Corporate branding as practice - three different approaches

1. Corporate branding as practice- three different approaches Rita Järventie-Thesleff PoP, CEMS AD 16 April 2013

2. Agenda Corporate branding Strategy as practice Corporate branding as practice Practices mediating corporate brand related strategic management: The case of a TNC The role of consumer-customers as external strategy practitioners: The case of a youth magazine Corporate branding as an emergent, creative and continuous praxis: The case of a fashion magazine Conclusion

3. Corporate branding

4. The new brand management - King 1991 CEO Production Director Personnel Director Brand Designer Communications / Marketing Director

5. The six conventions of corporate brand management, Knox & Bickerton 2003 Brand context Brand conditioning Brand construction Corporate branding Brand continuity Brand confirmation Brand consistency

6. Corporate Branding as an interplay - Hatch and Schultz 2003 VISION Corporate Branding IMAGE CULTURE

7. Therelationship between identity and image - Hatch and Schultz 1997 EXTERNAL CONTEXT ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Top Management Vision and Leadership Organizational identity Organizational image Members' Work Experiences Experiences of External groups

8. But…

9. Strategy as practice

10. Strategy as practice – Background 2003: Micro-strategy and strategizing • An activity-based view on strategy 2007: Strategy as practice S-as-P 2010: Strategizing activities & practice SAP Currently: The strategy as practice perspective

11. Background in process research ……demonstrated the potential to capture the undolding of strategic actions made by human beings …..legitimated the small sample of case studies ……mainly resulting in holistic and contextual understanding – but we need to get closer to the actual work of strategizing

12. Strategy as practice • We conceptualize corporate brand building as a strategic change initiative. Change is continuous, evolving and incremental (Weick and Quinn 1999; Tsoukas and Chia 2002) • A practice is a routinized type of behavior which consists of several elements, interconnected to one another: forms of bodily activities, 'thing' and their use, a background knowledge in the form of understanding, know-how, states of emotion and motivational knowledge (Reckwitz 2002). • Practice is a bundle of activities consisting of four components: practical understanding, rules, teleoaffective structure and general understanding (Schatzki 2002). • Individuals as carriers of practices

13. Practitioners, Praxis and Practices Praxis Situated, socially accomplished flows of activity that strategically are consequential for the direction and survival of the group, organization or industry Practices Cognitive, behavioral procedural, discursive, motivational and physical practices that are combined coordinated and adapted to construct practice Practitioners Actors who shape the construction of practice through who they are, how they act and what resources they draw upon

14. Strategy as practice Practitioners, Praxis and Practices The practitioners = the actual strategist The praxis = what the strategist do The practices = practices, routines, tools in use

15. Corporate branding as practice1. Practices mediating corporate brand related strategic management: The case of a TNC2. The role of consumer-customers as external strategy practitioners: The case of a youth magazine3. Corporate branding as an emergent, creative and continuous praxis: The case of a fashion magazine

16. The case of a TNC • The purpose was to contribute to a better understanding of the intra-organizational dynamics of corporate brand building • to explore reciprocal sense-making and sense-giving activities between the corporate center and middle management • to analyze trans-individual practices mediating the change

17. Practices of change management Surveying: Testing Researching Controlling Steering: Deciding Developing Organizing Communicating Simplifying: Fixing Condensing Constricting

18. The case of a youth magazine

19. Consumers and employees as brand-workers • Consumer-customers and employees of the organization play together as brand workers in the processes and practices through which brand value emerges and is created in the market. • We elaborated on the social and communicative practices through which the readers and editorial staff of the magazine construct and negotiate brand meanings by authoring a number of alternative narratives about the “personality” of the brand and about their personal relationship with the brand (Fournier, 1998).

20. Practitioners We argue, in specific, that the consumer-customers and the employees of an organization may work together as strategy practitioners (Jarzabkowski, et al., 2007; Whittington, 2006) who participate in and contribute to the praxis of brand-related strategy-making by constructing and negotiating the brand-related meanings and narratives that constitute the core identity and thus value of a brand.

21. The case of a fashion magazine • Nordic women’s magazine targeted to readers under 35 years of age. • A large majority of the readers are also active users of social media. • The magazine has recently invested in increasing the attractiveness of its web pages.

22. Corporate branding as praxis- an emergent praxis! • Situated, socially accomplished flows of activity that are strategically consequential for the direction and survival organization • It is unbelievable. The last issue was really good. So many people have left the magazine, and yet the last issue was so good. We are like kids who celebrate the fact that we can do a good magazine without the guidance from the top. • By collaborating with our AD I have learnt to understand what is in line with the style of this magazine. And the style clearly differs from the style of other fashion magazines. What distinguishes us from other magazines is the way we address the reader and …our sense of humour.

23. Corporate branding as praxis- a creative praxis! • Creativity cannot be found in a person’s brain or embodied in the music s/he makes, instead creativity results from an interaction between a person’s thinking and the socio-cultural context (Csikszentmihalyi 1996) • We have a special atmosphere…we all want to participate…and so do I. It is a special thing that we have here in this community, and it is something that I would never give away.

24. Corporate branding as praxis- a continuous praxis! • Rather than seeing organizational change as a realization of a top-down initiated plan, the ‘becoming-perspective’ treats change as an ongoing normal condition of organizational life (Ford & Ford 1994; Weick & Quinn 1999; Tsoukas & Chia 2002). Hence, change is grounded in continuous updates of work processes (Brown & Duguid 1991) and social practices (Tsoukas 1996). • It is important that we can simultaneously bring something new and maintain the good old stuff. • Our reader is loyal to our magazine for years! We need to maintain her interest by constantly offering her new things.

25. Conclusion- Vaara & Whittington 2012 • Their review shows how SAP research has helped to advance social theories in strategic management, offered alternatives to performance-dominated analyzes, broadened the scope in terms of organizations studied and promoted new methodologies. • In particular, it has provided important insights into the tools and methods of strategy-making (practices), how strategy work takes place (praxis), and the role and identity of the actors involved (practitioners). • However, we argue that there is a need to go further in the analysis of social practices to unleash the full potential of this perspective.

26. Corporate Branding as an interplay - Hatch and Schultz 2003 Corporate branding as an emergent, creative, continuous praxis VISION Corporate Branding IMAGE CULTURE Practices mediating the building of the corporate brand Customers and employees as brand workers, as practitioners