Branding in Family Business - Leveraging stakeholder trust

"A growing number of family firms of all types and sizes, and from all around the world, are increasingly promoting the fact that they are family owned or family managed through their marketing and communication activities. Examples include companies such as SC Johnson (US, “A family firm”), Patek Philippe (Switzerland, “At our family-owned company we have a unique way of creating a new watch – we involve the family”) or Warburtons (UK, “From our family to yours”). At the same time, a small but growing body of research is beginning to substantiate the intuitively appealing assumption that family firms benefit from signalling to their stakeholders that they are family owned through the promotion of such a distinct family business brand. This report summarises the findings from an extensive research project on family business branding in the UK, and shows how, and under which circumstances, family firms can benefit from promoting the fact that they are family owned, and some of the key issues they should consider when doing so". (Binz Astrachan & Astrachan, 2015)