Branding Activities of a Micro Industrial Services Company
Case study
Branding activities of a micro industrial services company
¨ ¨ Jenny Sandbacka, Satu Natti and Jaana Tahtinen
Department of Marketing, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the internal and external corporate branding activities of micro-sized industrial business services companies. Design/methodology/approach – An abductive research approach and a case study method were used. Data were gathered with thematic interviews from three sources, a case company, its distributors, and its end customers. Findings – A model for building a corporate brand identity and image in a micro-sized industrial business services company was devised. Key activities, including defining company values and the business idea, designing, managing and stabilizing the service process, utilizing holistic corporate communications, networking as well as activating and retaining stakeholders and utilizing feedback, to build a corporate brand were identified. Research limitations/implications – As the importance of the internal branding can be presumed to rise with headcount, the repeatability of this study is weakened by the case organization being a micro company. Several suggestions for future research can be made based on this study: the causality of the presented model’s connections with quantitative methods, the network branding and service company brand hierarchies. Practical implications – This paper shows how a micro company can build its brand, without deploying extra resources. Moreover, it suggests ways of utilizing external resources, by exploring how the company’s stakeholders can participate in the branding process. Originality/value – This study expands the service branding literature to industrial services micro companies by identifying activities that they can undertake. Keywords Corporate branding, Business-to-business, Stakeholders, Networking Paper type Case study
Introduction
The strong growth of the
Branding activities of a micro industrial services company
¨ ¨ Jenny Sandbacka, Satu Natti and Jaana Tahtinen
Department of Marketing, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the internal and external corporate branding activities of micro-sized industrial business services companies. Design/methodology/approach – An abductive research approach and a case study method were used. Data were gathered with thematic interviews from three sources, a case company, its distributors, and its end customers. Findings – A model for building a corporate brand identity and image in a micro-sized industrial business services company was devised. Key activities, including defining company values and the business idea, designing, managing and stabilizing the service process, utilizing holistic corporate communications, networking as well as activating and retaining stakeholders and utilizing feedback, to build a corporate brand were identified. Research limitations/implications – As the importance of the internal branding can be presumed to rise with headcount, the repeatability of this study is weakened by the case organization being a micro company. Several suggestions for future research can be made based on this study: the causality of the presented model’s connections with quantitative methods, the network branding and service company brand hierarchies. Practical implications – This paper shows how a micro company can build its brand, without deploying extra resources. Moreover, it suggests ways of utilizing external resources, by exploring how the company’s stakeholders can participate in the branding process. Originality/value – This study expands the service branding literature to industrial services micro companies by identifying activities that they can undertake. Keywords Corporate branding, Business-to-business, Stakeholders, Networking Paper type Case study
Introduction
The strong growth of the