. In the case of the former, the main requirement is to develop a structure that reflects the nature of the organisation and its priorities. This can either be corporate brand dominant or brands dominant. The corporate identity research programme, outlined in Chapter 4, will act as a guide to which structure is most appropriate.