1. ¹Department of Marketing Management, HHL–Leipzig Graduate School of Management, Leipzig, Germany
2. ²Department of Marketing Management, HHL–Leipzig Graduate School of Management, Leipzig, Germany

Abstract

In many cases, research in corporate branding, stakeholder management and also corporate reputation management takes on a role concept without testing or probing it. This paper seeks to analyze if customers, employees, shareholders and journalists – as important corporate stakeholders – are truly distinguishable target groups for corporate branding and stakeholder management. Using discriminant and factor analyses, this study found strong support for the role concept, in particular, concluding that some stakeholder attributes are more appropriate for generic, nonspecific branding and marketing approaches while several other attributes are better suited to stakeholder-specific targeting or positioning strategies.