The majority of company executives believe a strong parent brand is as important as the strength of individual product brands, a Weber Shandwick study has found.
However, more executives at single-brand companies (92%) believe their company’s reputation is as important as their products compared to 75% of multi-brand execs.
Leslie Gaines-Ross, chief reputation strategist at Weber Shandwick, said: “For today’s well-informed and highly connected consumer, purchase decisions are increasingly based on the company behind the brand and what that company stands for.”
“Historically, multi-brand organisations more extensively marketed their product brands over their corporate brands, but their future success might entail determining how to bring the corporate brand forward to realise the full potential of all their reputational assets.”
The third installment of Weber Shandwick’s 'The Company behind the Brand' study also found companies have been increasing their parent-brand building efforts.
More heads of single-brand companies (89%) said they have picked up their efforts to market their parent-brand compared to 80% of multi-brand execs.
The study comes as global company Procter and Gamble - which owns brands including Metamucil, Gillette and Pantene – invests heavily in its Olympic corporate brand campaign.
FMCG giant Unilever, which counts Lipton and Omo amongst its brands, is also driving its new‘Crafting Brands for Life’ positioning, part of a push to be seen as a more sustainable company.
Marketing efforts in multi-brand organisations that recognise the importance of their corporate reputation is almost evenly split between parent-brand which claims 45% and individual products which take 55%.
However, the survey found leaders of single-brand companies are embracing consumes increased scrutiny of organisations more readily than multi-brand executives.
More than eight in 10 single-brand execs believe consumers are now more interested in the company behind the brand compared to 74% of multi-brand companies.
Similarly, 85% of one brand companies think consumers are doing more research into the companies behind brands compared to 69%.
Micho Spring, Weber Shandwick’s global corporate practice chair, said there is “considerable risk” in failing to understand the consumer’s drive to know where their money is going.
“Unless it is a strategic imperative to reduce the visibility of the parent brand, any product advertising, labelling or additional relevant customer information should clearly identify the enterprise brand,” Spring said.
“Otherwise, consumers are left to do their own investigative work. And, they will do it and announce any discrepancies to the world.”
Just under seven in 10 consumers (69%) say they frequently or regularly discuss their feelings towards products they have purchased.
Customer service and treatment of employees are amongst the top conversation points for consumers.
Despite this, significantly less (53%) of multi-brand companies communicate their workplace culture with consumers compared to 73% of single brand organisations.
‘The Company Behind the Brand: In Reputation We Trust – Multi-Brand Spotlight’ polled 1,375 consumers and 575 senior business executives in the US, UK, China and Brazil last year.
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