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Organisational marketing
Its nature and strategic significance
John M. T. Balmer
Introduction
Organisational marketing (‘corporate marketing’) is an increasingly significant strand of thought in management and marketing. It is an approach that is of critical importance in that it sheds light on, and therefore has the potential to reveal in much greater depth than, arguably, has hitherto been the case, the modern organisation. It can also guide managers and organisational members alike.
Organisational marketing, unlike a good deal, but not all, of extant marketing thought has an explicit corporate/corporate brand and stakeholder focus. As with earlier marketing iterations it is informed by multiple disciplinary perspectives and their attendant constructs and can be seen as an organisational-wide philosophy which is reflected in a shared corporate culture. Also, it represents a new, supplementary perspective in terms of the strategic management of organisations.
Moreover, and to expand, the adoption of an organisational marketing logic has the potential to guide managers, not only senior managers but also organisational members, in serving customers and other stakeholders in the context of the institution’s mission and articles of incorporation (an organisation’s juridical identity in other words). It was back in the late 1990s that I first outlined the efficacy and what I regarded would be the long-term significance of this new marketing approach (Balmer 1998).
An organisational marketing logic is an extension of the original, customer-focussed marketing orientation in that it takes account of not only the critical importance of meeting the organisation’s mission so that there is mutual benefit to customers/other stakeholders but, of course, the organisation too. Importantly, organisational marketing represents an institutional-wide philosophy that is grounded in the institution’s culture. It takes account of ethical/CSR concerns and the temporal dimension vis-à-vis stakeholders.
It is also a management approach – albeit a strategic management approach – which requires senior managers and strategic planners to take cognisance of multiple corporate-level constructs (such as corporate identity, branding, communication and image); to ensure that they are meaningfully and, importantly, dynamically aligned with the aim of winning and maintaining customers along with maintaining, too, the support of other stakeholders which can be critical in terms of ensuring financial support and in terms of attracting employees, etc. As such, one criterion for a successful corporate marketing orientation is the degree to which there is a strong and positive identification with the organisation – among not only employees and customers but other stakeholders and organisations as well. Of course, positive identification must translate into action in terms of buying products and services, supplying the company, investing in the firm and working for and staying with the organisation, etc. To reiterate, organisational marketing does not operate in a vacuum. This is because corporate marketing – as a philosophy and as an approach to strategic management – can provide one effective means through which an organisation’s mission and objectives, as set out in its charter or articles of association, can be achieved.
Whilst organisational marketing is in certain regards similar to stakeholder management there is a difference in that accord is giving to the temporal dimension. As such, as well as showing regard for stakeholders of today and tomorrow, the organisational marketing approach acknowledges that the contributions made by stakeholders in earlier times can often be meaningful: consider mutual organisations, for instance (building societies, co-operative entities). Although it would be perverse in strategic terms to give undue regard to the past there can, all the same, be merit in such an approach and there may, perhaps too, be a moral case for the same. Consider, for instance, those mutual financial institutions whose memberships have been passed on from one generation to another but, in the wake of financial deregulation in the 1980s, became public limited companies. Consider former British building societies such as Abbey National, Bradford and Bingley, and Halifax Building Societies. Whilst it took generations to build up these entities, by changing their status to public limited companies (PLCs), overnight, investors and borrowers of the societies’ financial products and who were, for the main, treated as members of the society, became shareholders and were able to sell their shares and derive financial gain – something that earlier members were not allowed to do.
In more holistic terms, corporate marketing is both a modus vivendi (a way of living) and a modus operandi (a way of working) which, as a philosophy and strategic management approach, has applicability to contemporary organisations of whatever size, nationality, or, indeed, hue. Over recent years we have witnessed a growth of interest and this is reflected in those articles which have, in whole or in part, focussed on corporate marketing, namely: Aspara and Tikkanen (2011), Karaosmanoglu et al (2011), Podnar et al (2011), Powell (2011), and Illia and Balmer (2012).
In bringing this introductory section to a close, it is worth recapitulating some of the key tenets of the domain. As such, it can be said that organisational marketing – as a powerful, albeit additional, strategic perspective and institutional-wide philosophy –affords an additional lens through which scholars and managers can more fully comprehend organisations and their interfaces with stakeholders from both multiple identity as well as from strategic perspectives. It is an integrative and multidisciplinary approach that is meaningfully informed by the key, corporate-level constructs of corporate identity, corporate brand identity, corporate communication, corporate image and reputation which typically inform our comprehension of the territory from marketing, communication and from strategic perspectives. This being said, organisational marketing also takes account of member identification with an institution which is an abiding concern of organisational behaviourists and which, in recent times, has been broadened by marketing scholars and others to accommodate customers and other stakeholders.
The chapter’s focus
This chapter provides an overview of the organisational/corporate marketing field and explicates the bases of the domain and outlines the corporate marketing rationale along with its strategic importance. Organisational marketing, to me, is a natural development of marketing thought. Organisational marketing – although qualitatively different from the traditional customer-focussed product and services marketing logics – complements and advances earlier marketing approaches. As such, it is an approach that is inextricably linked to earlier marketing orientations in their various manifestations and should be viewed as augmenting these earlier, albeit powerful and practical, approaches.
Corporate marketing represents more of an evolution – albeit a somewhat radical evolution – and not a revolution of marketing thought. So, just as extant marketing approaches (marketing orientations and logics) have highlighted the importance of products/product brand, services/service brand in meeting customers wants and needs (including business-to-business interactions) in commercial and not-for-profit entities, etc. since the late 1990s (Balmer 1998), organisations per se (their identities and corporate brands) and stakeholders and not just customers have also been shown to be highly significant. This is because organisations – including their corporate identities, corporate brands, along with their philosophies and culture and CSR activities – can be central in terms of meeting the wants or needs of not only customers but also stakeholders.
However, there are other dimensions to be considered. This is because organisational marketing is also inextricably linked to the corporate communication, corporate image/reputation, and corporate branding, etc. domains. Importantly too it is informed by identity-based views of the firm perspective and it’s meaningfully informed by multiple identity perspectives. As such corporate marketing/organisational marketing is an important means by which institutions can profitably meet their legal, economic, societal, and other objectives. This chapter on organisational marketing is primarily informed by my own research and scholarship in the area dating back to the 1990s.
Corporate marketing or organisational marketing?
Whilst I use both the organisational marketing and corporate marketing terms in this chapter it is important – as a brief but important aside – to explain something of their links and respective meanings.
For the main, there is no contradiction in using the two terms interchangeably in management, marketing and organisational contexts. However, there are differences between the two terms.
Organisational marketing
Organisational marketing, in comparison to its sister construct of corporate marketing, is narrower in scope in that it explicitly refers to institutions per se – of whatever shape or form – and as such does not refer to cities, countries and so on.
Corporate marketing
Corporate marketing is a construct that has a broader applicability in that it applies not only to organisations but also to entities of whatever shape or form, and this includes countries, territories and regions, along with state, civic and religious entities (monarchies, cities –including the ancient City of London – dioceses and of course universities). The term corporate – as many of us will probably recall from our days as MBA students – comes from the Italian expression to break bread together and, thus, it is a salient reminder that corporate refers to any collective group. In law, the notion of the corporation is a very ancient one indeed and referred to towns and later universities as bodies corporate. In identity terms this was a significant development since it recognised that institutions had an actual existence and – as with an individual – could buy and sell property and could sue and be sued.
Of course, among marketing, branding, communications and image/reputation scholars it has been the corporate, rather than the organisational label that predominates in terms of the labels by which they categorise their research, scholarship and teaching, namely: corporate identity, corporate brands, corporate communications, corporate image, corporate reputation, etc. The titles of their books and masters courses also include the word corporate too, such as MSc courses in Corporate Brand Management and Corporate Communication. As such, it seems entirely logical that the umbrella of corporate marketing should be used.
The above can be compared with scholars from organisational behaviour and related disciplines who eschew reference to all things corporate in labelling the constructs which have come from and which primarily inform their work relating to identity and image. Their preferred word is organisational, namely organisational identity, organisational identification, organisational image, etc.
Problems and inconsistencies
Curiously, some scholars in marketing and communications – even though they make wide reference to corporate brands, images, reputations and communications – entirely avoid reference to corporate identity but refer to organisational identity instead (this somewhat radically warps the historiography of the field and accords the organisational behaviour literature – important thought it is – hegemony and ignores the work of marketing, communications scholars and practitioners in the field. This has caused, and continues to cause, unnecessary confusion and represents a distorted narrative. For their part, organisational behaviourists such as Hatch and Schultz (2001) make reference to corporate brands rather than organisational brands which (from their organisational behaviour stance) would appear to be entirely illogical in light of their disciplinary associations.
Links with marketing/communications and organisational behaviour
So, from the above we can clearly infer that whereas the corporate label tends to refer to and identify the work of marketing, communications and strategists in the domain, the organisational label tends to identify the work emanating from organisational behaviourists and analogous areas of scholarship. However, what should be a clear logic can be put aside for a variety of reasons. There is another, quite important, consideration in terms of usage of both these terms.
The British and North American divide explained
Whereas in the UK, and in parts of the Commonwealth and in Continental Europe where there is still some familiarity with the historical roots of the corporation as a term and a greater realisation that the word corporate can be used in a wide sense, this is not – from experience – the situation which exists in a ...
