IMD Global Family Business Center

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The Family Business Brand Study

At IMD we believe that family businesses that both communicate and leverage their family identity have a distinct competitive advantage. They are able to build stronger, more trusting relationships with their stakeholders, and this is particularly important in volatile and uncertain times, when long-standing responsible institutions are valued more than ever.

Yet, while some family businesses choose to leverage their "family business brand," others do not, and we feel it would be valuable to understand the reasons why. As part of the IMD Global Family Business Center Advanced Research Series, we have begun collecting frameworks, guidelines and best practices to help families assess the potential benefits and risks of strategically positioning themselves as family businesses and communicating their family business identity.

Below is a project description with more details and if you are interested in learning more or discussing a potential participation we would be delighted to hear from you.

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Background

Family firms account for up to 90% of businesses in the world - and in many countries, these firms are a strong and durable pillar of the economy. The contribution of older, long-established family firms to a nation's economy is disproportionately greater than that of many public companies. These family firms have been successfully managed by the same owner family for decades, sometimes even centuries - and many of them have played an important and responsible part in their country's economic development and served as an aspirational role model for new entrepreneurs and younger firms to follow.
Family firms play a guiding and stabilizing role in today's economy and seem to enjoy a corporate brand premium.
Family businesses that both communicate and leverage their family identity may have a distinct competitive advantage.

Topics covered

Defining Family Business Identity: What aspects of your family history and which family values are embedded in your family firm's identity?
Promoting your Family Business Status: Why do you promote the fact that you are a family firm - and what do you expect from such a strategy? Have you always done it? Do you do it actively, passively, consciously or unconsciously?
Identifying Best Practices: What are the best practices of family businesses that leverage their family business brand? How do they promote their family firm status? What measures and channels do they use? How do they enhance their brand by emphasizing the "family" dimension?
Measuring Impact: What is the family firm's brand premium, i.e. what is the potential impact of the family business brand? How can you measure it?
Making the Choice: How can you assess whether the use of the family firm brand is desirable for the family, feasible for the business and attractive for the market?

Objective and outcome

We aim to understand why some family firms leverage their "family business brand" and reveal their family background in corporate and/or marketing communications whereas others do not.
A mini case study will be produced for each participating company, presenting its history, values and family business communication approach. The cases will be gathered into an international collection representing frameworks, guidelines and best practices to help families assess the potential benefits and risks of strategically positioning themselves as family businesses.

Benefits for participating families

Through this research project we invite you to embark on an exciting learning journey for you and your family, which will encourage you to reflect on your strategy and positioning and set your vision for the future.
You will gain interesting new insights into the values, culture and identity of your company, which we will capture in a mini case study. You will also learn more about how you can brand your family firm based on best practice cases from leading companies around the globe.
You will receive the mini case-study for your own use.

Project team

Joachim Schwass, German

Professor of Family Business and Entrepreneurship and Director of the IMD Global Family Business Center

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Willem Smit, Dutch

Affiliated Research Fellow at IMD and Adjunct Professor at Lee Kong Chian School of Business at SMU, Singapore

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Anne-Catrin Glemser, German

Family Business Research and Program Development Manager

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Claudia Binz, Swiss

IMD External Research Associate, Doctoral Candidate at Bern University, Research Assistant and Lecturer at Hochschule Luzern

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