Journal of Product & Brand Management

Purpose – This paper seeks to consider the interaction between corporate brands and organisational cultures within less successful UK financial services organisations to provide guidance about better managing corporate brands.

Design/methodology/approach – A total of 41 in-depth interviews were conducted within less successful UK financial services organisations from a grounded theory standpoint.

Findings – Given the link between culture and employee behaviour and the criticality of employee behaviour in services brands, organisational culture was perceived by managers and staff as being key to brand success. However, amongst the corporate brands studied, the cultures were not brand-supportive and a misalignment was noted between culture and brand. The study found that the organisational cultures were confusing and inconsistent, were undergoing a process of change, were focused on quantitative performance targets, were averse to innovation and in one case were unnecessarily “tough”.

Practical implications – The results highlight the need for managers to be attentive to the consistency and congruence between values in the organisational culture and corporate brand, to ensure that cultural change is managed appropriately, to adopt a holistic approach to brand management and to empower employees. A model is posited of the cultural pitfalls to avoid when managing corporate brands.

Originality/value – The value of the paper is that it can help financial services brands achieve their potential by allowing them to manage the interaction between culture and brand so as to optimise brand performance by avoiding the pitfalls encountered within less successful brands.