Earning an online Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree can give you an edge in your career. While working on your graduate degree, you will learn business fundamentals such as accounting, finance, organizational behavior and management. However, one of the most valuable things you can learn about is company branding.
In the online MBA program from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC), students can explore brand development through the study of topics like marketing management and social media marketing. Graduates with expertise in this area can be indispensable to businesses because effective branding is vital to a company’s ability to survive and thrive in the marketplace.
Why You Should Learn About Branding
A company’s brand is its identity, and it is one of the most valued parts of the business. The brand is what consumers recognize and competitors fear. Company branding is an important part of marketing a company’s products. The public will know what type of products to expect from the company simply by knowing its brand. This can lead to customer loyalty and a thriving business.
However, a company can also lose profits because of its branding. Companies that have low-quality products or bad customer service may lose consumers as word gets out about their brand. And, in the age of social media, word can get out extremely fast. Even companies that once had a good name can lose core consumers simply by not taking care of their employees or customers when a product doesn’t meet expectations.
Goodwill, Reputation and Responsibility
In addition to consumers and products, a company’s goodwill plays a role in forming the company brand. Once referred to only as a way of measuring the company’s customer loyalty, goodwill now expands into the loyalty of employees and other constituents. Goodwill may also encompass other intangible assets, such as patents and distribution agreements.
Keeping employees, board members and the local community happy is another key ingredient to a company’s image. When all the company’s stakeholders are satisfied, it makes for good company branding, and in turn, brings in more profit.
Moreover, this sense of goodwill and a company’s reputation for ethics and corporate responsibility have gained weight in recent years. Businesses play an important role in society, driving change through economic and social influence. More and more, consumers decide what businesses to support based on how those businesses demonstrate corporate responsibility through everything from materials and labor sourcing to treatment of employees or support for social and environmental causes. This responsibility-based value alignment is now a key part of branding.
Investors are also basing investment decisions on how well a business performs in terms of environmental, social and governance (ESG) measures. Again, how a business stacks up against others in context of the ESG framework has become part of that business’ brand, fostering or diminishing brand loyalty and support from customers and investors alike.
The Most Valuable Brands
For many years, Coca-Cola was at the top of the list of most valuable brands in the world. However, in more recent years, technology companies have been dominating Brand Finance’s “Global 500” list, the highest valued companies in the world. The 2022 Global 500 lists Apple as No. 1 with a valuation of $355.1 billion, just edging out Amazon’s valuation of $350.3 billion. Google and Microsoft are the third and fourth most valuable global brands, respectively.
These brands are common, household names. Everyone knows them. These companies have invested significantly to build their brands and are good examples to follow and study for marketing and branding.
As you can see, knowing about company branding is incredibly important, and, therefore, is often part of an MBA program like TAMU-CC’s. Completing an online MBA program can teach you how to build and maintain a company’s brand. This knowledge can help you prepare for a career in marketing and can be beneficial in nearly any industry.
Learn more about TAMU-CC’s online MBA program.
