Brunel University London
Brunel Business School
Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 1895 267007
Fax: +44 (0) 1895 269865
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Oranjeboom is a Dutch beer company. A research has shown that the Oranjeboom corporate brand has communicated different messages in its country of origin-Netherlands and in the
UK market. To understand the cause of various communicated messages, the ACI4D test is applied to Oranjeboom corporate brand. Furthermore, the REDS2 test helps to identify the key misaligned identities. This misalignment between covenant identity in Netherlands and communicated identity in the UK is the first issue. Furthermore, to solve this issue it is recommended to move from centripetal approach to centrifugal approach within the company in the UK, to change slogan form “Quickly continental” to “Authenticity by genuine craftsmanship” and to emphasize the reputation of the Oranjeboom in corporate communications. The second issue is the misalignment between covenant identity in the
Netherlands and conceived identity in the UK. Moreover, to solve the second issue it is recommended to increase brand awareness through advertising and to create intangible image associations. Heritage, excellent brewery traditions, quality and respected brand images are chosen as the main intangible associations.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………...………...1
2. OVERVIEW OF ORAJNEBOOM CORPORATE BRAND…..………..……………........1
3. BUILDING STRONG ORAJNEBOOM CORPORATE BRAND…………………….......2
3.1. THE IMPORTANCE OF ALIGNNING CORPORATE IDENITIES…………………...2
4. ORANJEBOOM IDENTY TYPES AND AC4ID TEST…………………………….……..3
5. REDS2 TEST AND IDENTITY MISALIGNMENT ISSUES……………………………..5
6. RECOMMENDATIONS…………………………………………………………………...8
7. CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………………11
8. REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………….....12
1. INTRODUCTION
Corporate Brand Management has received a lot of attention since 1995, when the first article on corporate branding was written (Balmer and Greyser, 2006). Nowadays more organizations worldwide realize the advantages of corporate branding over individual line branding (Chernatony, 1999; Brexendorf and Kernstock, 2007) and consequently there has been a significant rise of interest in corporate branding (Abratt and Kleyn, 2012). To understand corporate brand management practices, firstly corporate branding should be defined. According to Abratt and Kleyn (2012), it is the mechanism that conveys the elements and builds the expectations of what the organisation will deliver for each stakeholder group. Secondly, it is preferable to analyse various SME cases because they are facing more competition and have more problems to solve; therefore, they are useful to explore compared to large enterprises. Thus, one SME - Oranjeboom (Dutch beer company) has been chosen to explore further (United Dutch Breweries, 2014). In order to identify issues of the Oranjeboom, the ACI4D test (Balmer, 2012a) and the REDS2 test (Balmer, 2001a) are applied to it. According to the tests, two identity issues are discovered. Thus, this report will analyse corporate brand management practices of the Oranjeboom, particularly comparing its
Dutch and UK identities and their misalignments. Finally, it will suggest possible solutions to the discussed issues.
2. OVERVIEW OF ORAJNEBOOM CORPORATE BRAND
Oranjeboom is a classical Dutch beer and was founded in 1671. Since that time it has delivered the same taste and brewed by the same receipt. Oranjeboom is named after the orange tree in Netherlands which symbolises the Dutch royal family (Oranjeboom lager,
2012). It is exported to 80 countries all over the world. In Netherlands it is brewed by United
Dutch Breweries (United Dutch Breweries, 2014) and under licence in UK, New Zealand and
Nepal (United Dutch Breweries, 2014).
