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Brand, organisational identity and reputation in SMEs: An overview

Article  in  Qualitative Market Research · September 2007

DOI: 10.1108/13522750710819685

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GUEST EDITORIAL Brand,

identity and
Brand, organisational identity reputation
and reputation in SMEs:
341
an overview
Temi Abimbola
Marketing and Strategic Management Group, Warwick Business School,
University of Warwick, Coventry, UK, and
Christine Vallaster
Department of Marketing, University of Giessen, Muenchen, Germany

Abstract
Purpose – This paper is a brief historical examination of brand, organisation identity and reputation
in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The discussion is situated within the context of the
challenges that the global knowledge-based business environment poses to organisations of differing
sizes.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors’ approach is discursive. The argument is supported
by findings from published studies and empirical reality. The authors analyse and distill our thoughts
(and the empirical findings) in a way that is relevant to the activities of entrepreneurs and SMEs.
Findings – Organisations are better able to create strong firm by integrating branding, reputation
building, relevant and appropriate organisational identity beyond their visual façade. They need to be
more proactive, and also have to express and embed their brand value propositions within their
identity and reputation in their dealings with customers. The authors surmises that researching about
(and evaluations of) brand, reputation and organisation identity need to play more active roles in
offering novel ways of conceptualising and documenting the realities of the contemporary (global)
business environment in which firms operates.
Originality/value – The study offers new horizons on brand, organization identity and reputation
as they relate to economic reality. The authors unequivocal articulation is that these concepts are
critical factors in the success of enterprises and small businesses in competitive markets.
Keywords Entrepreneurialism, Corporate identity, Corporate branding,
Small to medium-sized enterprises
Paper type General review

As we progress through the twenty-first century, organisations – small, medium and

large – are competing in an environment that is global in nature and scope,
information rich and knowledge based. These environmental forces continue to
influence the importance of customers and customer relationship management, and
undermine the privilege hitherto enjoyed by firms. The environment fosters a
customer-led as opposed to producer-led competitive market. This customer-led
market, is in turn, underpinned by symbolic consumption and affluence based on Qualitative Market Research: An
significations and signifiers (Baudrillard, 1998). This symbolic consumption and its International Journal
Vol. 10 No. 4, 2007
subjective image-laden reality characterises the knowledge based competitive market pp. 341-348
in which organisations – irrespective of size – now compete. In compiling this special q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1352-2752
edition, we recognised the increasing role that brand, organisational identity and DOI 10.1108/13522750710819685
QMRIJ reputation occupy in competitive markets loaded with meanings, and the symbols in
10,4 which organisations learn to express themselves (Schultz et al., 2000).
Brand, organisational identity and reputation as they relate to large organisations
have been around for quite some time with an established wealth of published research
and extant literature. The underlying wisdom of the gained knowledge is: the greater
the alignment between these three concepts, the more consistent and therefore the more
342 successful the branding efforts will be. Such thinking, originally designed for “big”
companies, is just beginning to attract the attention of researchers for “small”
entrepreneurs and SMEs. This chasm serves as the impetus for the collection of articles
in this volume on entrepreneurs and SMEs branding.
One can trace the antecedents of research in the area in terms of individual research
on the topic. History – if viewed as more than anecdote or chronology – indicates a
number of antecedent works on similar concepts in earlier works. For instance, the
empirical study by Gilmore et al. (1999) on “added value” represents one of the earlier
published studies in the context of SMEs. Following Nilson (1992) and Gilmore et al.
(1999) conceptualised added value in the context of fulfilling customer wants and needs
through offerings that have superior perceived value. They argued that this is not
limited to large organisations as superior value offerings are of particular importance
to SMEs as well, if not more so. Keller (1998) suggests that brand strategy is not a
preserve of large organisations alone and outlines practical suggestions on branding
for smaller firms.
While the above studies represent antecedents to what is now a small but growing
body of work in the area of brand, organisational identity and reputation in the context
of SMEs, Abimbola (2001) represents one of the early studies that explicitly focused on
(and conceptualised) branding in the context of SMEs, particularly as it influences the
plasticity of customer demand and easier appropriation of entrepreneurial gains
accruing to firms. Since, then, a number of studies have been published as reflected in
the list of references provided by authors within this special edition. This growing
body of work represents a clear indication of research progress. Yet, enormous strides
need to be made in the next decades to address the imbalance between research efforts
and the economic contributions of SMEs.
This volume represents a landmark in focusing on entrepreneurial and SME branding.
We argue that the concepts of brand, organisational identity and reputation building are
means of meaning creation that cannot be associated with large organisations alone.
Linking these three concepts enables consistency in branding efforts. We believe, for a
number of reasons, that small companies have several advantages in their efforts of
aligning the brand, organisational identity and reputation building.
Strong brands convey the feeling of familiarity and trust, reduce risk, and serve as
the basis for dialogue and engagement between individuals on one hand, and
customers and producers on the other. In an increasingly fragmented and
meaning-laden world, brands and other forms of symbolic abstractions are part of
individual customer identities and provide motivating incentives that influence their
propensity to purchase an offering.
Powerful brands develop through consistent and positive customer experiences
over time. Such experiences are achieved through a brand’s media, i.e. product,
environment, staff behaviour or communication (Olins, 2000), which all help to make
the brand become “tangible” to the customer. Aaker and Joachimsthaler (2000) and
Kapferer (2004) have challenged the utilitarian focus of conceptualizing a brand as a Brand,
name, term, sign, symbol or design – or a combination of these – by adding identity and
characteristics of the organization, the intended brand personality, as well as the
symbolic value of a brand. In this regard, brand manifestations may encompass a reputation
number of elements, which can be objects as well as people, organizations, activities, or
patterns of behaviour. Over time, a (hopefully positive) brand reputation develops in
the minds of the stakeholders. Hence, branding is not only a functional responsibility 343
of the marketing department, but also needs to involve cross-functional activities and
efforts. SMEs have a clear advantage over large companies due to their more flexible
structures and processes.
Organisational identity was traditionally meant to refer to an exercise where the
company logo, the design style and colour scheme were changed. If conceived this way,
then larger businesses are usually better off because they generally have more financial
assets to fall back on and usually also have the in-house resources to assure, at the very
least, professionalism is maintained. Organisational identity in our understanding
addresses the distinct attributes of an organization and “is fundamentally concerned
with reality, ‘what an organisation is’” (Balmer, 1998, p. 979). Graphic designs (van Riel
and Balmer, 1997), the behaviour of employees (Duncan and Moriarty, 1998) and
corporate communication towards internal and external stakeholders of the company
(Argenti, 1998; Jablin and Putnam, 2001) give texture to corporate identity.
In large organisations, the tasks of managing these corporate identity elements are
distributed amongst various functions such as marketing, top management or corporate
communications. In entrepreneurs and SME organisations, such responsibilities
are bundled and anchored with the entrepreneur/founder/owner manager who holds a
key or unifying position with the firm. This saves time and energy in managing processes
and functions as they relate to corporate identity. Entrepreneurs are usually role models
that strongly characterise the organisational culture, approach to business, and
day-to-day decision making of their firms. Hence, the organizational identity of an SME is
often a reproduction of the personality and characteristics of the founder (Olins, 1978)
entrepreneur/owner manager. Rode and Vallaster (2005) found that the company’s
founder(s) strongly imbued the company with distinctiveness. All elements of corporate
identity, i.e. the company’s corporate culture, corporate design, corporate communication,
and corporate behaviour, seem to invariably develop around the organisations founder(s).
This founder’s perspective of the world and experiences has been shown to strongly shape
the firm’s identity (Wickham, 2001).
Every interaction with customers and other stakeholders influences and adds to the
accruing brand equity of the firm: the more positive the customer experience,
the stronger the brand, and greater is the positive reputation for the organisation.
Fombrun and Rindova (2000) explain that reputation is the more or less favourable
regard in which a firm is held by its stakeholder. Such regard, which translates into a
greater reputation when compared to competing firms, allows them to cope with the
intense nature of competition and offer intuitive, relevant and customised values to
their customers.
While big companies often spend considerable amounts of money to research brand
reputation and take corrective actions, entrepreneurs or SMEs’ face significant
budgetary limitations. Often, personal contacts with the company’s audience are the
most relevant information sources. Such short information cycles enable a quick
QMRIJ reaction to ensure customers have positive experiences with the brand. In big
10,4 companies, complaints often never reach the responsible person, or results of market
research stay in the department where it was initiated.
Our contention is that the brand, organisational identity and reputation call for a
holistic brand management approach that is better suited to entrepreneurs and SMEs
than to big companies. While not guaranteeing success, such an approach is likely to
344 influence competitive success if adopted as part of entrepreneurs and SMEs market
strategy (Witt and Rode, 2005). The link between brand, organisational identity and
reputation is even more acute in the context of non-corporate organisations that may
not have an extensive portfolio of individual brands, as it’s mostly the case in large
organisations.
The six articles in this volume address issues around the elements of brand,
organisational identity and reputation in the context of SME. The theme that links the
articles in this volume is their focus on branding in the entrepreneurial and SME context.
Two strands emerged from the articles in this volume: those that address either external
or internal branding issues, and those that strive for combining these two.
In the first article, Kollmann and Suckow, argue that businesses in the net economy face
the additional challenge of finding a name with a free domain that also has the prospect
of being registered as a trademark. The internet, which lacks physical boundaries,
increases the importance of having a brand name that evokes universally-valid
associations; this means that legal, cultural and regulatory challenges need to be
overcome. The authors extend on the formal naming process developed by Kohli and
LaBahn (1997) and analyse differences in the corporate name finding process for the web
space. As Friedrich von Schiller aptly observed: “Honest name! A truly valuable coin with
which one can masterly bargain – if you know how to spend it well[1]”.
In the second article, Opoku, Abratt, Bendixen and Pitt address another facet of the
internet and its role in SMEs’ brand identity. Their paper addresses the question: to
what extent does a sample of SMEs in the restaurant industry communicate their
distinctive brand personalities on their web sites? Using content analysis technique,
they explore the role of web sites in SMEs’ manifesting corporate characteristics.
Their research findings suggest that the web site clearly enhances SMEs’ ability to
communicate clear and distinctive brand personalities.
An online business has a greater chance for success if those who buy its offerings
recognize its brand. A recognizable brand also makes a business’s site more attractive
to potential advertisers and partners. Kollmann and Suckow and Opoku et al., clearly
demonstrate the importance of brands in SMEs’ ability to connect with their customers
and engage their market as an e-firm, although one may argue that this approach may
not ensure emotionally connection with customers.
The third article by Powell and Ennis, examines the impact of employee
commitment to, and identification with, the organisation brand in small firms with
many individual visions emanating from experts’ individual creativity. The authors
show the external effect of the creation of multiple identities and images of the
creative organisation’s brand. Looking at the relations between internal and external
dimensions, this paper looks at organisation branding in SMEs as a dynamic
process, developing through the projection of the company identity and the related,
explicitly – made, promise to its customers/stakeholders who ascribe meanings to the
company through their experiences.
 The fourth article by Runyan, Huddleston and Swinney, uses qualitative approach Brand,
to uncover firm based resources of small retailers in semi-rural locations. They identity and
examine how the interaction between local consumers and downtown business owners
help to create a sustainable competitive advantage. Through such manifestations local reputation
consumers trusted downtown business owners to be honest and fair in their business
dealings. They have become the constituent elements of the brand.
The fifth paper by Merrilees reports on the development of a framework for SME 345
branding. The framework encompasses all aspects of the new venture development
process: from opportunity recognition, innovation, business model development,
capital access, to suppliers selection and customers acquisition. The author deploys
this framework to demonstrate how these aspects have been managed by successful
ventures such as easyGroup, lastminute.com and The Body Shop International.
Finally, Abimbola and Kocak’s article focuses on the building blocks of
entrepreneurs and SMEs brand, reputation and organizational identity. In conducting
their primary investigation, their work relies on the resource-based view of the firm and
entrepreneurial marketing perspectives as integrative theories for their empirical
research. Based on individual interviews conducted with a sample of ten ESMEs in the
UK, their findings suggest that the primacy of economic influence, rather than firm size,
is the key determinant of competitiveness. Success, therefore, necessitates the reliance
on branding and reputation, which are key resources for entrepreneurs and SMEs.

Perspectives for future research

Working on this special edition presented more questions than the collection of articles
could address. Given the often-strained economic resources available to entrepreneurs
and SMEs, what role does positive brand equity and reputation play in SMEs’ ability to
grow? What are the brand and reputation-based sources of deep connections between
SMEs and their customers? What is the role of organisation identity in their ability to
deploy internal resources successfully? These and numerous other questions offer
opportunities for future research in this area.
We offer this edition not only as a way of talking and writing about SMEs, but also
about researching, and evaluating market based practices in a way that plays an active
role in offering novel ways of conceptualising, documenting the reality of SME in
knowledge economies. Creativity, imagination and symbolic meaning, which all
appear to be influenced by contemporary articulations of symbols and simulacrum, are
the new horizons and competitive environment increasingly reconstructing cultural
and economic reality.
Hence, with this volume, we hope to provoke new ideas on brand, organisational
identity and reputation in the context of SME. Opening up a growing area of discourse
requires knowledge and an understanding of the issues, some of which are outlined in
articles in this volume. We can expect agreement and disagreement from our colleagues on
both the epistemological foundation and the interpretations; but, this type of discourse will
challenges us all to think more deeply. It is for this reason that we urge readers to evaluate
the strengths and challenges of this edition and to share your thoughts with us. We hope
that you will find this collection of studies useful and stimulating, and hope that you will
take a moment to contact us about your views on them and perhaps suggest future ideas
and research directions. Your thoughts will help in broadening the discourse on brand,
organisational identity and reputation in SMEs.
QMRIJ Reviewers
10,4 We will like to take this opportunity to thank all the reviewers who offered their time
and efforts to take part in the peer-review process for this special edition:
. Professor Anne Gregory, Leeds Metropolitan University.
.
Dr Francisco Guzman, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA.
346 .
Dr Andrea Hemetsberger. University of Innsbruck, Austria.
.
Elif Karaosmanoglu, The University of Warwick and Istanbul Technical
University, Turkey.
.
Joachim Kernstock, University of St Gallen, Switzerland.
.
Dr Akin Kocak, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey.
. Dr Sylvie Laforet, The University of Sheffield.
.
Professor Adam Lindgreen, The University of Hull.
.
Dr Guido Palazzo,University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
.
Dr Carmen Rodrı́guez-Santos, University of León, Spain.
. Dr Verena Rode, Atos Origin, Belgium.
.
Dr Stuart Roper, The University of Manchester.
.
Dr Susan Whelan, Waterford Institute of Technology, Waterford, Ireland.

Professor Pamela M. Wynn, Bloomsburg University, Pennsylvania, USA.

Note
1. Translation from: Ehrlicher Name! – wahrhaftig eine reichhaltige Münze, mit der sich
meisterlich schachern läßt, wer’s versteht, sie gut auszugeben (Die Räuber 1781) available at:
www.klassikerwortschatz.uni-freiburg.de/Texte/Raeuber.htm

References
Aaker, J.L. and Joachimsthaler, E. (2000), Brand Leadership, Free Press, New York, NY.
Abimbola, T. (2001), “Branding as a competitive strategy for demand management in SMEs”,
Journal of Research in Marketing & Entrepreneurship, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 97-106.
Argenti, P.A. (1998), Corporate Communication, 2nd ed., McGraw-Hill, Boston, MA.
Balmer, J.M.T. (1998), “Corporate identity and the advent of corporation marketing”, Journal
of Marketing Management, Vol. 14, pp. 963-96.
Baudrillard, J. (1998), The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures, Sage, London.
Duncan, T. and Moriarty, S. (1998), “A communication-based marketing model formanaging
relationships”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 62, pp. 1-13.
Fombrun, C.J. and Rindova, V.P. (2000), “The road to transparency: reputation management at
Royal Dutch/Shell”, in Schultz, M., Hatch, M.J. and Larsen, M.H. (Eds), The Expressive
Organisation: Linking Identity, Reputation and the Corporate Brand, Oxford University
Press, Oxford.
Gilmore, A., Carson, D., O’Donnell, A. and Cummins, D. (1999), “Added value: a qualitative
assessment of SME marketing”, Irish Marketing Review, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 27-35.
Jablin, F. and Putnam, L. (2001), Organizational Communication, Sage, London.
Kapferer, J.N. (2004), The New Strategic Brand Management, Kogan, London.
Keller, K.L. (1998), Strategic Brand Management, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Brand,
Kohli, C. and LaBahn, D.W. (1997), “Creating effective brand names: a study of the brand naming identity and
process”, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 37, pp. 67-75.
Nilson, T. (1992), Added Value Marketing: Marketing Management for Superior Results,
reputation
McGraw-Hill, London.
Olins, W. (1978), The Corporate Personality: An Inquiry into the Nature of Corporate Identity,
Mayflower Books, New York, NY. 347
Olins, W. (2000), “How brands are taking over the corporation”, in Schultz, M., Hatch, M.J. and
Larsen, M.H. (Eds), The Expressive Organisation: Linking Identity, Reputation and the
Corporate Brand, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Rode, V. and Vallaster, C. (2005), “Corporate branding for start-ups: the crucial role of
entrepreneurs”, Corporate Reputation Review, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 121-35.
Schultz, M., Hatch, M.J. and Larsen, M.H. (Eds) (2000), The Expressive Organisation: Linking
Identity, Reputation and the Corporate Brand, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
van Riel, C. and Balmer, J. (1997), “Corporate identity: the concept, its measurement and
management”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 31, pp. 340-56.
Wickham, P.A. (2001), Strategic Entrepreneurship, Prentice-Hall, Harlow.
Witt, P. and Rode, V. (2005), “Corporate brand building in start-ups”, Journal of Enterprising
Culture, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 273-94.

Further reading
Abimbola, T. and Russell, J. (2007), “Organisational branding and reputation: strategic tool for
building trust and immutable assets in SMEs”, Unpublished Work in progress Paper,
Warwick Business School, The University of Warwick, Coventry.
Balmer, J.M.T. (1995), “Corporate branding and connoisseurship”, Journal of General
Management, Vol. 21 No. 2, pp. 24-46.
de Chernatony, L. (2006), From Brand Vision to Brand Evaluation – Strategically Building and
Sustaining Brands, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford.
Kokak, A. and Abimbola, T. (2006), “Developing entrepreneurial orientation. The role of
dynamic capabilities and intangible resources”, paper presented at RENT XX, Brussels,
November 22-24, pp. 22-4.
Robin, R. (2007), “Brand matters: the lingua franca of pharmaceutical brand names”, available
at: www.brandchannel.com/papers_review.asp?sp_id ¼ 1233

About the authors

Temi Abimbola is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Warwick Business School, UK. She
worked with Shell UK (Downstream Oil) and Unilever Plc before embarking on her doctoral
research in the area of consumer brand value perception. Her teaching and research activities are
in the areas of brand and entrepreneurial marketing, consumer behaviour and research methods.
She has published in a number of journals including Journal of Marketing Management, Journal
of Brand Management and Journal of Place Branding. She is the founding Coordinator of the
Academy of Marketing’s Brand, Identity and Corporate Reputation SIG. She is also the Regional
Chair for the Academy of Marketing’s UK Midlands and East Anglia Region. Temi Abimbola is
the corresponding author and can be contacted at: temi.abimbola@wbs.ac.uk
Christine Vallaster is a research fellow sponsored by the German Scientific Community (DFG)
and currently affiliated with the Department of Marketing, University of Giessen (Germany). Her
focus of research interest is strategic brand management and leadership. Her publications
QMRIJ appeared in scholarly journals such as Journal of Marketing Management, International Journal
of Cross-Cultural Management, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, and the
10,4 European Journal of Marketing. She also writes about her experience in German practitioner
journals such as Harvard Business Manager. For her research, she received several awards such
as the doctoral dissertation award by the Academy of Marketing Science (AMS). She was also
honoured as one of the finalists for the Gunnar Hedlund Award sponsored by the Stockholm
School of Business and Economics in 2001. She is also an Associate Partner with Lemontree
348 Brand Strategy in Munich (Germany) where she works in her specialty field of branding issues.
She is a Research Fellow – Sponsored by the German Scientific Community (DFG). Home
institution: Department of Strategic Management, Marketing and Tourism, University of
Innsbruck School of Management, Austria. E-mail: christine.vallaster@uibk.ac.at

Erratum
Qualitative Market Research (Volume 10, Issue 2)
Special Issue Title: Developments in human observation methodologies
Guest Editors: Dr Amanda J. Broderick and Dr Nick Lee, Aston University Business
School, UK
The publisher apologises for the incorrect order that the names of the Guest Editors
originally appeared. Dr Lee was accredited as the first named Guest Editor
The correct order should have been as above.

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