Corporate Advertising vs Product Advertising

Corporate Advertising: It can be defined as paid use of medium that seeks to benefit the image of the corporation as a whole rather than its products or services alone. Because all of a company’s advertising contributes to its image, both product and corporate advertising should reflect a united strategy. Corporate image advertising should “brand” a company the way product advertising brands a product.

Product Advertising: It can be defined as paid use of media that seeks to benefit a certain product of the corporation, by increased sales etc.

Now to talk of a major difference between corporate and product advertising is who pays for each of the two types of advertising. A company’s marketing department typically is responsible for all product-related advertising and pays for such ads out of its own budget. Corporate Advertising, on the other hand, falls within the corporation communication area and either comes out of that budget or in some cases, is paid for by the CEO’s office.

There are mainly three types of corporate advertising. First type is the Advertising to reinforce identity or enhance reputation. Here companies use corporate advertising to strengthen their identities following structural changes. As companies merge and enter new businesses, they need to explain all their new developments like vision, strategy, etc
To constituents who may have known them well before but are not able to get along with their new status. Hence corporate advertising is used by larger organizations to simplify their image to unify a group of disparate activities. The second type is the Advertising to attract investment, this is one of the tool used by companies to enhance their images in the financial community is financial – relations corporate advertising. This type of advertising can stimulate interest in a company‘s stock among potential investors as well as buy-side and sell-side .analysts. Third type of advertising is the Advertising to influence opinions. This kind of advertising is called issue or advocacy advertising which is used by companies to respond to external threats from either government or special interest groups. This advertising mainly deals with controversial subjects.

The main outcome of Corporate advertising are increase in sales, next to create a stronger reputation as the best corporate advertising creates goodwill and enhances reputation by letting constituents in on what the organization is all about, particularly if it does beneficial things people are not aware of. Lastly to Recruit and retain employees where corporate advertising is an indirect way of building morale among employees. This type of advertising attracts the best and brightest both at the entry level and for senior positions and creates enthusiasm and excitement among potential and current employees.

http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/research/ras/may2007/biehal.html

The above mentioned article gives an idea about Product vs. Corporate Branding: What’s the Right Mix?

Product brand managers are often at odds with their corporate brand counterparts over the allocation of limited advertising budgets - with brand managers pressing product messages over the corporate branding. But product managers should take note of new research from Gabriel Biehal, associate professor of marketing at Smith, and Daniel Sheinin, University of Rhode Island, that finds important efficiencies in corporate branding when multiple products are involved.

The corporate advertising I would like to refer to portrays the first type which is advertising to reinforce identity and enhance reputation. The advertising is about Reliance group which got divided among the brother’s. The second brother launched his share of the industry as Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. He used corporate advertising to reinforce its identity and create strong reputation.