Managing and Evaluating the Corporate Brand: A Model Suggestion Through the Case Analysis

In recent years many authors wrote about the importance of the corporate brand, by defining it as a tool to create value and to attract capital. Investors have confidence in a strong brand, the audience begins to trust in a known brand, as well as suppliers and dealers who want to enjoy the popularity of a certain firm brand when they distribute products. The recent cases of Unilever and P&G reveal how the focus has been transferred from the product communication to the corporate one, now considered essential for the customer loyalty. Communication campaigns latest aim is to create a long-term relationship between the Group brand and the target audience, rather than "merely" the promotion of products in a period in which the audience receive too many messages related to too many products. The only way to avoid confusion is to communicate and emphasize the corporate brand: this implies a long-term dialogue with different audiences and the first part of this paper wants to investigate how. The value identification of this intangible asset is possible if there are some reference conditions: first, the corporate brand must be recognizable at product or service level, secondly the corporate brand must be individually identifiable and transferable to third parties generating differential advantages for organizations can use it. The basic condition must be the possibility to identify it as an autonomous intangible asset, that gives to a company and its products and services an identification. The reference methods to be considered are based on the historical cost basis, on the principle of differential results and the comparative criteria. Some other methods are focused on the systematic identification of loyalty resources connected with the corporate brand. Among the different criteria and methods is to identify which takes to a proper corporate brand evaluation, as intangible asset generating differential advantages in the long run and loyalty value. The second part of the paper examines what criteria and methods are more appropriate in order to bring out the long-term value of the corporate brand.