Corporate Branding: Definition, Importance, Tools and Examples

1. What is Corporate Branding?
2. But why is corporate branding so important?
3. Employer Branding vs. Corporate Branding
4. Product Branding vs. Corporate Branding
5. How can a company's corporate branding be developed and maintain? And which tools support this?
6. Step by step to successful corporate branding
7. What challenges are there in building and maintaining a successful corporate branding?
8. What Role does Corporate Identity and Corporate Design play in Corporate Branding?
9. What role do social responsibility and sustainability play in corporate branding?
10. Conclusion: Corporate Branding

When you hear the term corporate branding, you might think of gigantic giants like fast food chains (McDonalds) or car manufacturers (Mercedes), but corporate branding is crucial for all companies, from small local businesses to large e-commerce brands. Why corporate branding is so important and how to develop your own corporate branding - you will find out in this article by guest author Melina Schneider.

What is Corporate Branding?

To explain corporate branding to you very easily, I have a small task for you: please think of your favorite brand. Think of the slogan this brand uses, the logo, the colors, the ambassadors.

And voila, there you have it. These and a few other elements make up corporate branding!

To summarize: Corporate branding is the mission and culture of a brand in colors, logo, slogan, text, sound and image.

Pretty easy, right?

But why is corporate branding so important?

We live in the age of the Internet and digitization, in a time when each of us can search online worldwide for information, tips & tricks, instructions or the next bargain vacation. So people are exposed to more stimuli and information than ever before. If you want to stand out here, you need a unique brand perception.

This means, if you want to establish your brand or make your company more attractive as an employer, you need a marketing strategy. And this also includes a branding concept. Otherwise, it will be difficult to be noticed at all and not to disappear in the mass of providers. In addition, the brand is an important link that ensures an emotional bond with the target groups. Emotions play a big role in marketing, and when a consumer can identify with the values of your brand, they automatically build a connection. This emotional bond increases customer loyalty and profit.

A successful example of corporate branding of a supermarket chain is the brand "Edeka".

We love food - who doesn't know the advertising slogan?

This supermarket chain has managed to build a strong and appealing brand that stands for quality and proximity to the customer. Edeka focuses on regional products and offers a wide range of organic products. Through targeted marketing measures and a strong presence on social media, Edeka has managed to build a loyal customer base and successfully differentiate itself from the competition. Therefore, you should create a brand that succeeds in building an emotional bond between the product and customers.

This way you will stay in the minds of your customers, build trust and your customers will recognise the benefit and added value of your service or product. These customers may later become loyal repeat buyers if you convince them. How you can increase your Brand Awareness can be found here.

Now you have learned quite a lot about corporate branding, but besides this there is also employer branding and product branding. But what exactly do these terms mean? Let's take a closer look at the whole thing.

Employer Branding vs. Corporate Branding

Branding is not the same as branding. In addition to classic corporate branding, the employer brand (Employer Branding) is also becoming increasingly important. Anyone who wants to survive in the war for talent needs to convince not only customers, but also employees of their own brand and mission.

As a company-strategic measure, employer branding aims to make the company more attractive as an employer. Corresponding branding measures are usually developed by the marketing department in cooperation with the HR team.

The goal is to bring out and make tangible the culture and benefits of the company, in order to find and hold top work talent with the help of a suitable Employer Branding Strategy.

Even though corporate (corporate branding or Digital Branding) and employer brands (employer branding) are different, they should not be considered or treated as separating differences. Both must be strongly merged in their purpose and meaning in order to emotionally and authentically address the decisive stakeholders and win their attention with conviction. The following factors should be taken under the microscope when developing an attractive employer branding:

Perception:

• How is your company perceived in the market?
• What do potential applicants and your employees associate with your brand and your values?
• Which other companies is your brand competing with?

Market:

• What is the situation on the current job market?
• For which positions in your company are you missing suitable talents?
• How high is employee turnover?

Employee Happiness:

• How satisfied is the existing personnel in your company?
• Do your employees have everything they need for productive and efficient work?
• Do regular team building measures take place?

Applicant Experience:

• How well does your application process go?
• What makes applicants decide against you?
• Is there an onboarding process?

After you have carefully checked all the factors mentioned, you have a more precise picture of how your brand is currently positioned and where something needs to be tweaked.

Product Branding vs. Corporate Branding

Packaging, advertising, and the product itself are at the focus of product branding. It covers all the messages, emotions, and feelings that people associate with a certain product.

Product branding is particularly important when a company offers a wide range of products for different segments. In this case, all products usually bear the company logo, and the packaging of the individual products have a similar design and color palette.

Others again have many different products. A company could, for example, sell both cleaning products and snacks. In this case, each product would have its own label and packaging design.

These questions you should definitely consider when creating a product brand:

• What is the purpose of the product?
• Who is the target group for the product?
• What do buyers like about similar products on the market and what do they dislike?
• How do your products differentiate themselves?

Unlike corporate branding, product branding focuses directly on the product and not on the company behind it.

How can a company's corporate branding be developed and maintain? And which tools support this?

You already run a company, want to become self-employed in the future, maybe even start your own business or build a brand?

An important step in developing and maintaining corporate brand is creating a clear and uniform corporate identity. This includes the creation of a brand strategy that defines your company's goals, values, and image to later make you known and to establish and scale on the markets.

Step by step to successful corporate branding

1. Define your brand's goals

Decide which values and visions should be conveyed?

What sets your product or service apart and how does it differ from the competition?

Which target group do you want to address? Make sure here that you don't look too strategic, but instead engage with the concerns and emotions of your target group.

2. Develop a Marketing Strategy

Describe what the identity of your brand should look like. A brand stands for a way of life or a movement. A brand must be something clear, something defined. The brand must stay true to its core!

3. Visibility and Appearance

Good branding includes a unique brand name as well as a suitable logo and slogan, in matching colors. The branding serves to increase the visibility of your brand.

• Black → Elegance and legality
• White → Pure and Sterile
• Gray → Maturity and justice
• Brown → Hardness and seriousness
• Blue → Calm and trust
• Green → Naturalness and sustainability
• Red → Power and expression
• Pink → Security and calm
• Orange → Energy and liveliness
• Yellow → Positivity and warmth

Source: Zervant

4. Social Media Presence

Today, customers are interested in honest, real and authentic companies, which live and pursue a real vision. And let's be honest, in the digital age you reach your target groups best on social networks. Get involved with your target group, stay true to them and communicate on the platforms where this target group is located.

Helpful tools to support you in setting up and organising are for one Asana, here you can create boards where you can structure everything, set deadlines and have the opportunity to delegate your tasks to other people.

The comment function also allows you to give direct feedback, suggestions or improvements. The tool is super easy to understand and makes planning a lot easier. The free version is completely sufficient at the beginning.

A detailed explanation of the tool and reviews can also be found on OMR Reviews.

Another tool that can help you with the creation and first drafts of your logo, your slogan, your brand or social media posts is the design tool Canva Pro.

Here not only can you quickly and easily create professional graphics, visuals or logos without prior knowledge, but you also have a lot of free templates that give you inspiration and you can adapt yourself and your business.

As alternatives, Adobe Express or Figma are also offered. More graphic design tools can be found on OMR reviews including detailed explanations and real user reviews.

Not to forget, to maintain a strong corporate brand, it is important to regularly review and adjust the brand strategy to ensure that it still meets the needs and expectations of your target audience.

Corporate branding is a continuous process that includes both the development and maintenance of the brand. With a clear branding strategy, a uniform corporate design and authentic communication, a company can build up and/or expand a strong, attractive corporate brand and successfully position it in the market.

What challenges are there in building and maintaining a successful corporate branding?

Building and maintaining a successful corporate branding is not an easy task and poses some challenges. Some of these are:

Clarification of Goals and Values: To build a successful corporate brand, it is important to clearly define the goals and values of your company and convey these in all aspects of brand communication.

Unified Corporate Design: A consistent corporate design is important in order to make the brand recognizable and easily memorable. A challenge is to maintain this corporate design in all communication channels.

Authenticity: Authentic and credible communication is important to win the confidence of the target audience. A challenge is to convey the brand message credibly and genuinely.

Competition: Strong corporate branding can help set you apart from the competition. However, it can be quite a challenge to successfully position yourself in a fiercely competitive market.

Employee Participation: Without employee participation, the rabbit doesn't run properly, because they live and spread the brand. So you have to manage to motivate the employees and sensitize them to follow a common vision and goal.

Continuity: The brand must be continuously maintained and adapted to the changing needs and expectations of the target audience.

All in one, establishing and maintaining a successful corporate branding is a complex process that requires a lot of time and effort. To be successful, it is important to clearly define the goals and values of the company, develop a unified corporate design and conduct authentic and credible communication. This requires both employee participation and a long-term approach. To support you in this process, here are some Brand Management Software Tools, that ease your digital resources to products, to the brand and your employees.

What Role does Corporate Identity and Corporate Design play in Corporate Branding?

Building and scaling a company means building trust and customer loyalty in the long term.

A consistent appearance, whether in the visual image or the tone of your texts, lays the foundation and determines your corporate identity - the Corporate Identity.

Take your time to think about what feelings you want to evoke in the customers and what problems you can solve for your customers. Once you have mastered this, you implement your corporate identity in corporate design. But also which words you choose, how you present yourself online in social media and which values and visions you represent, determine your corporate identity.

Corporate Design is part of the Corporate Identity, so to speak the look that underscores the identity. If you do not have a clearly defined corporate design, it is difficult to establish your corporate identity! A coordinated, consistent appearance is the be all and end all so that potential customers are not only visually addressed, but also recognize the brand.

You need a clear message or philosophy that is expressed through colors, images and fonts. Ultimately, it should be an appealing overall package!

The best example here is Tempo. If your nose is running, you don't ask for a tissue, but for a tempo.

(Image from Google as an example)

What role do social responsibility and sustainability play in corporate branding?

In today's society, social responsibility and sustainability play an increasingly important role in corporate management and also in corporate branding. Consumers and investors are paying more and more attention to the fact that companies act ethically and responsibly and take care of the environment, and society.

Good social and environmentally friendly performance can contribute to improving a company's reputation and strengthening ties to customers and investors. Companies that commit to social and environmental goals are often perceived as trustworthy and responsible and can thus strengthen their brand.

When it comes to sustainability, many people probably think first of ecological aspects, because ecological aspects primarily refer to the responsible handling of finances and create leeway for investments. In this case, companies should ensure the best possible supply for society with the lowest possible cost.

Example: The financial support of employees in company pension schemes.

Besides the ecological aspects, the social ones also play an important role in sustainability in corporate branding, because here the focus is on the employees and their needs. It's about creating a framework so that employees can fully develop their talents and abilities and also enjoy their work.

Example: Flexible working hours and location-independent working. This makes many things easier, such as balancing work and private life or the general ability to work whenever it fits.

So hardly any company can avoid the issue of social responsibility and sustainability. It is important that the company management also stands behind it and provides the necessary resources!

Conclusion: Corporate Branding

No matter whether it is a small local company, a digital start-up or a large corporation, corporate branding can take companies to the next level.

Potential customers or existing customers not only choose companies based on their products or services, but nowadays also because of their social and ecological goals.

It is more important than ever to show your target group what is behind your products, your service and your company.

From logo and product packaging to service and website to advertising and working conditions. With design and communication, you transport your message and vision outward and ensure recognition!

Corporate branding helps you build your brand image and deeply anchor yourself in the minds of your target group. So customers connect your company name to your image or even to a single product - just think of the example with tempo.

If you have done that, you evoke memories and make your company a strong corporate brand! And if you are looking for more Corporate Branding Tips, you will find more in this article.