adminWhen Scottish author and poet, Robert Louis (Balfour) Stevenson (1850-1894) noted “Everyone lives by selling something” one would not think that he, at any point, imagined that today some people have magnified what they sell more than others.
This is exactly what has happened in today’s corporate world. This has resulted in the creation of well-known brands such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, KFC, McDonald’s, Nokia, Sony, LG, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Toyota, Pierre Cardin, Siemens, Motorola, Samsung, Apple, I-phone, HP, Ceres, Econet, Google and many others.
The brands have stood the test of time and are well known among organisational publics (including customers) mainly because of their success, reputation and image.
Most of the names above have been successful and of good repute and image because of the process of branding. Thus selling, not only the product, but the organisation and its corporate identity.
What then is corporate branding? Branding is a management process of harnessing a combination of attributes that give a company, organisation, group, product or individual an identity.
Branding therefore entails uniqueness, trademark emblem and a certain extraordinary quality and value.
Most publics go for any of the above brands because they endow a certain aura of status, value, quality, tradition, image, reputation and class.
And looking at this understanding, it means branding cannot stand on its own but needs corporate emblem.
It is in this frame that Public Relations (PR) is critical in the corporate management think-tank of any entity or organisation.
PR is crucial because it is involved in the whole process from brand development, management, placement or positioning, extension and communication.
PR defines four crucial stages in the branding process which are brand initiation and symbolism; corporate face or identity; corporate communication and corporate reputation and protection.
In brand initiation and symbolism, PR is involved in the initiation of the idea of the unique brand an organisation wants to create. It is at this stage that symbolism takes root with the creation of logos for these brands.
What kind of logo should this brand or organisation have?
What is the line of service or products the organisation is looking at?
What is the relationship of the organisation’s vision with the community?
These questions, if answered, in the initiation and symbolism stage then define the symbol or logo of the organisation.
This is where the PR creativity and imagination is called into action to create a unique or trademark symbol for the organisation, company, product or service.
Thus the symbol of Pierre Cardin is unique from the logo of KFC because they definitely have different trades and even if it is the same trade, uniqueness becomes the hallmark of everything.
This is where rights and copyright issues are incorporated to protect the organisational trademark.
The corporate vision, mission, values and organisational cliché or motto then define the corporate identity of a company or entity.
PR is always on the forefront when it comes to creating awareness of the company’s dream, mission and what it values.
The corporate face or identity of an organisation becomes an important factor internally and externally.
Some entities are even identified with their organisational clichés, like “Inspired to change your world” for Econet Wireless; “Shop at OK where everyone is a winner” for OK; “The leading family newspaper” for The Sunday Mail; “Your world of champions” for Supersport; just to name a few.
When publics identify with the organisation’s corporate face or identity, they are able to identify with the values, traits, elements and qualities of the company, product or service.
The creation of the corporate face or identity of the company, organisation, product or service opens the door for the corporate communication of the brand.
This is where PR sets the communication strategy — what messages are going to accompany your brand package?
What are the communication techniques and tactics?
What communication campaigns or tools are feasible for our brand?
What are the best communication channels to use?
And how is the PR practice going to aid other departments critical to the success of the company brand?
These are the communication questions that PR comfortably answers in building corporate branding.
And with the influx of the social media platforms, more eye-cue information management is required to ensure the organisation brand’s magnified for a long shelf life.
After communicating the brand to the organisation’s publics and stakeholders, PR then ensures corporate reputation and respect of the brand is protected.
For instance, many will remember the African Distillers (AFDIS)-raunchy dancer bottle-product-wrangle in which AFDIS raised the company’s reputation, image and respect concerns after learning the raunchy dancer used their products in the dancer’s nude sexy acts.
Just as everyone lives by selling something so too does branding excel in the power of PR. While there is no doubt that other elements like marketing and advertising play a huge part in building brands, PR remains the corporate branding crest for many organisations especially in the face of unavoidable influx of new media technologies and growing corporate world dynamism.
- This article has been inserted by the Zimbabwe Institute of Public Relations. For feedback, comments and inquiries on the work of ZIPR, please email [email protected].
Online Reporter