Case Analysis: Kangaroo Express

Identification plays a major role in the establishment and maintenance of unified organizations. Aware of this fact, Kangaroo Express, a chain of convenience stores primarily located in southern and southeastern states in the United States, explicitly utilizes different terms, distributes personalized products, and identifies with one consistent logo, with the intent of unifying their employees and workplace relations. On the front page of their website, in just three sentences, the company asserts their values, for all visitors, including current and future employees, to read; the company also mentions their famous personalized “ROO Cup” and boldly includes their specialized logo for all to view. Employing George Cheney’s identification

strategies, “the assumed ‘we’” and “unifying symbols,” I will analyze how Kangaroo Express’s company story seeks to maintain unified identification among its employees through the use of the term “we” and emphasis on the company’s specialized logo and product.
The majority of Kangaroo Express stores in the country have a gas station attached to them, where they receive a large amount of their sales. Also, they feature many personalized products within the store, such as their infamous ROO cup, all of which feature the company’s logo on them. As a former employee, I witnessed firsthand the amount of turnover the company experiences in both their managerial and lower job positions. With such a large turnover rate, it is not surprising that the company attempts to unite all of its employees, urging them to merge their identity with that of the company. Although their attempts are not largely successful among their employees, they do employ special techniques. The establishment expresses its goals and values as if these standards are shared among all those employed for the company.
One does not have to conduct a thorough search in order to discover the core, expected values of Kangaroo Express and its employees. Upon entering their main website, centered on the page are the following words: “We are committed to providing fast, friendly service in convenient and clean locations.” Additionally, adding to their story, their logo is boldly placed in the left hand corner of the page, which creatively includes a picture of a kangaroo inside the letter K. The final sentence in their centered statement mentions their specialized “ROO cup,” which provides the ending to a short description of themselves that surprisingly captures the whole essence of the company.
In order to analyze Kangaroo Express’s story, I am utilizing George Cheney’s “the assumed ‘we’” and “unifying symbols” identifying strategies.

As Cheney explains, the “assumed ‘we’” strategy includes the use of the term ‘we’ in order to demonstrate common ground among all those affiliated with an organization; it is an attempt to make a joint effort towards attaining the goals of the company. This strategy is also used in order to make organizational members acquire and internalize company values and standards, helping employees see them as their own. I will explore and discuss the implications of Kangaroo Express’s use of the term “we,” as well as the term “our,” in the description and story of their

company.
Additionally, organizations utilize “unifying symbols” as a way to emphasize their name and the logos and products associated with their name. These symbols are another way of reiterating to and persuading employees to identify with their company. I will explore how Kangaroo Express utilizes a variety of symbols as a means of unifying all of their employees.
From a mere two sentences, Kangaroo Express sets up many implications.

First, the incorporation of the word “we” is a subtle attempt by those in high positions within the company, to make lower level employees view the company as one with themselves. It is an implicit way of conveying that what the company believes and upholds, should also be believed and upheld by all of its employees. Therefore, when the company states that they “are committed to providing fast, friendly service in convenient and clean locations,” they are not only describing themselves to potential customers, but they are also relaying to their employees that these are the core principles they should uphold on a daily basis. The term “we” assumes that all employees, at all levels, are seriously committed to their individual jobs, perform customer service duties quickly and in a pleasant manner, while also ensuring the convenience and cleanliness of their work

environment.
In order to clearly understand the power of the term “we” here, one should imagine if it was omitted from the company’s description, and instead, replaced with simply the company’s name. If omitted, the new statement would read: Kangaroo Express is committed to providing fast, friendly service in convenient and clean locations. The new statement does not personally identify with employees; although all of Kangaroo Express’s employees are indeed employed by the company, there is so sense of unity in the term, because it refers to a company as an entity within itself, as opposed to a group of people who make up a company. Hence, the term “we” is a power move, in order to help all employees see themselves as a part of a unified establishment, so they will embody and uphold company standards without having to be explicitly told to do so.
In addition to utilizing the power of “we,” Kangaroo Express’s various specialized symbols reinforce the company and its values as a whole; they serve as a tool to further imprint the company and its values in the minds of team members. Their logo is a representation of their company’s identity, and therefore, the company stresses the importance of its logo in order to portray the company visually. It also serves as an image that employees can physically see and use to connect themselves with the company. They emphasize their logo by frequently placing it on their products. The last sentence of their story concludes with, “Wake up in the morning with our Bean Street Coffee and cool down this summer with a Polar Pop Cup or ROO Cup.” Again, another unifying word, this time “our,” is used here, indicating that these products are not just a component of the company, but are products of the company’s employees as well; the assumption here is that employees personally identify with the company’s products. Their company logo is featured on both their Polar Cups and ROO cups, another way of professing their identity, and the company name in general. Additionally, the ROO cup’s name is a shortened version of the company name, which is another attempt to emphasize the company’s identity, while also encouraging unification. By choosing to include these products in their description, it asserts the importance of them and their core functions, which not only include drawing customers in, but also maintaining worker unification through repetition of the company’s identity.
Clearly, identification strategies are commonly used within organizations as a means of fusing company ideas with that of its workers. Kangaroo Express’s company story features unifying words and symbols, such as “we,” “our,” their logo, and products sold exclusively by them that are branded with their logo. By using the term “we,” Kangaroo Express makes the assumption that all of its employees share the same goals, values, and work ethics as those outlined by the company. Their “unifying symbols,” such as their logo and ROO cup, are frequent reminders to employees, of the company’s identity, the same identity they are to internalize. The company is obviously aware of the power of repetition; without the addition of a logo that bears the company name and products that also serve as a physical identity of the company, employees would not have a constant, physical, and implicit reminder of these assumed, shared values. Although Kangaroo Express’s tactics may not be effective, they utilize identifying strategies in their story in order to establish and maintain employee unification.