What Does Your Corporate Brand Stand For? - Harvard Business Review

® Professor emeritus, Harvard Business School Associate professor, Lund University Stephen A. Greyser ® arketing Mats Urde What Does Your Corporate Brand Stand For? It's harder to. create astrong identity for an entire company.... than for aproduct. This tool kn can help you get there. · ;:i:!I:t. :...

® Professor emeritus, Harvard Business School Associate professor, Lund University Stephen A. Greyser ® arketing Mats Urde What Does Your Corporate Brand Stand For? It's harder to. create astrong identity for an entire company.... than for aproduct. This tool kn can help you get there. · ;:i:!I:t. :1.·.·.·.·.·.·.....................'...... ::::::::::::- IO O O IO...................................... IO I I Io. ' ' ❖::::: · ❖' /1/ustrations by MARK ALLEN MILLER Harvard Business Review January-February 2019 81 marketing Idea in Brief. THE PROBLEM A clear corporate brand identity provides direction and purpose. enhances the standing of products. aids in recruiting and retention, and helps protect a firm's reputation in times of trouble. But many companies struggle to define their brands.. THE TOOL The corporate brand identity matrix can address that problem by guiding execu tive teams through a structured set of questions that examine aspects of identity related to the organiza tion's mission, culture, competences, values. and other defining characteristics. THE APPLICATION Companies in a range of industries have used the matrix to clarify the relationship between parent and daughter brands; support business development; evaluate targets for acquisition; and reposition their brand image. 82 Harva rd Bu si ne ss Review Janu a ry- Feb ruary 2019. Companies are extremely good at defining their product brands. Customers, employees, and other stakeholders know exactly what an iPhone is and means. But organizations are often less sure-footed when it comes to the corporate brand. What does the parent company's name really stand for, and how is it perceived and leveraged in the marketplace and within the company itself? Express Yourself A clear, unified corporate identity can be critical to competitive strategy, as firms like Apple, Philips, and Unilever understand. It serves as a north star, providing direction and purpose. It can also enhance the image of individual products, help firms recruit and retain employees, and provide protection against reputational damage in times of trouble. Many firms, however, struggle to articulate and communicate their brand. Consider the €35 billion Volvo Group, which sells a broad portfolio of trucks, buses, construction equipment, and marine and industrial engines. After its new CEO decentralized the organization, turning its truck brands (Volvo Trucks, Mack Trucks, Renault Trucks, and UD Trucks) into separate units in 2016, questions about the parent company's identity became pressing. Because that identity wasn't well defined, people in the group were uncertain about how they should strategically support the "daughter" brands, and people in the new brand units had trouble understanding how the group's mission, values, and capabilities extended to themand even how to describe their brands' relationships with the Volvo Group in marketing and investor communications. But using a process we'll detail in this article, Volvo was able to clarify its corporate identity and the roles and functions of its daughter brands. That alignment resulted in greater corporate commitment to the brands, sharper positioning in the marketplace, a stronger sense of belonging to the group, and more-coherent marketing and communications. The approach we used to help Volvo achieve this turnaround is the product oflo years of research and engagement with hundreds of senior executives in organizations around the world and across several sectors, including manufacturing, financial services, and nonprofits. At its core is a tool called the corporate brand identity matrix. As we'll show, many companies have adapted this tool to their particular circumstances and used it to successfully define a corporate identity, align its elements, and harness its strengths. INTRODUCING THE MATRIX The framework we've developed guides an executive team through a structured set of questions about the company. Each question focuses on one element of the organization's identity. There are nine elements in total, and in our matrix A visual identity-such as IBM's iconic logo is often considered the essence of a corporate brand's expression, but to us this 1s a narrow interpretation. The expression of a brand also includes attitude or tone of voice (think of Ge1co's gecko), a flagship product (such as Omega's Seamaster watch), taglines (Nike's ''.Just Do It"), and even signature audio clips (MGM's trademarked lion's roar). All these varied forms of brand expression must harmonize. The CEO of an international shipping corporation we know has compared a corporate brand to a work of music, emphasizing that its "melody" must be recognizable in all internal and external communications. His favorite song, "My Way," he explained to us, had been performed by Frank Sinatra, the French star Claude Fran, 'o_.,, THE SECOND DIAGONAL PATH FOCUSES ON COMPETITION: THE FIRST DIAGONAL PATH FOCUSES ON STRATEGY: Our mission is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Our competences are _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ Our vision is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ What we promise is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ What we promise is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Our core values are _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Our core values are _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Our value proposition is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Our intended position in the market is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Do your mission and vision engage and inspire people in your organization and, ideally, beyond it? Do they translate into a promise that the organization will fulfill? Is that promise manifest in the company's positioning? Finally, does the logic a/so flow in the other direction: Does your positioning resonate with your promise and values, which align with the corporate mission and vision? Do the items in the list above fit well together? Do your current competences allow you to keep your promise and provide a solid basis for competitive and appealing value propositions? THE HORIZONTAL PATH FOCUSES ON COMMUNICATION: THE VERTICAL PATH FOCUSES ON INTERACTION: Our culture is Our communication style is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ What we promise is What we promise is Our core values are _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Our core values are The kinds of relationships we strive for are Our corporate personality traits are _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ This section reveals how well your organizational values and culture resonate with and engage people inside and outside your company. Employees are your most important resource for ensuring the authenticity of the corporate brand. If they don't embrace these elements ofyour corporate identity, then your outside relationships, whether with customers, partners, or other stakeholders, will suffer. The corporate personality or character underpins the company's brand core and is expressed in myriad ways, from product design and the architecture of the headquarters to the corporate logo and marketing taglines. Assess how well that personality comes through in all communications, both internal and external. Harvard Business Review January-February 2019 89