How To Successfully Engage In Corporate Branding

Corporate branding involves the communication and promotion of an organisation’s values, vision and culture – it’s ‘vibe’ – to inspire brand loyalty in their customers, employees, and stakeholders. Loyal brand ambassadors are ones who feel that a company’s ethos and culture aligns with theirs’.

In many ways, the public relate to and engage with a company’s brand as if it’s an actual personality. This is why the recent Volkswagen (VW) emissions scandal was so bad for business: VW was meant to be trustworthy, and the fact that the organisation (knowingly or unwittingly) deceived its customers was more scandalous than the flawed product itself. VW let its people down.

Positive sentiment towards an organisation’s brand ultimately drives sales, profit margins and a business’ overall success

This is why effective corporate branding strategies are so important. Marketing managers are responsible for developing an organisation’s corporate branding and, whether they like it or not, corporate events form part of this marketing strategy.

So, how do marketing managers plan and execute events so that these experiences strongly resonate with attendees and have a positive spin-off for their organisation’s corporate identity and brand?

1.Start at the beginning – it’s a good place to start

An interesting research article by Professor Simon Knox and David Bickerton suggests that getting back to the basics may just be part of the answer. Management (both in marketing and senior leadership) first needs to make sure that the company’s vision, culture and image are aligned so that they can correctly position the organisation’s brand. As management develops a better understanding of their organisation’s unique brand identity and image, they can then more effectively communicate this across the organisation – and beyond – through their brand management activities.

When it comes to running corporate events, a company’s corporate branding must be intentionally communicated through the type of event experiences that the business organises. An organisation’s core vision, culture, values and image need to be well-represented at every point of engagement with event guests.

2. Work on articulating brand statements and ensuring brand consistency

When (re)constructing a brand, Knox and Bickerton recommend that a set of brand statements be developed to describe the organisation’s corporate branding position. This will help to develop a unified corporate language for an organisation’s formal and informal communications.

According to the Knox and Bickerton, consistency in communications is also key for effective corporate branding. Communication for corporate events needs to align with the company’s brand statements and style guide and remain consistent in style and tone, to help build on (and not break down) what guests already know about the organisation’s brand identity.

In many ways, email invitation software is ideal for ensuring consistency in corporate branding communications.