Corporate Advertising

What it is…

Corporate advertising is a companies attempt to advertise the image of the company rather than a product or service. It is a way to use the company’s money and media to seek benefit for the short-run or for the long-run depending on the situation at hand.

These corporate advertising plans must be strategic-which means looking toward the future of the company so the company is able to continue to thrive. Also it must be consistent- which means that the images of the products and the messages must fit within the corporate vision of the company.

What kind of Corporate Advertising

There are different reasons for a company to have a corporate advertising plan:

To advertise to reinforce identity or enhance reputation.

This is used to strengthen their identities following structural changes. When a company merges or adds a new company they must specify who they are, their vision, and the strategy of the image of the company.

Advertising to attract investment.

This kind of corporate advertising is used to stimulate interest by potential investors to increase the companies stock. Some corporate advertising assert that a strong financially oriented corporate advertising campaign can actually increase the price of a company’s stock.

Advertising to influence opinions

This type of corporate advertising is also called issue or advocacy advertising. Issue advertising usually deals with controversial subjects it is a way for companies to respond to challenges to their company’s reputation. This type of advertising is a way to respond to threats from the government or special interest groups.

Delayed reaction

There is a delayed reaction between corporate advertising and sales, compared to product advertising and sales. The reason for corporate advertising is not to sell a product but to sell the idea of the company. So constituents have a warm feeling when they think of the company. For this reason it is hard to get a company to understand the effectiveness of corporate advertising and its positive effect. This type of advertising is not immediate or directly satisfying so to those who do not understand it, do not understand the need for it.

Creates a strong reputation

One of the biggest reasons for corporate advertising is to create a strong reputation for the company. By letting your constituents know what is going on in your company, and what the organization is all about, is beneficial to the company. The reason is the community now knows what they did not know, and have a better understanding of the business.

Recruiting and retaining employees

Corporate advertising is a big reason why it is easy to attract employees. The company attracts the best and the brightest both at the entry level and higher level positions. A good campaign can create an excitement for current and potential employees. The campaign explains in simple terms what the company is made of, and what it is all about, which helps employees as well is the outside constituents know exactly what the company is there for.

Real life examples:

I got my undergrad degree in Advertising/PR. I have worked in an advertising firm, where I worked on many projects. Some of them were product advertisements and one project in particular that was a corporate advertisement. The corporate advertisement was not a print advertisement. I was actually in-charge of calling businesses within a ten minute radius of Pinnacle Health, the company I was working for. The reason for calling was to give the companies called a certificate for a free massage. The reason for this project was to get the word out of the company, what they were all about, what services they had available, and why they were there for the Youngstown community. After calling all of the businesses I personally dropped off the certificates to add a personal touch, to produce a trust for the company I was working for.

Another example is when I worked for the Red Cross. They had an event that was for the community of Toledo Ohio. It was a rib fest on the river with bands, food, drinks, and fun for all ages. The Red Cross did this to reach out to the community. They were not there to sell any products; they were there to sell themselves, as an organization. There were booths set up all over the place to get awareness to the community of what the Red Cross was all about and how the community can get involved. There were prize giveaways, and fun for all.

Those are just corporate advertising on a smaller scale that per say a Target corporate advertisement. But all the same, they were conducted for the same reason. There was no immediate effect on sales, or community involvement, but seemed to be a positive campaign.

Links:

I am attaching links that outline the steps in corporate advertising. The first one is the seven steps that AlphaTrade does its corporate advertising. It is nice to see exactly how a company uses corporate advertising. It helps in my understanding on the subject and I hope it helps you in understanding also.

http://www.alphatrade.com/pr-marketing-corporate-advertising.php

My second link is about how the Target Company is outshining its competition just by the way it advertises. They have a fresh look, a clean shopping environment, shorter waiting time, and the explanation that price is not everything. They do not advertise products, they advertise the company. Take a look, read and learn more on the subject.

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/4319.html