# Presentation

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Companies are good at defining their product brands. Everyone knows what an iPhone is and means. Organizations are often less sure-footed when it comes to the corporate brand.

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The CEO of an international shipping corporation has compared a corporate brand to a work of music. The “melody” must be recognizable by all internal and external people (stakeholders).
An organization has to ask itself some questions which sometimes are hard to answer:
* What does the parent company’s name really stand for?
* How is it perceived and leveraged in the marketplace and within the company itself?

Also important is the visual identity A visual often acts as the essence of a corporate brand’s expression.

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* A clear, unified corporate identity is critical to competitive strategy, as firms like Apple, Philips, and Unilever understand.
* It should provide direction and purpose.
* It also should enhance the image of individual products and provide protection against reputational damage in times of trouble.

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A brand is not only visually expressed. The expression of a brand can also include:
* attitude or tone of voice
* a flagship product
* taglines (Nike’s “Just Do It”), and even
* signature audio clips

All these varied forms of brand expression must harmonize.

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This framework guides an executive team through a structured set of questions about the company. Each question focuses on one element of the organization’s identity. There are nine elements in total

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In the matrix the elements are arrayed in three layers:
* externally focused elements on top;
* internally oriented elements on the bottom;
* those that are both internal and external in the middle.

#### How does it work?

* **Start with any one of the nine elements**
* **Formulate answers to the related questions in the matrix.** For example, if you begin with mission and vision, you’ll answer the questions “What engages us?” and “What is our direction and inspiration?”
* **Answer in short phrases, not paragraphs**, as Starbucks does when describing its mission: “To inspire and nurture the human spirit—one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.”
* **Answer the questions in every box, in any order, without thinking (yet) about how they relate.**

Let's look at the layers in detail with some examples.

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* External elements are on the top of the matrix
* These elements are related to how the company wants to be perceived by customers and other external stakeholders:
* its value proposition
* outside relationships
* positioning.

:::warning
Nike, for instance, wants to be known for helping customers achieve their personal best, a goal that shapes its product offerings and is captured in its marketing tagline, “Just Do It.”
:::

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* Elements that bridge internal and external aspects
* It describes the organization’s personality
* Center of the matrix > the brand core, which endures values that underlie its promise to customers.

:::warning
Patagonia’s is summed up in its promise to provide the highest-quality products and to support and inspire environmental stewardship.
:::

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* At the bottom of the matrix
* Internal elements form the foundation of a corporate brand identity
* It includes:
* Firm’s mission and vision (which engage and inspire its people),
* culture (which reveals their work ethic and attitudes)
* competences (its distinctive capabilities).

:::warning
Consider Johnson & Johnson’s credo, which is carved in stone at the entrance of the company’s headquarters and is a constant reminder of what J&J’s top priorities are (or should be), for example putting the needs of patients first or providing high quality at reasonable cost.
:::

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When a corporate identity is coherent, each of the other elements will inform and echo the brand core, resonating with the company’s values and what the brand stands for. The brand core, in turn, will shape the other eight elements.

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After the questions from the matrix are answered, you need to analyze them.

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* examine whether the answers **fit logically** together, reinforcing one another
* meassure how clearly they align along the matrix’s diagonal, vertical, and horizontal axes, which all pass through the brand core at the center. Each axis illuminates a different kind of organizational capability:
* the diagonal one that begins in the bottom left corner highlights capabilities related to strategy;
* the diagonal one that begins in the top left corner, competition;
* the horizontal one, communications; and
* the vertical one, interaction.

If the brand identity is clear, the elements on each axis will harmonize. The stronger the connections along each axis are, the more “stable” the matrix is. One goal should be to maximize stability.

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In the next step the matrix is applied.

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Companies have used the matrix to address a range of identity issues, such as
* clarifying “mother and daughter” brand relationships,
* retooling the corporate brand to support new businesses, and
* improving the company’s overall image.

Let's have a look at 2 examples

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Example for supporting business development

:::warning
* Bona is a swedish **century-old company** that always was a specialist in products and services for wood floors.
* Some day they decided to also offer stone- and tile-cleaning products which **opened significant growth markets** for the company but also raised a question about its positioning:
* **How should a historical corporate brand that was known worldwide for wood-floor expertise change to accommodate the new businesses?**
* Managers saw an **opportunity to clarify the corporate brand identity**, recommitting to its heritage while embracing a new positioning.
* Extensive discussion with employees took place to get answers to key questions in the matrix considering the firm’s new products, technologies, and new kinds of customers.
* For its outside stakeholders Bona created **new communication programs** about lifestyle trends relevant to floor decoration and design and launched a website redesign.
:::

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An example for strengthening the parent brand’s identity

:::warning
* The Finnish industrial group Cargotec is known in the cargo-handling business
* It **has three daughter brands** which one day eclipsed the main brand, so the managers decided to **pursue a “one company” approach**, centered on the corporate brand
* Workshops were made where the matrix was used to articulate the individual elements of the three daughter brands’ identities.
* Then everyone gathered in a plenary session to develop an aggregated framework for the corporate brand identity.
* At the end of the process, Cargotec and its daughter brands had **agreed on a shared brand core**
* The company has also strengthened its focus on the corporate brand in its marketing - for instance, by developing a new logo and visual language.
* One **result** is that major **international customers**, such as Maersk Line, are now **offered Cargotec-branded solutions integrated with products from the daughters**.
:::

the company has a visual identity, but can also be expressed in other forms such as attitude or tone, a flagship or signature audio
when the brand is clear and unified, it brings many benefits --> like enhance the image of indviducal product
to create a good brand the matrix is used. exernal internal and external internal elements are looked at, when the brand identity is clear the elements will harmonize. the matrix can be used to adress identity issues, like