Corporate Branding

Dear Daryl:

Thanks for your long email and copies of your General Mills and

Betty Crocker proposals. They are interesting an very relevant

to what could be done with corporation advertising and marketing

programs.

In my Advertising Age columns, I’m restricted to about 1,000 words

and even though I would have liked to have said something about the

role of corporate advertising versus the role of brand advertising,

there just wasn’t enough space to do so.

But there is one thing I feel strongly about. Companies need

powerful brand advertising campaigns before they even think

about doing corporate campaigns. Consumers buy brands;

they don’t buy corporations. Only investors buy corporations.

Consumers buy BlackBerries. They don’t buy Research In Motion

devices.

Thanks primarily to PR and somewhat to corporate programs,

consumers today know a lot about and have favorable opinions

about companies than they do about brands.

Many consumers have favorable opinions about Procter & Gamble,

the world’s largest consumer-goods company.

But what’s an Olay?

All the best.

Al Ries

Al -- Olay is a skin cream, a P&G product targeting women throughout Asia.