ABSTRACT
Branding is one way of building trust amongst an organisation’s different types of customers and other stakeholders. It has long been popular among retail products and is catching up in the services sector. Corporate real estate management (CREM), in research and in practice, could also benefit from clearer branding strategies apart from their aim to optimise physical assets. This chapter shows how branding theory could be applied to CREM in three ways: 1) towards supporting the client organisation with convincing customers to buy the company’s core products/services, 2) towards attracting potential future employees (employer branding), and 3) towards convincing different internal stakeholders (such as general management, employees, HRM) of the added value of strategic, well-considered CREM activities. All three ways can be achieved in a direct way, trough carefully selecting locations and buildings’ appearances that match the organisation’s values. But for the third way, there is also an indirect effect of CREM on corporate branding, through creating satisfied employees who in turn then satisfy the company’s customer. As of yet, there is only little evidence for effects of CREM branding, but first studies do show potential.
