John Balmer
Professor of Corporate Marketing
Contact Details
Brunel University
Uxbridge
UB8 3PH
United Kingdom
Summary
Professor John M.T. Balmer BA (Hons). MBA (Dunelm), PhD, AMusTCL, Dip.M, PGCE is Director of the Marketing Research Group; Professor of Corporate Marketing at Brunel Business School and quondam Professor of Corporate Brand/Identity Management at Bradford School of Management. Previously he was Professor of Corporate Identity at the same institution. It is believed the Chairs held by him are the first of their kind. At Strathclyde Business School, Glasgow, he was Founder/Director of the International Centre for Corporate Identity Studies. Awarded his PhD in corporate identity management in November 1996 he was appointed to his first professorial position in September 1999. He has been tireless in his advocacy of the strategic importance of corporate identity, corporate branding and corporate marketing to scholars and practitioners alike over the last two decades and is also known for his work on monarchies as corporate brands, the BBC, British Airways; Building Societies; identity alignment ("the Acid Test'), Ethical Identity and Identities. Professor Balmer has written numerous landmark articles on the above areas in leading journals including California Management Review, European Journal of Marketing, Long Range Planning, Journal of Business Ethics, the British Journal of Management and International Studies of Management and Organizations. Since 1997 he has served as guest editor for over 16 special editions of academic journals on corporate marketing/identity and corporate brand management related concerns.
He is the Founder, Chairman and Conference Organiser of the International Corporate Identity Group (ICIG). The first ICIG symposium took place in 1994 and was formally launched in the House of Lords, Palace of Westminster, in 1995. Conferences have been held at Oxford University, The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre Westminster, and in London, Edinburgh, Brighton and Slovenia among others. Speakers at former ICIG symposia have included prominent politicians (Lord Mandelson: current UK Secretary of State for Business and former EU Commissioner for trade), captains of industry including Lord Browne (former Group CEO of BP),Lord King (President of British Airways), Lord Marshall of Knightsbridge (Chairman of Nomura International, Chairman of Pirelli UK and former CEO of British Airways), leading consultants of corporate marketing and eminent academics (Professor Sir Robert Worcester, Professor Stephen A. Greyser, Professor John Kay, Professor Mary Jo Hatch, Professor Maijken Schultz, Professor Cees van Riel, Professor Denis Bromley etc).
With Professor Stephen A. Greyser (Harvard Business School) he co-authored the seminal text Revealing the Corporation (Routledge, 2003). He has worked with a variety of organisations on research projects in corporate marketing, including the BBC, WPP Group, and the Royal Family of Sweden. He conceived and developed the MBA, MSc, and BA (Honours) electives in corporate identity/corporate branding and corporate marketing at Strathclyde Business School and at Bradford School of Management and has also run executive-level MBA electives for organisations such as the BBC, and Emirates Airways. He was the first director of the landmark MSc in Corporate Brand Management at Brunel Business School and is the founding Chairman of the Advisory Board of Experts vis-a-vis the MSc in Corporate Brand Management.
Teaching and Research
Teaching
Foundation Course: MSc Corporate Brand Management
Course Director: MSc Corporate Brand Management
Tutor re the MSc course in corporate identity
Communications and reputation
Research Interests
- Corporate Marketing
- Corporate Identity and Identification
- Corporate Brand Management
- Identity Based Views of the Firm
- Ethical Identity and Ethical Corporate Marketing
- Monarchies as Corporate Brands
- Corporate Heritage Brands
- Industry and Alliance Corporate Brands and Identities
Research Centres
Publications
Publications
Journal Papers
(2013) He, H-W. and Balmer, JMT., The Corporate Identity/Strategy Dynammic: a Grounded Theory Study of Building Societies from a Corporate Marketing Perspective, European Journal of Marketing 3/4 in press-
(2012) Balmer, JMT., Strategic corporate brand alignment: Perspectives from identity based views of corporate brands, European Journal of Marketing 46 (7) : 1064- 1092
(2012) Balmer, J., Strategic corporate brand alignment: perspectives from identity based views of corporate brands., European Journal of Marketing 46 (7/8) : 8
(2012) Balmer, J., “Corporate brand management imperatives: Custodianship, Credibility, and Calibration, California Management Review 54 (3) : 6- 33
(2011) Balmer, JMT., Powell, SM. and Greyser, SA., Explicating ethical corporate marketing. Insights from the BP deepwater horizon catastrophe: The ethical brand that exploded and then imploded, Journal of Business Ethics 102 (1) : 1- 14
(2011) Balmer, JMT., Corporate Heritage Brands and the Precepts of Corporate Heritage Brand Management: Insights from teh British Monarchy and the Eve of the Royal Wedding of Prince William (April 2011) and Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee (1952-2012), Journal of Brand Management 8 517- 544
(2011) Balmer, JMT., Corporate Heritage Identities, Corporate Heritage Brands and the Multiple Heritage Identities of the British Monarchy, European Journalof Marketing 9-10 1380- 1398
(2011) Balmer, JMT., Corporate Marketing Myopia and the Inexorable Rise of a Corporate Marketing Logic: Perspectives from Identity Based Views of the Firm, European Journal of Marketing 9-10 1329- 1352
(2011) Balmer, JMT., Powell, SM. and Greyser, SA., Explicating Ethical Corporate Marketing: Insights from the BP Deepwater Horizon Catastrophe: The Ethical Brand the Exploded and then Imploded, Journal of Busines Ethics 1 1- 14
(2010) Balmer, JMT., Explicating corporate brands and their management: Reflections and directions from 1995, Journal of Brand Management 3 180- 196
(2010) Balmer, JMT., Liao, M-N. and Wang, W-Y., Corporate brand identification and corporate brand management: how top business schools do it, Journal of General Management 35 (4) : 77- 102
(2010) Balmer, JMT., The BP Deepwater Horizon debacle and corporate brand exuberance, Journal of Brand Management 97- 104
(2009) Balmer, JMT., Stuart, H. and Greyser, SA., Aligning identity and strategy: corporate branding at British Airways in the late 20th century, California Management Review 51 (3) : 6- 23
(2009) Balmer, J. and Greyser, SA., Corporate marketing and identity: reflections and directions - Guest editorial, Management Decision 47 (4) : 540- 543
(2009) Balmer, JMT., Corporate marketing: Apocalypse, advent and epiphany, Management Decision 47 (4) : 544- 572 Download publication
(2009) Balmer, JMT., Scrutinising the British Monarchy: The corporate brand that was shaken, stirred and survived, Management Decision 47 (4) : 639- 675 Download publication
(2009) Balmer, JMT. and Thomson, I., The shared management and ownership of corporate brands: The case of Hilton, Journal of General Management 35 (2) : 15- 37
(2008) Balmer, JMT., A resource-based view of the British monarchy as a corporate brand, International Studies of Management and Organization 37 (4) : 20- 44
(2008) Balmer, JMT., Corporate brand, the British monarchy, and the resource based view of the firm, International Studies of Management and Organizations 37 (4) : 20- 45 Download publication
(2008) Balmer, JMT., Identity based views of the corporation: insights from corporate identity, organisational identity, social identity, visual identity, corporate brand identity and corporate image, European Journal of Marketing 42 (9-10) : 879- 906
(2008) Mukherjee, A. and Balmer, JMT., New frontiers and perspectives in corporate brand management: in search of a theory, International Studies of Management and Organization 37 (4) : 3- 19
(2008) Balmer, JMT. and Thompson, I., The shared management and ownership of corporate brands, Journal of General Management 34 (4) : 15- 37
(2007) Balmer, JMT., A Resource-Based View of the British Monarchy as a Corporate Brand, International studies of management & organization 37 (4) : 20- 45
(2007) He, H-W. and Balmer, JMT., Identity studies: Multiple perspectives and implications for corporate-level marketing, European Journal of Marketing 41 (7/8) : 765- 785 Download publication
(2007) Fukukawa, K., Balmer, JMT. and Gray, ER., Mapping the interface between corporate identity, ethics and corporate social responsibility, Journal of Business Ethics 76 (1) : 1- 5
(2007) Balmer, JMT. and He, H-W., Perceived corporate identity/ strategy dissonance: triggers and managerial responses, Journal of General Management 33 (1) : 71- 91
(2007) Cornelissen, JP., Haslam, SA. and Balmer, JMT., Social identity, organizational identity and corporate identity: towards an integrated understanding of processes, patternings and products, British Journal of Management 18 (1) : 1- 16
(2007) Balmer, JMT., Student corporate brand identification: An exploratory case study, Corporate Communications 12 (4) : 356- 375 Download publication
(2007) Balmer, JMT., Fukukawa, K. and Gray, ER., The nature and management of ethical corporate identity: A commentary on corporate identity, corporate social responsibility and ethics, Journal of Business Ethics 76 (1) : 7- 15 Download publication
(2006) He, H-W. and Balmer, JMT., Alliance brands: Building corporate brands through strategic alliances?, The Journal of Brand Management 13 (4-5) : 242- 256 Download publication
(2006) Balmer, JMT. and Mukherjee, A., Corporate marketing: insights and integration drawn from corporate branding, corporate identity, corporate communication, corporate reputation and visual identification - Guest editorial, European Journal of Marketing 40 (7-8) : 725- 729
(2006) Balmer, JMT. and Greyser, SA., Corporate marketing: integrating corporate identity, corporate branding, corporate communications, corporate image and corporate reputation, European Journal of Marketing 40 (7/8) : 730- 741
(2006) Greyser, SA., Balmer, JMT. and Urde, M., The monarchy as a corporate brand - some corporate communications dimensions, European Journal of Marketing 40 (7-8) : 902- 908
(2005) He, H-W. and Balmer, JMT., The saliency and significance of generic identity: An explanatory study of UK building societies, International Journal of Bank Marketing 23 (4) : 334- 348
(2003) Balmer, JMT. and Gray, ER., Corporate brands: What are they? What of them?, European Journal of Marketing 37 (7/8) : 972- 997
(2002) Balmer, JMT. and Greyser, SA., Managing the multiple identities of the corporation, California Management Review 44 (3) : 72- 86
(2002) Balmer, JMT., Of Identities Lost and Found, International Studies of Management and Organization 32 (3) : 10- 27
(2001) Melewar, T., Saunders, J. and Balmer, JMT., Cause, effect and benefits of a standardised corporate visual identity system of UK companies operating in Malaysia, European Journal of Marketing 35 (3/4) : 414- 427
(2001) Balmer, JMT., Corporate identity, corporate branding and corporate marketing - Seeing through the fog, European Journal of Marketing 35 (3/4) : 248- 291
(2001) Balmer, JMT., The three virtues and seven deadly sins of corporate brand management, Journal of General Management 27 (1) : 1- 17
(1998) Gray, ER. and Balmer, JMT., Managing corporate image and corporate reputation, Long Range Planning 31 (5) : 695- 702
(1995) Balmer, JMT., Corporate branding and connoisseurship, Journal of General Management
Conference Papers
(2008) Liao, M. and Balmer, JMT., Student identification and non identification, ICIG Symposium
Book Chapters
(Forthcoming) Balmer, JMT., Corporate Identity. In: Juergensmeyer, M. and Helmut Anheier, H. eds. Encyclopedia of Global Studies. Sage, London (Forthcoming)
(2008) Balmer, JMT., An epiphany of three: corporate identity, corporate branding and corporate marketing. In: Melewar, TC. ed. Facets of Corporate Identity, Communication and Reputation. Routledge, London
(2005) Balmer, JMT., Corporate Brand Cultures and Communities. In: Schroeder, J. and Salzer-Morling, M. eds. Brand Cultures. London : Taylor & Francis, Inc.
Books
(2003) Balmer, JMT. and Greyser, S., Revealing the Corporation: Perspectives on Identity, Image, Reputation, Corporate Branding and Corporate Level Marketing. Routledge
