Celebrating 20 Years of Corporate Brand Scholarship

This month marks the 20th anniversary of what is, arguably, the first article which formally introduced the corporate brand notion viz: Balmer, J.M.T. (1995) Corporate Branding and Connoisseurship, Journal of General Management, (Autumn) 21(1): 24-46. In this article, Professor Balmer argued that senior managers increasingly realised their organisations were brands, but this came with a realisation that corporate brands were fundamentally different from product brands owing to their stakeholder focus, the importance of employees, the key role of the CEO as brand manager and the importance of corporate identity.  JGM has ALSO  kindly made available the follow-up article on corporate brands which explains how corporate brands differ from product brands viz: Balmer, J.M.T. (2001) The Three Virtues and Seven Deadly Sins of Corporate Brand Management, Journal of General Management, (Autumn) 27(1): 1-17.