Global Corporate Brand Building in Business-to-Business Markets. The Initial Phases in a Branding Process. Case: Outokumpu Copper Products Oy.

The objective of this study was to examine global corporate brand building in b-2-b markets and find out the critical factors affecting this development in the initial branding project phases. In addition, the aim was to find answers for questions like “What are the key brand elements and how should they be chosen when building a new corporate brand in global b-2-b markets?” and “What needs to be considered when creating a new global corporate brand name?”. The theoretical framework was built basing on the existing knowledge of the research subject. The framework was then tested in the brand building process of the case company. The research method used was qualitative. The research was done in the form of holistic single case study and the primary data gathered was based on seven semi-structured interviews inside the case company. Also several organizational documents, articles and reports were used as secondary data. The theoretical framework was modified based on the empirical results. In the empirical research it was found that the brand building process of the case company consisted of the following phases: 1) project planning, 2) position phase (including identifying and establishing the position and values), 3) positioning platform (including name development) and 4) visual identity (including the guideline development). Creating the new name and the brand positioning were considered especially important elements in the process. So one of the key findings of this study was that developing a new corporate name is extremely important but also challenging at the same time. In general, the significance of the corporate brand as a provider of a consistent identification of the organization to various stakeholders was proved in the empirical research.