Achieving a competitive edge in the global business environment is challenging. Achieving competitive advantage through unique positioning grounded in a corporate identity and sound brand strategy are essential. Is your company willing to make an investment of time and intellectual capital to develop and implement a corporate identity and brand strategy? As Asian economies continue to expand, companies across the continent must become aware of the need to develop significant corporate identities and brand strategies. While companies in India, China and other countries in Asia are impressive in their manufacturing, engineering and ability to attract investment dollars, their management teams still have a lot to catch up with the United States, Japan and the European Union, when it comes to fully understanding and implementing branding capabilities. Developing a corporate identity entails more than creating a logo, design, color scheme, trademarks and trade dress. It is much more than coming up with an interesting tag line. Before your company engages in developing any of these outward expressions, it had better look inward to its personality and characteristics so that it can develop its brand identity.
A company's corporate identity expresses the core of the company. Classic branding enables the company to create a unique identity and differentiated positioning from all of its competitors. It is vitally important to develop a corporate identity, whether a company offers products or services. Whether it is engaged in business-to-business or business-to-consumer sales activities. To be truly effective, the newly-created corporate identity is not merely employed as a tool in the firm's marketing department, but is embraced by the entire management team, from the CEO down the line. This takes courage and unwavering commitment, but in order to be successfully and strategically implemented, the corporate brand must be the primary focus of the entire corporate organization.
What are the benefits of establishing a powerful corporate identity? Firstly, the corporate brand should encompass the vision, aspirations and values of the company. The unique personality and image of the company should shine through. Secondly, the corporate brand enables the targeted customer to understand simply, and clearly, who the company is, what it does, and exactly what makes its product or service offerings unique and more desirable than any of its competitors'. Thirdly, the strength of the corporate brand and its ensuing marketing strategies enables the company to command premium prices for its products or services. As the firm grows, it will become even more attractive to investors. It will attract top talent to become employees of the company. It will survive periods of economic downturns and the inevitability of increased competition in the marketplace. Companies with strong corporate identities are profitable. Most importantly, the strong corporate identity builds trust over time. Customer trust is earned when a strong brand identity is consistently maintained and the brand promise fulfilled-day in and day out; year in and year out. |
