Recently, we learned that the CEO of Campbell Soup Company wants to change the name of the company to The Campbell’s Company. The company already does business as Campbell’s. Is this the best brand strategy the C-suite can create? Is a name change really that important today?
The corporate name-change reasoning is that the non-soup divisions of the corporation are doing better than the soup division. This is an interesting rationale but it is possibly just a diversion for Wall Street. PepsiCo has a lot of brands that are non-beverage brands, but the name PepsiCo still stands. It is the same with Coca-Cola Company, Mitsubishi, Yamaha, Electrolux AB and other corporate brands. If the soup division is not performing, changing the name of the Corporate Brand will not bolster the bottom line.
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The Wall Street Journal writes that CEO Clouse refers to the “long term algorithm.” This algorithm “assumes no growth in soup.” But, analysts and shareholders already know that Campbell’s is more than soup.
A name – product or service brand or Corporate Brand – is what you make it. The issue for Campbell Soup is not what to call the corporate entity. The issue is the Authority of the corporate entity. Is the Authority of Campbell Soup Company based on “condensed soup” or is the Authority of Campbell Soup Company based on something larger, such as, perhaps, “nourishing foods,” “quality hunger satisfaction,” “sustenance” or “energy?”
As with a product or service brand, a Corporate Brand is a promise. A Corporate Brand promises authority. A Corporate Brand gains its power by building its brand authority. Brand Authority has four critical elements: familiarity, quality, leadership and trust: FQLT. The goal is to be the most familiar, highest quality, market leading, trustworthy brand in its competitive class. This means that the Corporate Brand is a promise of expertise in a specific area. Is Campbell’s expertise “We know sustenance” or “We know food” or “We know energy” or “We know canning?”
The Corporate Brand is the customer-facing representation of the corporate vision, values and strategy. In other words, the Corporate Brand delivers on a corporation’s provenance, its heritage, history, its reason for being. Customers do not just want to know what a product or service brand will do for them. They also want to know who is behind that product or service brand. Where does the product or service brand come from? In our increasingly skeptical, demanding environment, when deciding whether to do business with, or purchase from, or work for or invest in an organization, knowing and believing in the corporation’s integrity, values and intentions matters more than ever.
Corporate Brands have a special opportunity and responsibility. With our feelings of uncertainty and our diminishing institutional, social, political trust, a Corporate Brand signals what it stands for, what its vision and values are, and how it will behave. A strong corporate brand signals that a brand promise can be trusted to do things right and to do the right things the right way.
More than reputation, a Corporate brand delivers financial worth. A powerful Corporate Brand generates value and business results. A powerful Corporate Brand is worth more to stakeholders than a weak or non-descript Corporate Brand. The Corporate Brand is the universal calling card of the business and its employees. In a fragmented world, the Corporate Brand is the unifying force integrating the disparate geographies, brands and functions worldwide. PS: The brand manager for the Corporate Brand is the CEO.
A strong Corporate Brand acts as a major value advantage for product or service offers within a Corporate Portfolio of brands. For example, our perception of Marriott affects our perception of trust in its branded hotels such as Westin or Courtyard. Knowing that esurance is an Allstate company brings some credibility to this online enterprise. Amana, Kitchen Aid, Maytag are appliance brands that are part of Whirlpool: does this change your perceptions of their performance? Coca-Cola Company is more than carbonated, caramel-colored water. Coca-Cola Company counts among their many brands Dasani water, Powerade, Simply Orange, Honest Tea.
For decades, P&G did not mention that Tide and Crest, for example, were part of the P&G orbit. Each brand stood alone as a powerful, big, individual brand. But, even at P&G, the world changed. P&G has become a more visible and vocal voice around the world. Tide now uses elements of other P&G brands such as Tide with Febreeze or Tide with Gain fragrance. Swiffer components also include Febreeze, and Crest toothpaste includes Scope mouthwash. And, P&G has spent money on communicating that it is the owner of spectacular, powerful brands such as Tide or Swifer or Crest.
Additionally and importantly, employee pride is a powerful force helping to drive business success. A strong Corporate Brand connects with employees. With downsizing, mergers and acquisitions, employee-enterprise relationships are fragile. Employees and potential employees seek connections that can only come from the identity associated with the purpose and character of a respected and responsible corporate brand.
In a Wall Street Journal interview from June 19, 2017, Arun Sundararjan, professor at NYU Stern School of Business, discussed industry disruptions and how organizations can manage for success. Professor Sundararjan emphasized the importance of a corporate branded solution as a critical element of a value proposition. He wrote, “For a service where a big part of what you’re buying is the brand associated with the provider, those (businesses) are less vulnerable.” He added, “ But on the other hand, if the brand has just been sort of layered on top, and what people really care about is the product or service that is being delivered, the vulnerability is greater.”
A powerful Corporate Brand reduces customer-perceived risk, allowing customers to feel better about buying products and services from its brands. This is one way that a Corporate Brand influences our purchase decisions.
Here are the characteristics of a strong corporate brand:
- A strong Corporate Brand attracts talented people. This means that employees will be proud to work for this enterprise. Proud employees deliver superior customer service. Having talented people means that creative, innovative, interesting thinkers will be working to provide new and improved products and services.
- A confident Corporate Brand will be transparent and open. The Corporate Brand will admit its mistakes and work to remedy any mishaps or transgressions. Customers will have reasons to believe and proof points putting their minds at ease as to the corporation’s behaviors. Customers feel better knowing “why.” Informed customers make sound decisions with less risk-aversion.
- A good Corporate Brand will focus on investments by all of its stakeholders not just its shareholder and financial communities. When a Corporate Brand focuses on the welfare of its employees, its franchisees, its suppliers, its customers and all others as well as its shareholders, everyone wins. Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s fervently believed in the wellbeing and welfare of customers, employees and suppliers. He called it a “three-legged stool.” Everyone loses when shareholder payback is the sole focus of a Corporate Brand’s efforts, even the shareholders. At some point, the financial engineering designed to put money into shareholder pockets will face a sharp decline: you cannot financially engineer a brand for enduring profitable growth. Just look at Boeing.
- A model citizen Corporate Brand will stand up for what it stands for: we will know and understand its purpose. Unilever takes a strong, public position on its purpose to “make sustainable living commonplace.”
Campbell Soup Company has a lot to celebrate. Let’s be very clear: the invention of condensed soup was a miracle of the canning process. It changed for the better the way we live. But, the corporate focus was on condensed soup rather than the emotional and social benefits of what Campbell’s could offer. The name-change as a change in focus from one product type – condensed soup – to others such as snacks and sauces, is not the way forward.
Campbell Soup Company has a lot of familiarity. But, on what does its Authority rest? If it rests on snacks and sauces, then CEO Clouse is just rearranging the deck chairs. There must be bigger issues at the corporation that need addressing.
A Corporate Brand provides a common, credible, authoritative connection across all stakeholder relationships. A Corporate Brand is an advantage against competitive actions. A Corporate Brand is a promise of familiarity, quality, leadership and trust for all those engaged and invested in the corporation and its portfolio of individual product and service brands.
This is where Campbell Soup Company should be focused.
Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Joan Kiddon, Author of The Paradox Planet: Creating Brand Experiences For The Age Of I
At The Blake Project, we help clients worldwide, in all stages of development, define or redefine and articulate what makes them competitive at critical moments of change, including defining a vision that propels their businesses and brands forward. Please email us to learn how we can help you compete differently.
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