Corporate marketing: Apocalypse, advent and epiphany

Abstract

Purpose - this paper aims to explain the nature and relevance of corporate marketing and details the antecedents of the territory. Corporate marketing is a marketing and management paradigm which synthesises practical and theoretical insights from corporate image and reputation, corporate identity, corporate communications and corporate branding, among other corporate-level constructs. Design/methodology/approach – via the adoption of a quadrivium; a traditional classical, four-part, approach to the acquisition of knowledge, I: (i) show how organisations can be faced by apocalyptical scenarios through a failure to accord sufficient attention to one or more dimensions of the corporate marketing mix, (ii) explain why the emergence of corporate level constructs such as corporate image, identity, branding communications and reputation represent, both individually and collectively, the advent of corporate marketing, (iii) detail the various integrative initiatives in corporate design, corporate communications and identity studies which, together with the incremental augmentation of the marketing philosophy find their natural dénouement in the epiphany of corporate marketing; (iv) describe the 6Cs of the corporate marketing mix and reflect upon possible future directions in organisational marketing. Findings - paper reveals the efficacy of adopting an organisational-wide corporate marketing philosophy to management decision makers and scholars. Originality/Value – the practical utility of corporate marketing is explicated by making reference to case vignettes, and various marketing and non-marketing literatures Practical Implications – drawing on the marketing/management theory of identity alignment policy advisors should accord attention to each dimension of the corporate marketing mix and ensure that they are in meaningful as well as in dynamic alignment. Paper type – Historical overview/literature review/case histories. This Commentary is based on the opening remarks of the celebratory 10th symposium of the International Corporate Identity Group (ICIG) held at Brunel University, London, in 2007.