Corporate identity, image and brands

Lecture

LAMC318

Learning outcomes• understand the concepts of corporate identity and corporate

image• understand the difference of visual identity and corporate

identity• recognise the process involved in developing a corporate

identity programme• identify the importance of corporate identity and image for

an organisation’s overall communication plan• understand the concepts of brand and branding

Key Reading Chapter: Corporate Image, Identity &

Reputation in Tench &Yeomans, Chapter 13, pp250-264

Additional, if interested: Klein, Naomi (2000), No Logo, London:

Flamingo, pp. 3-61

History of CI

Emerged around the middle of 20th century

Originally understood as symbolism Important names: Walter Margulies and

Wolff Olins

Definition: CI …what makes a company unique and special.

It’s the company's approach to business, its values and business culture.

This will be reflected in the way the company works, the quality of its products, its communication and marketing strategies, its management and leadership style and its visual appearance.

Definition: Corporate identity

Van Riel (1995: 27) : Corporate identity can be seen as ‘the self-portrayal of an organisation, i.e. the cues or signals it offers via its behaviour, communication and symbolism’.

Corporate identity

…can be defined as ”the sum of all methods an organisation uses, willingly and unwillingly, to identify itself to its publics. This is based on an organisation’s philosophy (goals, vision, mission), history, people and its aesthetic expression. “

Corporate culture One of the most important parts of CI is

corporate culture Corporate culture focuses on the human part of

the organisation, the ‘language, norms, folklore, ceremonies, and other social practices that communicate the key ideologies, values and beliefs guiding action'. (Morgan, 1986: 135)

Aim of a corporate identity

Internal goals: Raising motivation and morale Rationalisation and cost reduction Inspiring confidence among the external target

publics Acknowledging the vital role of the customer Acknowledging the vital role of financial target

groups

The components of CI strategy

Corporate behaviourVisual identityCorporate communications

Corporate behaviour

How an organisations interacts with its employees customers financial stakeholders government and society Happy??

Corporate behaviour

Corporate behaviour follows the parameters of the lived corporate culture

This requires careful design and implementation of a corporate vision or mission

Vision/mission

A vision or mission contributes to the organisation’s goals in a variety of ways:

• It informs staff about the desired values and norms of the organisation.

• It contributes to the development of specific guidelines for employees and their work

Vision / mission cntd• It supports management in providing appropriate

and systematic leadership for the organisation.

• It can show the individual employee how he or she can contribute through their own behaviour to the achievement of the organisation's goals.

• A vision or mission is also of external value as it defines how an organisation perceives itself.

Example: Boots’ visionOur goal is to make Boots a more modern, competitive and efficient retail business, in order to deliver value to our shareholders. We will continue 'Building a better Boots' by focusing on our core healthcare market, with all the potential for growth it contains. We will continue to develop products that customers know they can only get from us. We will continue to ensure that we offer value. We will do more to ensure that our stores are where our customers want them and are easy to shop. We will continue to focus on the expertise of our people and the customer care they offer.

Visual identity or corporate design

It’s the visual representation of an organisation’s identity

'The visual style of a company influences its place in the market, and how the company's goals are made visible in its design and behaviour.' (Olins, 1989).

Corporate design

includes various elements

Logo Colours Typefaces for stationary and slogans

Logo

Its aim is to

'encapsulate in a simple memorable form the central attribute or attributes of an organisation [and to] trigger appropriate associations and responses' (Bromley, 1993: 158)

Characteristics of a logo

• It attracts attention and works as a signpost.

• It is informative and memorable.• It is of aesthetic value that doesn't date

easily.• It can easily be adapted to a variety of

contexts and frameworks

Colour Another design element that can be used for quick

identification purposes Red colour of Coca-Cola Blue Boots Green:Marks & Spencer Orange - clever example of combining colour &

slogan

Logos, Colours & Typefaces

1880s 2005

Typefaces The use of a particular typeface can also

express identity through the use of conservative typefaces such as Courier or Times or more innovative designs such as Avant Garde.

However, it is crucial to consider the lifecycle of style elements and the costs involved should they date quickly.

The British Airways logo was designed in 1997 by Newell & Sorrell.

The colours are blue (Pantone 281) and red (Pantone 485). The additional colour is grey (Pantone 877).

British Airways uses its proprietary typefaces Mylius Sans and Mylius Serif, both designed by Rodney Mylius at Newell & Sorrell.

The T-Mobile logo was designed in 2001 by Interbrand Zintzmeyer & Lux . The colours are magenta (Pantone Rhodamine Red) and grey (Pantone Cool Gray 7).

T-Mobile uses its proprietary typefaces TeleAntiqua and TeleGrotesk, which are based on ITC Century and Neue Helvetica respectively.

Design process - summary All style elements need to be carefully

considered, tested and evaluated on an on-going basis.

Once the house-style is decided, a house-style manual will be developed that covers all possible uses of style elements and acts as a reference-guide for employees.

Corporate communication …refers to all communication strategies, tactics

and techniques an organisation uses to represent itself, its products and services to the target audiences.

…helps to transmit the corporate identity internally and externally through strategically planned and coordinated efforts.

Design process - ctnd As Bromley points out: 'The design process can

be sophisticated, comprehensive and expensive. Complex organisations need to co-ordinate design proposals with corporate policies and practices. This maximises the benefits of their visual identity because the visual identity has to work effectively across divisions within the company, across products, across communications (stationery and packaging), across cultures and over a considerable period.' (Bromley, 1993: 159)

Corporate image

Corporate identity refers to the self-presentation of an organisation.

The identity is relayed in various ways to the publics who interpret the organisation’s behaviour, directed communication and symbolisms.

The individual members of those publics then form an image of the organisation which is based on their interpretation of the identity.

This might also be influenced by direct experiences they had with the organisation or by accounts of opinion leaders such as family, friends, the media, etc.

Corporate Identity

Corporate image

Public A

Public BPublic C

Experiences

Symbolism

Behaviour

Directed Communication

Relationship between CorporateIdentity and Image

The importance of a favourable image

“A positive corporate image is a condition for a continuity and strategic success. It is no longer solely the field of attention of marketing, but a strategic instrument of top management”

CEO Dutch KLM, De Soet

Benefits of a favourable image A sound CI is a incentive for the sales of

products & services It helps the company recruit the right

employees It is important to the financial world & investors A sound corporate image creates emotional

added value for a company which ensures that a company is always one step ahead of its competitors.

Benefits of a favourable image

Research has shown that 9 out of 10 consumers report that when choosing between products that are similar in quality and price, the reputation of the company determines which product they buy!

Example: Lager

Favourable image: example

CORPORATE REPUTATION EXPLAINED

The principle difference between corporate image and corporate reputation is that reputations are formed over a long time.

However, as with corporate image, reputations can be good, bad, unwanted, out of date etc

The benefits of a positive corporate reputation

Can give distinctiveness and a competitive advantage

can contribute to profits

can act as a safeguard in times of adversity

Reputation as a control mechanism?

Balmer argued that the organization’s reputation can act as a standard governing behavior i.e. “Would my actions be in line with the company’s good/bad etc reputation”

Can be used by employees, those in recruitment etc

He developed the DEAR principle to explain the above………………………...

THE DEAR PRINCIPLE

D= DECISIONS

E= EVALUATED

A= AGAINST the

R= REPUTATION

REPUTIONS ALSO APPLY TO..

The corporate brand

part of an organization (business unit/subsidiary)

what an organisation makes as well as how it behaves

“I would buy their cars but I would not wish to work for them!”

Finally……….a word of caution Although a valuable resource (in many

instances) a corporate reputation is NO GUARANTEE of business survival or of success.

Consider Olivetti which had an enviable reputation as a leading manufacturer of typewriters but took insufficient account of technological developments in the field..Olivetti computers ?

SUMMARY: CI & Reputation

The concepts of image and reputation are laden with different meanings.

Perception is important because it effects our behavior

Unlike images a reputation is formed over a long time

In considering perceptions held of an organisation consideration should also be given to the image/reputation of the industry, country of origin, corporate and product brands, as well as those of its subsidiaries.

Brands and branding The particular concern here is with the ways in

which an increasing number or products or services have come to be regarded as brands.

It was not always so, and in many poorer parts of the world today brands still do not occupy the position they do in the so-called developed countries. Staple foodstuffs, for example, are bought and sold on markets in developing countries without being branded.

Brands and branding - Reading

Shimp, Terence (2000) Advertising. Promotion. Supplemental Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications, 5th ed., Fort Worth: Dryden Press, pp. 216-32

History of brands

In the 19th century the link between consumer and producer was broken

Intermediaries such as wholesalers and brokers tried to exert influence on consumers

Manufacturers hit back by branding their products with distinctive name and appropriate marketing communications

History of brands

Some of the most familiar brands date back to 19th century

Heinz - since 1869 However, the pendulum

has recently swung back in favour of retailers, especially supermarkets, which now vigorously brand themselves and their products.

What is the appeal of brands?

Two dimensions:

1) Brand appeal for the consumer

2) Brand appeal for the producer

Brand appeal - consumer

Authenticity Consistency‘At its simplest, a brand is a recognisable and

trustworthy badge of origin, and also a promise of performance.’ (Cowley 1996: 21)

E.g.:

Brand appeal - consumer Rational or functional appeal Helps them to make a choice saves time and effort through a reduction

of perceived risk Based on trust In semiotic terms - brands have a

denotative meaning

Brand appeal - consumer

Connotative dimension: I.e. Those less easily defined

associations which are triggered in people’s hearts and minds

Culturally and individual personal experience determined

Emotional and symbolic

Brand appeal - consumer

E.g. many adults continue to use a brand such as Johnson’s because it evokes childhood memories

Or many Scots reaffirm their cultural identity by drinking Irn-Bru instead of Coca-cola

Brand appeal - consumer This aspect is well captured by Roderick

White, who writes that ‘a brand has a place in people's minds, as a brand, whereas a mere product is simply a way of fulfilling a physical need’ (White, 1993: 5).

Elements are a distinctive & evocative name & logo together with the corporate image

Perceptual map of brands - example Channel

Niche Mainstream

Modern

Oldfashioned

C4

BBC2

ITV

BBC1

Brand appeal - consumer In addition to the rational and emotional aspects

of consumers’ relationships with brands Shimp identifies a third factor, which he calls the ‘experiential’. Thus the impact of a brand on the senses (its look or taste, for instance) is considered a separate aspects from the other two.

Brands have to live up to expectations - 80% of the demise of brands is down to disappointing customers’ expectations.

Brand appeal - producer Branding provides one of the main ways to

differentiate a product or service from those of competitors (positioning).

Another potential advantage to producers concerns the addition of new products. The so-called stretching or extending of brand names can be successfully made to apply to these, rather than the riskier option of launching them as brands on their own account.

Brand appeal - producer

The calculation is that something of the original brand values will be transferred to the new item, whether it be Mars ice cream (stretching) or Camel clothing (extension).

Consumers also derive reassurance for new goods and services associated with the “ur-brand”

Brand appeal - producer

The brand concept has extended beyond the world of goods &services

Individuals (e.g. Schumacher, Beckham) Countries (e.g. Cool brittania) Corporate brands (e.g.Sony, Granada)

Cool Britannia? What’s that (just in case anyone asks…)NB: Cool Britannia “Who was to blame? David Beckham, Ginger

Spice and her Union Jack dress, Princess Diana, Oasis, Tony Blair? Surely all of them, and more. The phrase Cool Britannia began to appear in the British press near the end of 1996, shortly after Newsweek declared London to be the coolest capital city on the planet. Anything with a red, white and blue flag was trendy, Americans started talking in mockney accents, Ben & Jerry ice-creams named their vanilla, strawberry and chocolate shortbread tubs 'Cool Britannia'. For a brief moment the empire was reborn - until, in mid-1997, the rest of the world saw through the facade. “

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/years/1996/fashion2.shtml, 20/11/05

Even people can be brands E.g. David Beckham Paid himself £19.7

last year out of endorsements according to his company

Named as the biggest “personal” brand ever

Brand appeal - producer

The role of of brands today is so big that brand equity (formerly goodwill) can be a company’s most important asset.

E.g. When Nestle bought Rowntree Or value of dot.com companies

Trends in brands

Growth of own label or private brands A decline in brand loyalty due to products

becoming virtually indistinguishable and customers’ price awareness and growth of sales promotions

Brands conclusions As Klein says, brands have come to dominate

the world of commerce and much more besides, to the extent that we now live in a ‘branded world’.

Brands matter to organisations because they are major assets.

They consequently need to be managed carefully, with occasional adjustments being made in response to marketing research, but without compromising core values.

Brands - conclusion cntd. At the end, they matter because they embody

meanings for consumers. It is clear that in the information age this is now truer than ever.

As products and services quickly become essentially indistinguishable from the competition, they rely increasingly on branding to differentiate themselves and their users.

Bibliography Cowley, Don (ed) (1996), Understanding

Brands, London: Kogan Page Klein, Naomi (2000), No Logo, London:

Flamingo Randall, Geoffrey (1997), Branding, London:

Kogan Page White, Roderick (1993), Advertising. What it is

and how to do it, 3rd ed., London:McGraw-Hill.

Thank you and have a nice day!