Introductory Chapter: Brand Management as Part of Corporate Identity

1. Introduction

1.1 Brand Management

Brand Management is a process based on a predefined philosophy and is a manifestation of the vision and mission of an enterprise that it applies almost in all steps toward the public. As a term, it is materialized in both the philosophy and business strategy of the enterprise, as well as the corporate culture, behavior, and general design of the whole company. There is often mistaken incorporation of Brand Management into Marketing Communications, while this is exactly the opposite - Marketing Communication is one of the major components of Brand Management.

In today’s effective enterprises, the process of Brand Management is heavily intertwined with the process of building a Corporate Identity. With the Corporate Identity must be a thoughtful and timeless business standard that governs the company. Every enterprise is unique in its search for identity, and its unchangeable features can become a significant competitive advantage. A high-quality Corporate Identity has an external effect on customers as well as an internal one within the business, where it increases efficiency, motivates employees, and gives them a sense of belonging.

A company’s identity expressed through its products plays a significant role in the way an enterprise presents itself to the wider environment. Using visual means, the enterprise expresses its values and goals. For all entities, whether they are profitable or nonprofit organizations, it is important to make them more visible and distinct. Markets should know that the organization exists, remember its name, and know what it is doing. The process of creating a memorable brand is always individual and seeks to be exceptional and different. There is no uniform template that fits into two different businesses [1]. It should always be tailor-made as much as possible for a particular subject. Creating a brand should be a systematic process beginning with the very beginning of the enterprise itself.

However, this process is often neglected today and mistakenly considered irrelevant. The formation of corporate identity and brand management derived from it, is a professional practice governed by market laws. Creating an identity often ends when assigning and creating a brand. Thus, brand management is a process within one of the subsystems of Corporate Identity, but it occupies an important position within the ecosystem of business processes.

Corporate Identity can be divided into four subsystems:

• Corporate Communication

• Corporate Culture

• Product

• Corporate Design

Using these four elements of Corporate Identity, an enterprise creates and strengthens its market position, which it then interprets internally and externally based on its knowledge, ideas, and attitudes (Figure 1). An image interpreted in this way is spoken of as a Corporate Image, this is gradually reflected in the products of the given enterprise (Figure 2).

Figure 1.

Corporate identity and its subsystems.

Figure 2.

Relationship between corporate identity and corporate image.

Another basic issue that needs to be mentioned in the introduction to brand management is effective targeting, if the enterprise wants to be as successful as possible in business, the management of the company should know as accurately as possible, what segment the company is operating.

The success of a business is dependent on a clear definition of the target group - those we want to reach out to with the product [2]. It is necessary to realize how important it is to drive a targeted approach. It is not possible to address everyone in the same way, and therefore market segmentation is the best solution.

Outlines three main parts and six targeted marketing steps that are shown in the following figure developed based on the scheme from Kotler and Keller in Pollák and Markovič (Figure 3) [3].

Figure 3.

Six steps of market segmentation, targeting, and positioning.

For targeted marketing, instead of a broad-based marketing program, emphasis is placed on partial tailoring market approaches to the requirements of the target customers, while the ultimate form of targeted marketing is tailor-made marketing [4]. This is the main difference between the targeted and bulk market approach, which is currently being addressed by very few companies. After identifying the market segments, one or more appropriate ones need to be selected and prepared for the marketing and communication mix as well as the product itself, according to the needs of the target consumers.

Each successful market strategy must be based on a thorough analysis of the current state, a survey of market opportunities, their segmentation, targeting, and finally, based on the correct placement of the right product. If the brand management process includes all the mentioned steps, as well as considers the fundamentals of market trends based on customer needs, and devotes thorough pre-preparation to the strategy, the company is on its way to being successful. What’s more, the company as a market unit and its products are more likely to thrive in the marketplace than they would be in a haphazard sequence of procedures and reckless experimentation. The dynamic and turbulent market requires a purposeful and prudent approach.

Acknowledgments

The authors of the chapter would also like to thank the students who over the years participated in the processing of the creation of content for the presented chapter.