Corporate marketing: apocalypse, advent and epiphany

PurposeCorporate marketing is a marketing and management paradigm which synthesises practical and theoretical insights from corporate image and reputation, corporate identity, corporate communications and corporate branding, among other corporate‐level constructs. The purpose of this paper is to explain the nature and relevance of corporate marketing and to detail the antecedents of the territory.Design/methodology/approachVia the adoption of a quadrivium; a traditional classical approach to the acquisition of knowledge, the paper shows how organisations can be faced by Apocalyptical scenarios through a failure to accord sufficient attention to one or more dimensions of the corporate marketing mix; explains why the emergence of corporate level constructs such as corporate image, identity, branding communications and reputation represents, both individually and collectively, the Advent of corporate marketing; details the various integrative initiatives in corporate design, corporate communications and identity studies which, together with the incremental augmentation of the marketing philosophy, find their natural dénouement in the Epiphany of corporate marketing; and describes the 6Cs of the corporate marketing mix and reflects on possible future directions in organisational marketing.FindingsThe paper reveals the efficacy of adopting an organisation‐wide corporate marketing philosophy to management decision makers and scholars.Practical implicationsDrawing on the marketing/management theory of identity alignment policy the paper accords attention to each dimension of the corporate marketing mix and ensures that they are in meaningful as well as in dynamic alignment.Originality/valueThe practical utility of corporate marketing is explicated by making reference to case vignettes, and various marketing and non‐marketing literatures.