Corporate branding involves marketing various products or services under the name of a company. Product branding, on the other hand, is a marketing strategy wherein a business promotes and markets an individual product without the company name being front and center in the advertising campaigns or even on the product labeling. Management strategies for choosing which avenue to pursue or a combination of the two in branding vary by business and each approach produces results.
Identification
An article in the July 2005 issue of the "Journal of Marketing" describes the labeling of individual products as "stand-alone" for a separate brand name, "monolithic" when using just the corporate brand name, and "endorsed" or "dual" when using both a brand name for the product along with the corporate brand. Some companies that manufacture or sell multiple products may use the endorsed means of promoting a certain number of goods while using a stand-alone approach for other products. In addition, a company may use only the corporate brand on all goods and services.
Product Branding
A well-known example of a major U.S. company that utilizes product branding is Procter & Gamble with corporate headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. They make beauty, personal care and household products, and many of the company's popular brands each have a dedicated website. Each product carries individualized symbols or logos and some have advertising slogans associated with the product alone, not mentioning the corporation or the P&G brand except in labeling.
Corporate Branding
In the Yale School of Management's magazine "Qn," John Hayes, Chief Marketing Officer of American Express was asked how to market a corporate brand, in this case, the global marketing of the American Express brand. Hayes explained in the interview that for his company, the brand means basically the same thing worldwide. Although the corporation does offer financial products such as gift cards, the major offerings of American Express are service-oriented. According to Hayes, his company's global branding evokes a sense of trust and an expectation of high quality among consumers, a marketing concept attached to the corporate brand.
Benefits
Businesses can reap a number of rewards for marketing and maintaining strong brands through both the approach of corporate brand promotion, product branding, or a combination of the two. A company's rewards for possessing strong brands include name recognition that builds trust in the product or corporate brand. This sense of trust builds consumer loyalty that affects final choices in purchasing, establishing a repeat customer base. Garnering a niche of a particular market share then permits the business more leeway in increasing pricing on preferred products.
