Original Article

Corporate brand building in different

stages of small business growth
Received (in revised form): 11th August 2010

Mari Juntunen
is a doctoral candidate at Oulu Business School the University of Oulu, Finland. Her thesis focuses on corporate
rebranding in the context of small and medium-sized companies. Her research interests involve corporate branding,
service branding and small businesses.

Saila Saraniemi
is a University lecturer in Marketing at Oulu Business School, University of Oulu, Finland. She defended her doctoral
dissertation in 2009 on destination branding in a country context. The dissertation adopts identity management and
corporate branding perspectives to country branding, proposing a model of co-created destination branding. Her primary
research interests in addition to destination and place branding are brand equity and brand value, as well as service and
corporate branding especially in SMEs. She has published in Journal of Travel Research and Tourism Analysis.

Milla Halttu
(MSc, University of Oulu; MBA, University of North Carolina at Greensboro) works in the high-tech industry, and is
responsible for marketing and communications function. Her research interests focus on corporate branding in SMEs.

Jaana Thtinen
is Professor of Marketing at Oulu Business School the University of Oulu, Finland, where she earned her PhD in 2001.
Her main research interests relate to dissolution of business relationships and management and value creation in business
nets. She is one of the founders of Nordic Workshop on Relationship Dynamics (NoRD) and Business Relationship
Dynamics Group (BuRD). She has published in the European Journal of Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management,
International Journal of Service Industry Management, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, and Marketing Theory.

ABSTRACT This study develops an empirically grounded framework for corporate brand
building at different stages of a small business growth. The framework suggests specific
functions for brand building at each growth stage, starting from a companys preestablishment stage. Moreover, the functions are specified by presenting the activities
performed and the actors involved in each function. The contextual theory development
applies a qualitative approach and a case study of two cases. This study offers both a
comprehensive and a detailed description of corporate branding in small business, as it
takes in an implicit time perspective by connecting the branding functions to small business
growth, and details each function. The study shows that corporate branding begins even
before the company itself is established and suggests new functions, such as managing
branding relationships and utilizing feedback to monitor and guide the process. The
framework provides managers a guiding principle to plan, evaluate, change and enhance
corporate branding processes. To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first
comprehensive study on corporate branding process in the growth of small business.

Journal of Brand Management (2010) 18, 115133. doi:10.1057/bm.2010.34

Correspondence: Mari Juntunen
Department of Marketing,
University of Oulu, PO Box
4600, FI-90014, Finland.
E-mail: juntunen.mari@oulu.fi

Keywords: corporate brand building functions; brand building activities; SMEs growth;
stakeholders

2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management

www.palgrave-journals.com/bm/

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Juntunen et al

INTRODUCTION
Corporate branding literature reveals a
variety of activities executed during the long
process of corporate brand building (see, for
example, Urde, 2003; Witt and Rode,
2005). However, explicit descriptions of
brand building activities are rare, and even
though a few studies do focus on corporate
brand building (for example, Urde, 2003),
most of them describe the underlying factors
instead of what happens. Thus, branding
literature lacks a model of brand building
from a firms perspective (Wallstrm et al,
2008). In addition, most of what is known
empirically comes from the context of large
multinationals that have built their corporate
brands over decades, although small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) represent
99.8 per cent of all companies in Europe
(European Commission, 2008), and their
contribution to employment and national
economies is therefore significant. In spite
of the several suggestions that branding is
important in SMEs and aids their growth
(Abimbola, 2001; Rode and Vallaster, 2005;
Wong and Merrilees, 2005), research efforts
remain scarce.
In order to grow their business, it would
be vital for nascent entrepreneurs to
also know how to build and maintain a
corporate brand throughout the growth
stages, even with a constrained budget (see
Berthon et al, 2008); however, branding
research offers little advice on how to do
so. As small businesses lack the resources of
large companies, brand management can
rarely receive the priority it deserves
(Opoku et al, 2007), guiding the entrepreneurs to take an unconventional approach
to branding (Boyle, 2003). With a carefully designed and implemented branding strategy, a cohesive understanding of
the branding process and by involving the
whole organization, small businesses can
also manage branding (Abimbola, 2001).
This study aims to reduce the knowledge
gap on corporate brand building during

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2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management

small business growth. Thus, the purpose

is to identify and classify the functions of
corporate brand building at different stages
of small business growth. Moreover, the
study elaborates on the activities that are
performed to fulfil the functions at each
stage. Answers are sought through the main
research question: How is the corporate brand
built at different stages of a companys growth?
The research strategy is abductive, where a
theoretical understanding is first built, followed by a qualitative empirical study. The
case study of two cases, selected by theoretical criteria, is conducted to ground the
classification empirically. The cases represent the different stages of small business
growth, one being a start-up company
employing only five staff, and the other a
company already in operation for several
years and employing more than 100. The
data were analysed to modify the theoretical classification and to bring in new
aspects, which existing research has left
undiscovered. As a result, an empirically
grounded framework for corporate brand
building at different stages of a small
business growth was constructed. The
remainder of the article follows the above
structure, and also includes conclusions and
suggestions for further studies.

CORPORATE BRAND BUILDING

FUNCTIONS, ACTIVITIES AND
STAKEHOLDERS
Bickerton (2000) traces the roots of corporate branding from two directions: marketing and organizational research. Here,
we take organizational processes as a starting
point when considering the functions of
corporate brand building. By combining
the works of several authors (for example,
Stuart, 1999; Balmer, 2001; Urde, 2003;
Rode and Vallaster, 2005), we classified six
different functions of corporate brand
building: defining the corporate personality, brand-oriented strategic planning,
creating and maintaining corporate identity,

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Table 1: Classification of the corporate brand building functions

Corporate brand building function

Corporate brand building activities

Defining the corporate personality

Developing a company idea

Brand planning: eg company structure and characteristics
Deciding on the company name
Defining core values

Brand-oriented strategic planning

Generating brand vision

Linking strategic vision, organizational culture and corporate images
Living up the clearly defined business concept, values and philosophy

Creating and maintaining corporate

identity

Corporate culture
Corporate behaviour
Corporate internal communications
Corporate design

Creating consistent brand

communications

Management, organization and marketing communications

Finding distinctive message and enhancing the brand among the key
stakeholder groups
Establishing clear positioning
Web communications
Participating in shows and events
Arranging seminars
Shaping corporate image
Conveying image of quality products
Producing a premium product
Providing experience
Writing articles in professional magazines

Assuring employees involvement

Providing friendly service

Employees contributing to the meaning of the brand

Creating corporate image

Directly
Indirectly

creating consistent brand communication,

assuring employees involvement, and creating a corporate image (see Table 1).
Several studies (Rode and Vallaster, 2005;
Kollmann and Suckow, 2007; Merrilees,
2007) suggest that corporate branding starts
even before a company is established. The
first function, defining the corporate personality,
refers to the identification of brand personality (Stuart, 1999; Boyle, 2003). It includes
activities that aim to define the corporate
personality, namely planning the ownership,
corporate mission and corporate philosophy,
defining core values (Stuart, 1999; see also
Boyle, 2003; Urde, 2003), developing a
company idea, planning the company structure and characteristics, and deciding on the

2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management

companys name (for example, Mowle and

Merrilees, 2005). Urde (2003) states that a
successful brand building process is based on
shared core values of a company (see also
Boyle, 2003) that facilitate both congruent
brand perceptions and coherent activities
across the whole organization (Harris and
de Chernatony, 2001; Balmer and Gray,
2003). Although core values are seen as
relatively stable, they are not static but
change over time (see Urde, 2003), especially in dynamic operational environments,
characterized by evolving technology.
Brand-oriented strategic planning refers to
the use of brands in strategic planning (for
example, Urde, 1999). This includes generating a brand vision (Gregory, 2007) and

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linking this vision with the organizational

culture and corporate images (Hatch and
Schultz, 2003). This leads to bringing the
business concept, values and philosophy to
life (Rode and Vallaster, 2005), with the
corporate brand becoming an important
strategic value for the company. Wellestablished brands are able to enhance the
competitiveness of a company and generate
growth and profitability, if the brand orientation is integral to strategy formulation
(Wong and Merrilees, 2005).
Creating and maintaining corporate identity happens in interaction with customers
(Urde, 1999) and other stakeholders
(Saraniemi, 2009). As the corporate brand
reflects the corporate identity (Rode and
Vallaster, 2005), a clear identity of a
company is a prerequisite for building a
strong corporate brand (Aaker, 1992). In
other words, corporate identity represents the company-specific part of the
corporate brand. Corporate identity consists of corporate culture, corporate
behaviour, corporate internal communications and corporate design (Rode and
Vallaster, 2005; Witt and Rode, 2005).
Creating consistent brand communications
refer to the projection of corporate identity
both to the internal and external stakeholders
of the company. Consistent communication is essential in brand building (Aaker,
1992; Balmer and Gray, 1999). It consists
of management, organization and marketing
communication (Stuart, 1999). Inskip (2004)
states that brand communications are rarely
a problem to SMEs. The actual stumbling
block is finding a vivid and distinctive message, to determine the content of the message and to establish a clear positioning and
personality of the organization among
stakeholders (see also Balmer, 2001; Harris
and de Chernatony, 2001; Einwiller and
Will, 2002). The role of the internet, as a
fast and transparent information channel,
can also be a challenge for small companies
(Einwiller and Will, 2002; Argenti and

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Druckenmiller, 2004), the challenge being

to ensure that all communication is coherent
yet consistent with the firms various stakeholders. Even though Rode and Vallaster
(2005) define corporate communication as
being interactive with external stakeholders,
corporate internal communication should
be emphasized too. According to Ojasalo
et al (2008), high-tech SMEs use various
means of promotion; they participate in
shows and events, arrange seminars and
use web communications. They also produce premium or quality product, provide
experiences for customers (Mowle and
Merrilees, 2005) or build a professional image,
for instance, through articles in professional
magazines (Ojasalo et al, 2008) that help
SMEs to create a good corporate image.
Assuring employees involvement is also seen
as the key to building relationships with all
the companys stakeholders. The interface
between employee perception of the corporate brand (that is, corporate identity)
and perceptions held by external stakeholders of the corporate brand (that is, corporate image) is significant. Thus, the
behaviour of the employees who interact
with external stakeholders can have a significant effect on the perception that
external stakeholders have of the company.
For example, friendly service (Mowle and
Merrilees, 2005) contributes to the meaning
of the brand, as it expresses to others what
the company and its personnel think of the
company (Hatch and Schultz, 2003).
Creating corporate image refers to the projection of corporate identity targeted at the
companys external stakeholders and the
external stakeholders reflection of the corporate identity. A company can shape its
corporate image in both direct and indirect
ways. A direct way is to frequently communicate with stakeholders (Witt and
Rode, 2005), as every signal sent out to
stakeholders affects the corporate brand
(Einwiller and Will, 2002). An indirect way
of shaping image is to create a corporate

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identity within the company that then

indirectly influences the corporate image
(Witt and Rode, 2005). In addition, other
sources of information, not managed by the
company, do influence the corporate brand
image. Together, these two identity and
image generate corporate brand equity
(Urde, 2003). Furthermore, managers of
SMEs often believe that a good corporate
image is important to acquiring legitimization from different stakeholders (Goldberg
et al, 2003; Berthon et al, 2008).
Brand stakeholders are those who either
have a financial interest in the company or
a financial impact on it (Bickerton, 2000).
According to Freeman (1984 via Gregory,
2007), stakeholders are also those who
decide for themselves to take a stake in the
organization, and not only those groups
that management believes to have a stake
in the organization. Stakeholder groups
include employees, customers, investors,
suppliers, partners, regulators, local communities and groups with special interests
in the company (Hatch and Schultz, 2003;
Roper and Davies, 2007). The stakeholder
groups often overlap each other (Olins,
2000). For example, suppliers can also be
partners, customers or shareholders.

SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH

Business growth processes are often depicted
with life cycle or stage models that encompass the entire lifespan of an organization.
Stage models frequently focus on the
generic problems that organizations encounter during growth (Davidsson et al, 2005),
whereas life cycle models concentrate on
describing how businesses adapt to growth
(Dobbs and Hamilton, 2007), abstractly
representing a cycle of emergence, growth,
maturity and decline (Davidsson et al, 2005),
and in so doing describe what effects growth
has on organizations (Kazanjian, 1988). For
the purpose of this study, we adapt a traditional life cycle model of Scott and Bruce
(1987), a broadened version of Churchill

2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management

and Lewis (1983), because the model helps

to identify organizational problems and
bottlenecks in company growth (Smallbone
and Wyer, 2006), although it excludes
the decline phase. The growth stages are
inception, survival, growth, expansion and
maturity. Between each stage, there is a
crisis point, which the company needs to
pass to get to the next stage.
During the first stage, inception, the
company is nurtured towards a working
business entity, and the product development process starts. In the survival stage, the
company is already a working business
entity, but not yet profitable. The company
is still seeking acceptance from customers
and other stakeholder groups. In the success
stage, the company reaches profitability and
the company structure moves towards
becoming functional, as the number of personnel increases during the growth period.
During the last two stages, expansion and
maturity, the growth continues, and the
management style of the SME changes
because of structural changes in the company (Churchill and Lewis, 1983; Scott and
Bruce, 1987).
Throughout the different stages, the size
of the company increases from a micro
organization (employing less than 10, as in
our case A) at the inception stage to a
medium-sized organization (around 100, as
in our case B) at the expansion stage and
finally to a large organization (employing
250 or more) at the maturity stage.
Although the model is linear, a company
might go back and forth between the consecutive stages (Smallbone and Wyer,
2006), and can also be at multiple stages at
once. This depends on both internal and
external factors, as well as the success
of the company in realizing their plans
(Churchill and Lewis, 1983; Scott and
Bruce, 1987).
In addition to these stages, there are
activities that need to be executed before
establishing a company. For example,

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care-ful selection, development and implementation of a business idea (Hougaard,

2005) take place. The business idea can be
developed into a business opportunity if
it survives the evaluation process undertaken by the entrepreneur in order to
improve the probability that the new business will survive (Zimmerer and Scarborough,
1996, pp. 8085). A business plan is also
important when a new venture seeks
financing from investors. In addition, the
company name and the company form need
to be registered with the trade register when
the company is officially established.
To sum up, the above presented theoretical underpinnings on corporate branding
and small business growth guided us in the
following empirical part of the study.

METHODOLOGY
The goals of this study are comprehension,
understanding and illumination of the phenomenon (Easton, 1995, p. 455), rendering
the study both explanatory and descriptive.
An abductive and qualitatively descriptive
case study approach (Yin, 2003; Eriksson
and Kovalainen, 2008) has therefore been
chosen as a research design.
The theory helped to design a multiple
case study and to analyse the data. The cases
chosen were maximum-variation cases from
different kinds of conditions (Patton, 1990
via Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2008, p. 125),
in this case in different stages of small business growth. The stages of growth of the
case companies were reasoned out from the
interviews and other documentation about
the histories of the companies. Thus, we
were able to use accurate data from different
ends of the growth stages. This would not
have been possible in a single case study. In
a single case study, the earlier parts of the
long growth process would have been
forgotten or have been too challenging to
discern valuable information on.
With a multiple case study, we aim to
generate generalizable theoretical constructs

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2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management

by comparison and replication of a number

of cases (Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2008).
We do not consider companies as cases, but
we do see corporate brand building in small
companies as cases. We see cases as instruments that we can use to understand and
describe this specific phenomenon in depth.
In so doing, this allows us to extend prior
theory.
Company A Ltd.1 is a start-up company
engaged in the shift from the initial stage
to the survival stage of the small business
growth model. In this study it represents
the pre-establishment stage, because that
remains a recent memory of the founders
of the company. The company operates in
the B2B markets, developing and producing LED lighting products to demanding
environments, such as street lighting. It was
established in 2008 by the two current
owners (CEO and Sales and Marketing
Manager), and at the time of data gathering
it had five members of staff (including the
owners). Currently, they have a staff of six
members, and their turnover has also
grown. The company is committed to
building its corporate brand, and therefore
was selected to provide data for this study
as an example of a young company in the
inception stage of growth.
Company B Ltd.1 is a medium-sized
company, also operating in the B2B markets, developing and producing electronic
components. Company B Ltd. is a subsidiary of Beta Group Ltd. Company B Ltd.
was established in 2008. Before that, the
same entity had been part of Beta Group
Ltd., operating as one of its plants. Beta
Group Ltd. has a holding of 90 per cent in
the company and an Asian Holding Company has the remaining 10 per cent. The
local plant was first established in 1979, and
its current facilities were built in 1992.
Thus, Company B Ltd. is a fairly young as
an independent company and is seeking
new growth in addition to its existing markets, and thus can be seen as in the success

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Corporate branding and business growth

Table 2: The interviews of this study

Table 3: Observations during the meetings of

Company A Ltd and the research project

Interviewee(s)

Company

Duration

CEO and Sales and

Marketing Manager
CEO Sales & Marketing
Manager
Managing Director
Key Account Manager

Company A Ltd

2 hours 9 min

Company A Ltd
Company A Ltd
Company B Ltd
Company B Ltd

1 hour 41 min
1 hour 11 min
1 hour 2 min
1 hour 30 min

Place

People present at the meeting

University

CEO, Sales and Marketing Manager,

four researchers
CEO, Sales and Marketing Manager,
four researchers
CEO, Sales and Marketing Manager,
four researchers
CEO, Sales and Marketing Manager,
four researchers
CEO, Sales and Marketing Manager,
three researchers

University
University
University

or expansion stage of the model. However,

it has a lot of history and competences from
the years that it was a part of the Beta Group
Ltd., and presents thus the later stages of
the small business growth in this study.
Empirical data were collected through
interviews (five semi-structured as described
in Table 2) and observation. The data were
collected throughout the research process
in order to create an understanding of the
growth stage of each case company and the
activities that had been and were currently
undertaken in the branding process. Interviews were selected as the main data
gathering method, as researchers could not
get direct access to observe the process in
the companies as a follow-up study. Thus,
historical data provided by the company
actors themselves were chosen. The informants were selected based on their involvement in the corporate branding process (see
Miller et al, 1997), as their participation
ensured that they were the most knowledgeable informants. The interviews were
audio recorded and later fully transcribed.
In addition, marketing and internal documents of the case companies were content
analysed. Information was completed with
observation notes from several meetings that
took place during a research project, in
which Company A was involved (Table 3).
The research project focuses on corporate
branding, and thus the functions, activities
and actors involved in Company A were
also discussed at the meetings. Thus, the
study aimed at data triangulation to discover
new aspects of the phenomenon with rich

2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management

University

and valid data (Denzin, 1984; Miller et al,

1997). The interview data along with the
company documents and notes from the
observations were analysed with the help of
NVivo 8 software.

EMPIRICALLY GROUNDED
FRAMEWORK FOR CORPORATE
BRAND BUILDING IN DIFFERENT
STAGES OF SMALL BUSINESS
GROWTH
On the basis of the analysis of the empirical
data, we first identified three growth stages
of the cases: a pre-establishment, an early growth
and an effective growth stage. No further distinction between the stages could be
achieved because the empirical data were
not detailed enough to specify the exact
stage the company had been in during the
activities discussed. The first stage takes place
before the company is officially established,
the early growth covers both the inception
and survival stages posited by Churchill and
Lewis (1983), and the effective growth stage
includes success and expansion stages. We
note that some functions overlap some
stages, and therefore the early and effective
growth stages both contain some similar
activities. This could be explained if in case
B the brand orientation in the pre-establishment and early growth stages had not
reached the same level as in case A, leaving
the function unfilled and influencing the

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following activities. However, the data do

not support or deny the explanation.
In the analysis, we first identified the
corporate brand building functions and the
activities that companies had executed in
their different stages of growth. The corporate brand building functions executed
in pre-establishment and early growth stages
were examined through case A, and in the
effective growth stage through case B.
During the analysis, it soon became clear
that the activities through which the
function is fulfilled and the actors performing
those activities cannot be meaningfully
separated. Therefore, following the abductive logic, in addition to the function and
activities, we also analysed and will discuss
the actors taking part in the activities. The
empirical analysis revealed that corporate
branding activities are performed not solely

by the companys internal actors, but in

various functions, the external stakeholders
also take part in the branding activities. This
seems to take place even in situations where
the external stakeholder group would be a
target for the same activities. For example,
a bank manager can give advice on developing the company idea, but at the same
time would be part of the target group of
the company when it works on building a
convincing brand personality.

Pre-establishment stage
The corporate brand building functions,
activities and actors involved in the activities at the pre-establishment stage are presented in Table 4. Please note that a new
function that emerged from the data will
be introduced here, namely developing
corporate branding relationships.

Table 4: Corporate brand building at the pre-establishment stage

Small business growth
stage

Corporate brand building

function

Corporate brand building activities

Actors involving

Developing a company idea

Entrepreneur(s)
Owners
Entrepreneurs and owners
families and friends
Financiers
Investors

Planning company structure and

characteristics

Entrepreneur(s)
Owners

Planning the company name

Entrepreneur (s)
Owners
Entrepreneurs and owners
families and friends
University students
Research partners

Deciding on the company name

Entrepreneur(s)
Owners

Forming of core values begins

Entrepreneur(s)
Owners

Brand-oriented strategic
planning

Forming of corporate strategy

begins

Entrepreneur(s)
Owners
Financiers
Investors

Managing corporate
branding relationships

Forming co-operative relationships

with resellers
Building press relationships

Entrepreneur(s)
Owners
Entrepreneur(s)

Pre-establishment stage Defining the corporate

personality

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Corporate branding and business growth

At the pre-establishment stage, the

organization is still completely informal,
including all the activities and planning that
take place before the company is officially
established, and involves, for example, the
entrepreneur(s), owner(s), his/her family
and friends and financiers. The local legislation (for example, company forms, official
statements needed and so on) and the financial status of the entrepreneur(s) have an
impact on the functions and activities
within, as well as the actors involved.
The first function, defining the corporate
personality, involves the development of
a business idea, defining the company structure
and characteristics, planning and deciding a company name and forming core values. Planning
the business idea (why the company exists,
what it does) aids in developing a company
name that characterizes it. If the company
has a distinctive idea and identity in the
entrepreneurs mind, then it is easier to start
building the corporate brand during the
setting up and establishment of the company. Planning the company structure and
characteristics can also help the entrepreneur to define the essence of the company
and thus generate an emblematic company
name. In addition, core values of the company begin to form that are similar to the
values of the entrepreneur(s).
At this stage, the function of brand-oriented strategic planning also starts to take
shape, referring to the forming of basic corporate strategy, as the following quote shows.
We did some good groundwork: market
analysis, competitor analysis, technology
study, and then the business plan. (CEO,
Company A Ltd.)

The third function in the pre-establishment

stage, managing corporate branding relationships,
emerged from the data. It includes activities
such as forming cooperative relationships with
resellers and building press relationships. For
manufacturing companies, finding reliable

2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management

resellers is important. Both companies recognized a possible need for sales and marketing partners, especially in the case of
global sales. The relationship with the media
and its representatives was seen to be ambiguous, because, on the one hand, visibility is
sought to gain recognition for the company,
but, on the other, negative attention is to
be avoided as much as possible.
The stakeholder groups that are involved
in these activities are not only internal. The
people aware of the plan to establish a company may be the entrepreneur(s), owner(s),
his/her friends and family, investors and
a bank manager. Later on the stakeholder
groups that are affected by these activities
can be wider. The name of the company
will be known to a wider audience once
the company is established and starts operating with multiple external stakeholder
groups.

The early growth stage

The early growth stage begins after the
company is established. During this growth
stage, the corporate branding functions
increase dramatically, as can be seen in
Table 5. We can thus conclude that these
activities support a young business in its
attempts to achieve the revenue needed to
start growing. Please note that a new function monitoring with feedback emerged
from the data, and is introduced here. In
addition, the functions that started already
at the pre-establishment stage (defining the
corporate personality) have been modified
to better reflect the goal of the function at
this particular stage (specifying the corporate personality).
At this stage, specifying the corporate personality concerns corporate values. At the preestablishment stage, corporate values began
to form, and at this stage they are defined.
The empirical analysis shows that the core
values that support the desired corporate
brand relate closely to the everyday business

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Adopting brand-oriented thinking profoundly

Emphasising brand-oriented strategic

planning

Unifies identity and image

Assuring employees involvement

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Developing new relationships

Managing corporate branding

relationships

Monitoring with feedback

Complex nature
Somehow congruent, somehow differentiated
Communicating core values

Creating consistent brand

communications

Collecting from several sources

Concerning several issues

Using references

Maintaining existing co-operative relationships

Created by proactive communication

Establishes in every new contact and relationship

Creating corporate image

Great influence on what the company is like, how it will develop and
how it is seen in the market

Emanating from daily operations and products of the company

Arises on its own, not developed consciously
Close to the owner-managers identity
Includes corporate culture, corporate behaviour, corporate internal
communications and corporate design

Creating corporate identity

Revising the strategies

Forming new strategies

Defining core values

Specifying the corporate personality

Early growth stage

Corporate brand building activities/description

Corporate brand building function

Small business growth stage

Table 5: Corporate brand building at the early growth stage

All stakeholders

Management
Key customers
Resellers
Members of the press Students
Management
All external stakeholders
Management
Customers

Entrepreneur(s), managers,
Employees
Customers
Suppliers Investors
Owners

All stakeholders
All stakeholders

Entrepreneur(s), managers
Employees & external stakeholders
Entrepreneur(s), managers
Employees & external stakeholders

Entrepreneur(s), managers, employees

Affected also by external stakeholders

Entrepreneur(s), managers, employees

Entrepreneur, managers
Internal stakeholders
Entrepreneur(s), managers
Entrepreneur(s), managers

Entrepreneur(s), managers, employees

All external stakeholders

Actors involving

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Corporate branding and business growth

of the company. Thus, very abstract and

general values do not provide equal support
for the corporate brand. The interviewees
also perceived the core values to be central
to the corporate brand, not just the base
on which the corporate brand is built. The
defining of core values was thus perceived
as a fundamental activity in corporate brand
building, as well as a subject of communication. In addition, the study revealed that
the companies not only communicate the
core values internally, but also communicate them to external stakeholder groups.
Telling [stakeholders] about the values,
thats such a clich There should be
more concrete direction, what we really
are doing on the matter. (Managing
Director, Company B Ltd.)

It was recognized that brand and marketingrelated concerns, that is, brand orientation, need
to be incorporated to the strategic planning
of the company, at least there has to be an
underlying consideration. The benefit of
emphasising brand-oriented strategic planning is
that the company has profoundly adopted the
brand-oriented thinking, which leads to the
company emanating its corporate branding.
Strategies are formed at the pre-establishment
and early development stage of the company,
but they are also revised and new strategies
are formed throughout the years that the
company operates.
The study revealed that corporate identity
is created and clarified in the early development of the company. The elements of
corporate identity (corporate culture, corporate behaviour, corporate internal communications and corporate design) were
identified in the empirical research as being
equally important, and need to be consistent in order to express the corporate
brand effectively to the external stakeholders. However, the study suggests that
rather than being developed consciously,
corporate identity tends to arise on its own.

2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management

In addition, at the early stages of the company development, the corporate identity
is often close to the identity of the ownermanager, as he or she is the person who
develops the company most actively. Furthermore, the corporate identity is often
seen as emanating from the daily operations
of the internal personnel, and also from the
product of the company. The people in the
organization observe the company through
the products that are the outcome of their
work. The nature of the products is present
in all decision making and evaluation of the
operations of the company. In order to
build a concise corporate brand, however,
the corporate identity can be steered and
defined so that it is consistent with the
intended corporate brand.
Mainly it [corporate identity] comes
through the daily operations and the
product. When we know that were
creating a really good product, it kind of
becomes our identity. (CEO, Company
A Ltd.)

In this study, assuring employees involvement

was recognized and emphasized in the
empirical research as being an important
contributor to building a concise corporate
brand. Alongside management, enthusiastic
employees were seen as contributing to unifying the corporate identity and the corporate image, and therefore as having a great
influence on the company, in terms what
it is like, how it will develop and how it is
seen in the market. The role of employees
is emphasized here because the importance
of their activities might not be as widely
recognized as that of the management.
It just emerges when people are
enthusiastic and interested and get to do
things according to their own free will.
We just need to make sure that we all
work together well. (CEO, Company
A Ltd.)

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Juntunen et al

Proactive communication with different

stakeholder groups to create awareness of
the company and creating a positive corporate
image was stressed by the companies. In
addition, the corporate image was seen as
something to be established in every new
contact and business relationship. It was
discovered that newly founded companies
yearn for trustworthiness from all of their
external stakeholders. Creating a positive
corporate image is therefore something
they actively strive for.
Creating consistent brand communications was
seen as important, and also the complex
nature of communications was emphasized.
Although consistent communications were
perceived to be important on the general
level, it was realized that differences in the
style, content and intimacy of communications depended on the type of relationship
that the company had with its communication partners.
At the industry tradeshows, the message
is congruent to all, because we cannot
choose who goes there. Customers, suppliers, maybe even owners from different
electronics firms, attend them. People
from the university and education sector
also seem to go there. (Key Account
Manager, Company B Ltd.)
We have tried to deliver a uniform
message so that everyone would have
the same kind of conception of this firm.
Particularly we want the image to be as
realistic as possible. (Sales and Marketing
Manager, Company A Ltd.)

Similar to the pre-establishment stage, at

this stage the data also revealed a function
of managing corporate branding relationships.
The companies realized that educational
institutions may offer many benefits for
companies. Developing good relations with
schools and students can be advantageous
in introducing the future professionals to

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2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management

the company in their student years. This

could be seen as one way of building the
corporate brand. In addition, maintaining
existing cooperative relationships was seen
as important. Furthermore, at this stage
using references was seen as beneficial for
a company. However, this was considered
difficult because customers might not be
willing to tell the world who they are
doing business with.
A new function arising clearly from the
data is referred to as monitoring with feedback.
Feedback was sought from several sources
including customers, investors, suppliers
and even business incubators. The collected
and analysed feedback concerned the products of the company, its ways of operating
and reporting on the information reporting.
The companies used the feedback not only
to develop and improve their products, but
also to find out how the company was
perceived by its stakeholder groups, and
how they could develop their efforts in
building the corporate brand.
The feedback that we have received from
customers has enabled us to prioritise
and increase competences, instead of just
getting the product to the market fast. The
customers have said that it is not worth
entering the market with a bad product.
(CEO, Company A Ltd.)

The empirical analysis revealed several

stakeholder groups that have not been
addressed in the literature. In addition to the
more usual customers, suppliers, investors,
employees, media and partnering companies,
the new stakeholders are: owners (shareholders), research organizations, educational
institutions (including students), competitors
and the entire industry network. For example,
the CEO of Company A Ltd. stated that the
ideas that university students come up with
are fresh and innovative, compared to
those generated by consultants. Furthermore,
some stakeholder groups, namely customers,

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Corporate branding and business growth

suppliers, investors, employees and owners,

were identified as key stakeholders.
One stakeholder group is of course the
owners, but at the moment it is to all intents
and purposes the same as the entrepreneur.
But their role is different from all the
others. Owners have to be kept as a
separate group, because they can change
in the future. (CEO, Company A Ltd.)
We consider as customers those who
do lighting design and companies who
build lighting and infrastructure, as well
as the kind of influential organizations
that contribute to approvals and public
acceptance and take part in defining
standards and definitions. (CEO, Company
A Ltd.)

The effective growth stage

During the effective growth stage, a company
already has a corporate brand. The empirical
study did not reveal new activities in corporate
brand building in the effective growth stage
compared with the early growth stage. It was
revealed, however, that in the early stage the
activities need to be maintained, and when
necessary developed further (see Table 6).
The market and environment in which
the company operates might be turbulent
and changing, which necessitates the company adapting to the changing environment. The checking and refining of core
values and strategies is therefore important
from time to time. The corporate brand
can be used as an orientation when refining
the core values and strategies, to maintain the intended corporate brand. The
corporate identity, corporate image and
consistent communications need to be
maintained consciously in order to remain
reflective of the corporate brand. They are
easily forgotten, and can develop in an
unwanted direction if no control over them
is maintained. They may also need refining

2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management

if core values and strategies are improved

at some point. The role of employees is
still emphasized as being an important link
between the corporate identity and corporate image, as well as the company and its
external stakeholders. The activities of collecting, analysing and acting upon feedback
ensure that the development process of the
corporate brand is continuous.
In addition to the existing stakeholders,
new companies and individuals learn about
the company throughout its existence. For
those new stakeholders, the corporate brand
can be actively built on, and they learn
about the existing corporate brand from
other stakeholders and the company.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

Corporate brand building in an SME context is an under-researched topic. Hence,
this study contributes to the field by
examining corporate brand building in small
business growth stages. The aim of this study
was to find out How is the corporate brand built
at different stages of a companys growth? The
aim was not to examine how the growth
stages progressed or what they consisted of,
but for the growth stages to serve as a platform for the discussion of corporate brand
building. The different functions and activities of corporate branding were identified
and classified along with the different actors
and stakeholder groups that are involved in
the process. Overall, the corporate branding
process differs in the early stages of the small
business growth, but the later stages seem to
focus on maintaining and revising earlierfulfilled functions. One result is that the time
period and the growth of the company
needs to taken into account when corporate
branding and small businesses are studied.
This study has empirically shown that corporate brand building does indeed start even
before the corporation in question exists.
To answer the research question of the
study, we state that corporate branding in
growing small businesses is achieved through

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128

Effective growth stage

Small business growth stage

2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management

Vol. 18, 2, 115133

Emanating from daily operations and products of the

company
Arises on its own, not developed consciously
Includes corporate culture, corporate behaviour,
corporate internal communications and corporate
design
Unifies identity and image
Great influence on what the company is like, how it will
develop and how it is seen in the market
Created by proactive communication
Establishes in every new contact and relationship
Complex nature
Somehow congruent, somehow differentiated
Communicating core values

Developing new relationships

Maintaining corporate identity

Assuring employees involvement

Maintaining consistent brand

communications

Managing corporate branding

relationships

Monitoring with feedback

Revising the functions based on feedback

Collecting feedback from several sources

Using references

Maintaining existing cooperative relationships

Adopting brand-oriented thinking profoundly

Revising the strategies
Forming new strategies

Emphasising brand-oriented
strategic planning

Maintaining corporate image

Re-defining core values

Corporate brand building activities/description

Controlling the corporate

personality

Corporate brand building function

Table 6: Corporate brand building at the effective growth stage

Higher management
All stakeholders

Management/Key customers resellers

Members of the press students
Management
All external stakeholders
Management
Customers

Higher management
Employees
Customers
Suppliers
Investors
Owners

All stakeholders
All stakeholders

Higher management, employees and external stakeholders

Higher management, employees and external stakeholders

Higher management, employees

Affected also by external stakeholders

Higher management, employees

Higher management
Internal stakeholders
Higher management
Higher management

Higher management/Employees
All external stakeholders

Actors involving

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Corporate branding and business growth

a number of functions. The functions start

even before the company is established, in
its pre-establishment stage. During that
stage, the entrepreneur and/or the owner,
with the help of his/her family, friends and
financiers, performs activities that aim to
define the corporate personality, establish
corporate branding relationships with stakeholders and define a brand-oriented corporate strategy. This sets up the companys
corporate brand building process, which
is accelerated in the early growth stage that
follows. During that stage, the previous
functions are maintained or revised, and
new functions are performed. These include
creating a corporate brand identity and
image, assuring the involvement of employees in the process, communicating with
consistency, and monitoring the process
with feedback gathered form the internal
and external stakeholders.
The effective growth stage maintains or
revises the previous functions; however, by
this time the company has employees who
may perform some of the activities at a more
professional and full-time level that at earlier
stages. More resources are needed to target
the growing number of external stakeholders. However, the study revealed that
external stakeholders can be engaged in corporate branding activities even during the
pre-establishment stage, and thus it is not
only the internal actors that are active.

Theoretical implications
This study offers three theoretical contributions. First, the study classifies the functions,
activities and actors of corporate brand
building in the context of small business.
Even though several sources of literature
suggest different perspectives on corporate
brand building, this is the first study to classify the functions, activities and actors taking
part in the process. Moreover, our understanding of each function was enhanced.
Related to the function of defining the corporate personality, the importance of core

2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management

values suggested earlier by Urde (2003) and

Harris and de Chernatony (2001) was also
identified in the empirical research. However, in this study the core values are suggested to be the core of the corporate
brand, not just the basis on which the corporate brand is built (see, for example,
Urde, 2003). In addition, corporate values
are close to the entrepreneurs own values
in the early days of the company.
Moreover, the study confirms the suggestion by Urde (1999) that to achieve
brand orientation, it is best to incorporate it
into the companys strategic planning from
a very early stage. The strategies need to
be revised, however, and new strategies are
formed throughout the years of operations
of the company. The creation and clarification of corporate identity in the early development of the company (Aaker, 1992; Rode
and Vallaster, 2005) and the elements of
corporate identity (corporate culture, corporate behaviour, corporate internal communications and corporate design) (Rode
and Vallaster, 2005; Witt and Rode, 2005)
were also identified as a function in the
branding process and need to be consistent
in order to express the corporate brand
effectively to the external stakeholders.
However, according to the available data,
corporate identity tends to emerge on its
own rather than being something consciously developed. Furthermore, the corporate identity was often seen as emanating
from the daily operations of the internal
personnel, and also from the product of the
company.
The study offers support to Hatch and
Schultz (2003) by classifying the function
of assuring the employees involvement as
a part of the branding process. This study
views the employees as representatives of
the company, both within the company
and to the outside world in the companys
everyday operations. Proactive communication with different stakeholder groups
helps to create awareness of the company

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Juntunen et al

and build a positive corporate image, backing

the study by Witt and Rode (2005). In
addition to the previous knowledge, the
corporate image was seen to be established
in every new contact and relation. The
importance of consistent communications
(Aaker, 1992; Einwiller and Will, 2002)
was emphasized in the empirical part and
the complex nature of communications was
also underlined. The importance of monitoring with feedback was more strongly
emphasized through the empirical research
than it had previously been in the branding
literature (c.f. Gregory, 2007; Wong and
Merrilees, 2005; Rode and Vallaster, 2005).
Feedback was sought from several sources
including customers, investors, suppliers
and business incubators. The feedback collected and analysed concerned the products
of the company and the ways in which it
operated and reported on information.
Companies used the feedback not only to
actively develop and improve their products, but also to find out how each company was perceived by its stakeholder
groups, and how they could develop their
efforts in building their corporate brands.
Second, this study empirically connects
the corporate brand building activities to
the different stages of small business growth.
Compared to traditional discussions about
small business growth, our data revealed
that corporate brand building activities may
and should begin even before a company
is officially established, in the pre-establishment stage. An example of this is the notion
that during the early stages of the companys development, the corporate identity
seems to be close to the identity of the
owner-manager, as s/he is the person
developing the company most actively.
When the company grows, the corporate
and the owners image become separated
once the functions of branding are fulfilled.
Third, the study classifies the stakeholder
groups involved in each corporate branding

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2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management

function and reveals new stakeholder

groups that are involved in the process. In
addition to the customers, suppliers, investors, employees, media and partnering
companies that have been discussed earlier
(see, for example, Bickerton, 2000; Davies
and Chun, 2002; Gregory, 2007), owners,
research organizations, educational institutions, competitors and the entire industry
network can be involved not only as targets
of the communication, but also as providers
of new innovative ideas (students) or useful
advice (bank managers, business angels) on
how to plan and execute corporate branding.
Moreover, in contrast to views expressed
in the current literature suggesting that core
values are limited to the internal stakeholders, that is, the personnel of the company (Harris and de Chernatony, 2001),
this study revealed that the companies also
communicated their core values to external
stakeholder groups. The target stakeholder
groups for defining core values therefore
include all stakeholders, instead of only
internal stakeholders, as is often presented
in the literature.

Managerial implications
The empirically grounded framework on
corporate brand building activities and
stakeholders in different stages of the
growth of small businesses can work as a
guiding principle in corporate branding
efforts for companies interested in corporate brand building. By using the framework provided here as a guiding principle
in corporate brand building, companies can
evaluate, change and hopefully enhance
their own corporate branding efforts. The
framework can help the company to notice
the essential activities that need to be
undertaken in order to ensure that the corporate brand will emerge. The framework
may give new insights and ideas for those
about to become entrepreneurs but who
have not yet established a company. For
companies that were recently established

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Corporate branding and business growth

and are still lacking formal structures and

procedures, brand orientation will be easier
to adopt with the help of this framework.
In addition, corporate brand building is also
possible for established companies. This
study can help them further elaborate on
the corporate branding ideology of taking
up the corporate brand as part of the everyday activity and decision making in the
company.
It is important to note that when building
a corporate brand, the effort starts from
within the company. The foundation of a
strong corporate brand lies in clearly defined
core values and brand-oriented strategic
planning. When these are in place, a corporate identity that is consistent with the
corporate brand is created. It is commonly
known that SMEs have few resources and
little time for activities such as corporate
brand building. The kind of inherent,
holistic view on corporate branding
described here is the answer for corporate
branding in SMEs. When the entire organization and its employees understand the
essence of the corporate brand, it can be
successfully completed by creating a good
corporate image. In order to do that, a
small-scale company that operates in the
B2B market does not need massive advertising campaigns, as would be the case
with large consumer product corporations.
Instead, half of the work is done when the
external stakeholders can see the corporate
brand radiating from the SME. To get the
message delivered to the external stakeholder groups, consistent communications
are needed.
Communications, both internal and
external, are important throughout the corporate brand building process. Gathering
and analysing feedback should also be
remembered, because that is what supports
the continuous improvement of the corporate brand. As can be seen from the framework, corporate brand building does not
end after the first stage: rather, the activities

2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1350-23IX Brand Management

and efforts should be continued throughout

the existence of the company. In the later
stages of small business growth, the corporate brand building activities should not be
forgotten. Instead, the corporate brand
needs maintenance and renewal to stay
strong in rapidly changing markets.

Limitations and further studies

This study concentrated on two cases of
corporate branding in B2B markets, and
this contextualized the theory developed in
this study. However, at the conceptual
level, we argue that the functions, activities
and actor classifications all help researchers
to better understand the process of corporate branding in small businesses. However,
no study is free from limitations.
Our findings should not be generalized
to medium-sized companies, although SMEs
were at times referred to in the study, as
data have not been gathered from companies with close to 250 employees. Moreover, collecting the main empirical data by
interviewing always poses limitations on
the accuracy of the data (what the interviewees remembered and revealed) for the
case study and the credibility of its analysis.
However, to diminish these problems,
multiple interviews were carried out from
two cases, so that the period that the interviewees needed to reflect upon was kept as
short as possible. In the analysis, interview
data were examined and filtered several
times.
In the future, it would be interesting to
collect qualitative data and to ground the
classification empirically in different countries, contexts and industries. As already
mentioned, legislation and company forms
differ in different countries and thus may
influence brand building, especially at the
pre-establishment stage. Moreover, consumer markets, large companies or nontechnical products would be interesting
contexts for further research in this field.

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Juntunen et al

In addition, various special cases could be

studied within the framework. An interesting subject would be, for instance, a crisis
situation within a growth stage, and its
effects on corporate brand building and the
necessary activities that result from such a
situation. Corporate rebranding in different
growth stages also presents itself as a future
research topic.
Quantitative research methods could also
be used to study a larger number of companies to encourage an understanding of
the corporate brand building in SMEs. In
doing so, the results of this study could be
utilized in developing a well-planned questionnaire to give us a picture of factors
influencing corporate branding in small
businesses in the process of growing. This
study provides an opening to the discussion
about corporate brand building in different
stages of small business growth.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful to two anonymous
reviewers whose valuable comments helped
to improve the quality of the article. This
study is part of Corporate Branding~CoBra
research project funded by Tekes the
Finnish Funding Agency for Technology
and Innovation, University of Oulu and
participating companies.
NOTE
1

The names of the companies are changed because of

a request of one of the case companies.

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