In good Company

It’s almost ironic that, in a world with ever more access to information, consumers are becoming ever more cynical and sceptical; there is a corresponding decline in faith as consciousness grows. A cursory glance, however, through the annals of Corporate Misbehaviour – with chapters headlined Arthur Andersen, Parmalat, Nike, and others – goes some way to explaining and indeed corroborating this pessimism.

Consumers today are demanding greater visibility from business: Who is the real face is behind the message? The purveyor of the product? The real pocket behind each brand’s price tag?

From ‘Me’ to ‘We’
Growing consumer empowerment means that consumers have moved from a position of “I choose “, to the awareness that “My choice affects the choices of others”. Consumers, especially in developed markets, are less interested in what the product is and how it will benefit them, but more in how it was made and how it will affect everyone; what effect their consumption decisions has on others. 

This is markedly evidenced by:

• Green consciousness and the environmental movement
• Fair-trade and ethical practices
• Recycling and carbon offsetting

Consumers, after all, vote with their credit card, and by buying an organisation’s product they effectively buy into – or endorse – that organisation’s behaviour.

And so, today, disillusioned consumers everywhere are demanding a more active and visible role from the brand house, questioning the ethics of the owners, just how their profits are used, and how they conduct their “house affairs”.

The interests – and, more importantly, influence – of consumers are changing. And it’s happening all over the world. 

The space in the middle
Just as a child’s behaviour is said to reflect its upbringing, so too does a brand’s behaviour reflect back on its parent. Brands today are no longer considered in isolation of the mother brand, but more than that – the mother ship, the corporate brand, presenting a unique challenge.
 
Enter the Company Brand.

What do we mean by the Company Brand? It is where the corporate and consumer worlds overlap. It’s the space in the middle. It is the Corporate brand brought to the fore, given a face and a voice, and – most importantly – endowed with accountability. And brand managers should sit up and pay attention.

To illustrate, Proctor & Gamble still largely exists in the near invisible space of Corporate, whereas Nestlé has made great strides towards establishing a Company brand. Through a mixed brand architecture strategy, this global FMCG brand house has created a Company Brand that allows it to align a diverse product brand portfolio under a coherent umbrella. Through a mixed endorsement strategy, it has applied its corporate name to an array of branded products, transparently communicating to the client the link between its individual products and the mother organisation: overtly with Nestlé Water, Nestea, Nesquick and Nescafé; more subtly with Kit-Kat, Carnation and Milo that wear their endorsement on their (packaging) sleeve.

Consumers consciously “buy into” a brand when they are conscious of the fit between their values and that of the brand. And learning from this, successful Company Brands are those that have moved beyond simply flagging their product portfolio, to taking a position that is value-based. 

A brand is known by the Company it keeps
Great brands must be compelling and true. So too for Company brands. They are built from the inside out. They have a single minded positioning that they consistently deliver on, not just through products and services, but also through their behaviour in the society they live in.  

In contrast with the Corporate brand, the Company brand:

• Recognises a wider definition of stakeholders by embracing the interests – and influence of – individual consumers
• Has evolved its relationship with its product and service brands, moving from an assertion of ownership to a sharing of values
• Plays a more visible role throughout the consumer journey, adding to the emotional appeal of a product brand
• Is a more active player in society because it is more than the sum of its parts. It uses its size and power to change the way that all stakeholders (including consumers) behave to create win-win results

Overlapping corporate and consumer worlds mean both B2C and B2B marketers should consider moving beyond looking at Consumer and Corporate brands in isolation, and seek out a more interconnected and holistic approach.

Today’s generation of consumers are questioning traditional sources of authority and power. They are investigative, marketing savvy, are increasingly sceptical – and vocal – and won’t take corporate, political or brand assertions at face value. Never before have consumers had so much creative and destructive power:

• User-created content site Wikipedia has more than 75 000 active contributors working on some 9-million articles in more than 250 languages.
• Says Synovate Research, 8% of Americans currently had their own blogs last  year, while eBay has 193-million registered users worldwide.
• 47% of the Fortune 500 companies are adopting Word Of Mouth programmes in 2007, says Womma.

The evidence is overwhelming. Individual – and interconnected – consumers have never before had so much clout in influencing the way a mega corporation does business.

The Age of Authenticity
The counterfeiting industry comprises 5-7% of global trade and is worth roughly US$450- to 500-billion, says The International Chamber of Commerce. In D&E markets, product innovations are duplicated overnight and authenticity becomes a consumer’s guarantee of quality and safety. Consumers want to buy into products with authentic values that resonate with them.

In an era of so much media, so much information and much disintermediation, the Company Brand’s role is so much more relevant today: as a stamp of authenticity.

As we move towards a digital marketplace, manufacturers have the opportunity to build direct relationships with their consumers, to create rich and engaging company brand experiences that build consumer loyalty, and to capitalise on cross-sell opportunities.

A good Company Brand is a corporation’s way of establishing constructive dialogue with sceptical consumers.