Corporate Branding and Public Relations Term Paper

Corporate Branding and Public Relations - Term Paper Example Corporate branding is characterized by a deliberate thrust on the part of the management of corporations to present to its public its most important and distinguishing attributes and to differentiate it among other corporations (Balmer, 2001 qt. In Kirby, 2003). It is a precursor to a more comprehensive corporate identity, which communicates these attributes beyond the mere public and also to the companies' stakeholders. The internal relations of the corporation bears heavily on the unity and consistency of the messages and images presented to the public, and this also has to bear on the way public relations is accomplished. The intention of those who manage corporate identities is to develop them along through strong internal relations that embody the unified intentions, meanings, and vocations of the entire corporation, and to present them in that form to the public and to its stakeholders. This approach to its formation includes the following areas of marketing defined by Balmer (2001). These are its identity, its personality, its service, and its image or reputation. The company's identity is said to embody all these, and public relations is seen as a vehicle that presents the whole to the public as its identity. Furthermore, there are several dimensions to the identity of a corporation: the actual, communicated, conceived, ideal and desired identities. The important players in establishing corporate identities have been identified as the management and the stakeholder groups, and the identity becomes the point of contact between these two players (Kirby, 2003, p. 11). The corporation's identity influences the direction of the public relations campaign. The strategy of the organization is often developed in order to garner the trust of the public. This strategy is a part of the organization's image, and once it is developed, the public relations campaign exploits as much of its attributes as possible in order to promote a particular aspect of the corporation's identity.