What Is Corporate Marketing? (Definition, Benefits and Tips)

Updated June 24, 2022

The field of marketing includes a wide range of strategies and tools that seek to appeal to a target audience. One aspect of the field, corporate marketing, involves an explicit focus on customers and a target audience to market a particular brand, product or company. If you're interested in becoming a marketing professional, consider if corporate marketing is the best area for you. In this article, we define corporate marketing, explain who uses it, describe the benefits, compare it to product marketing and provide a few tips for how to implement a corporate marketing strategy successfully.

What is corporate marketing?

Corporate marketing is a facet of marketing strategy that focuses on brand image and a company's relation to its audience. People who implement this marketing style may work to maintain customer satisfaction and build brand loyalty. It highlights the specific qualities and characteristics of the brand while attempting to grow the brand's audience. Corporate marketing includes a variety of strategies that work to reach a target audience, create a recognizable brand and promote various branded products. Some specific corporate marketing strategies may include:

Starting a blog
Creating a unique logo
Using a specific font
Sending email campaigns
Choosing a branded color scheme
Developing different content for each platform
Designing a new user experience
Implementing a customer loyalty program
Promoting specific values

Who uses corporate marketing?

Corporate marketing is a wide-reaching field that professionals use in a variety of industries. Marketers working in businesses, political organizations, nonprofits and other companies may employ corporate marketing strategies in their work. However, some marketing departments may have a separate team dedicated to implementing corporate marketing in their work. This can contribute to the broad marketing strategy and could lead to well-developed and thorough campaigns and promotions.

Benefits of corporate marketing

Corporate marketing has a variety of benefits for companies that want to establish a clear brand for their customers. Some of these benefits may include:

Increased focus on audience

By increasing the focus on the audience, corporate marketing can appeal to potential customers by offering a product or service that best meets their needs. Corporate marketing strategy aims to help the audience relate to and associate with a particular brand, which can generate brand loyalty. When this occurs, the audience may be more likely to purchase from that brand or company.

Differentiated from competitors

Using corporate marketing provides opportunities for a business to differentiate themselves from their competitors. By establishing a specific way of communicating with an audience, using a unique brand logo or creating a recognizable presence, corporate marketing strategies equip companies to stand out. This differentiation may increase sales, generate customer loyalty or appeal to potential consumers who can relate to the particular niche in which the brand exists.

Connected to a lifestyle

One benefit of corporate marketing is that it may lead to a connection between a brand and a particular lifestyle. For example, if your company sells luxury cars, corporate marketing strategies may help your brand become associated with a luxurious lifestyle. This association may appeal to a particular audience and increase the desirability of your product for that group.

Recognized company brand

When applied successfully, a corporate marketing strategy has the potential to influence an audience. This influence can lead to a recognizable and well-known company brand. For example, some companies become increasingly familiar to large audiences. These companies may produce marketing content that doesn't include their brand name, yet the audience still knows what company produced the content.

Differences between corporate and product marketing

The field of marketing has a few different elements that work together to develop cohesive campaigns and promotions. However, there are key differences between each type, such as corporate marketing and product marketing. Product marketers focus on curating the market for a particular product. These professionals may discuss the product with customers and work with market analysts to determine the best audience to target. These marketers help create a marketing narrative that connects a product to a brand and relates to the target audience.

Corporate marketers use the marketing narrative to effectively appeal to customers. They might use ideas from the product marketing team to develop copy and other marketing content. These professionals often select the tone, the specific headlines, content or other details of a campaign that best aligns with the product marketers research. They might understand the complexities of each marketing platform and develop a strategy for when and where to use a specific piece of content. This can help the marketing team reach objectives related to each platform.

Tips to improve corporate marketing strategies

Corporate marketing strategies may work differently based on the company, brand or product you're advertising. However, there are a few tips that may improve your corporate marketing strategies, which include:

Use social media: It's important to ensure that your marketing campaign uses every available platform to accurately reach the target audience. Social media includes many potential customers, and using these platforms may increase the success of your corporate marketing campaigns.
Implement specialized advertising: Another way to enhance the effectiveness of your corporate marketing is by implementing highly specialized advertising that's designed for a very specific audience. This may increase the effectiveness of a promotional campaign for a sector within your overall target audience by increasing the strength of the product's appeal for that group.
Interact with the audience: If you receive feedback from your audience on social media or other platforms, consider interacting with them frequently. This may help build a brand image that reflects the value, tone and relatability of your particular brand.
Build a website: If your company doesn't already use a website, you might consider building one that includes relevant information about your brand, organization or product. This provides a simple way for potential customers to learn more about your company while the website supplies details about the mission or goals of the brand.
Establish a voice: To focus on building a brand, one important element is to establish a clear voice within your industry. For example, you might choose a few qualities of your company that differentiate you from others and highlight those in promotional materials to establish a specific voice within the market.

What Is Corporate Marketing? (Definition, Benefits and Tips)