Rebuilding community corporate brands: A total stakeholder involvement approach

Abstract

Can community organizations benefit from corporate rebranding? The literature shows that rebranding in the not-for-profit sector flounders for two major reasons. The first is the failure to develop robust and ambitious revisioning of the brand, and the second, failure to get sufficient buy-in from staff and other stakeholders, often because of imposed top-down brand changes. The current study aims to guide an organization through an actual rebranding process, using best practice corporate rebranding principles and practices. Action research is a novel research method to investigate not-for-profit corporate rebranding. This method guides a systematic and dynamic corporate rebranding process, embracing multiple stakeholder groups. A major achievement is the articulation of a values-based corporate rebrand, with grounding in actual brand experiences. Active involvement throughout the co-redevelopment of the corporate brand achieves total stakeholder buy-in. The action research process requires researchers to guide the rebranding process, while stakeholders guide the content of the rebranding.