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.