Corporate Identity As individuals make personal decisions to distinguish themselves from others, whether it’s by having a quirky personality, a unique way of dressing, or being highly intelligent, these components are what others will be reminded of when thinking of them. Therefore, like the individual, organizations also are intentional to differentiate themselves from their competition by creating a corporate identity with distinct traits that becomes the signature of the organization and brand. Corporate identity is defined as strategic choices made, that reflects the values and ethos of the organization that builds the corporate brand, and are inclusive of visual elements such as the organization’s name, logos, colors and designs …show more content…
Bendisch, Larsen and Trueman, when organizations select transformational leaders, especially CEO’s with a strong brand, research designates that these leaders will have a powerful influence on internal and external stakeholders leading to beneficial outcomes such as increase financial performance resulting in a competitive advantage. Consequently, organizations look for CEO’s brands, that are congruent to their own, to equally endorse and reflect positively on each other to raise the image and reputation of the organization. These authors argue, that corporate brand identity is built on products and services which are relatively fixed and stable, however, the CEO brand integrates both personal and managerial identities, and its these unique identities when they are compatible with the organization, creates a collaborative organizational fit …show more content…
Employees are the most important stakeholder with enormous impact on the organization’s financial performance (De Bussy, & Suprawan, 2012) and because of this knowledge, organizations realized that the employee is a symbol of the organization’s identity, and must take steps to shape the employee’s behavior to create a favorable perception to both internal and external stakeholders (Holzthausen, & Fourie, 2013). These behaviors are shaped through internal incentives of offering coaching, training and development programs, and financial rewards that will increase employee morale, loyalty, commitment leading to overall increase financial performance, product improvement, and customer satisfaction. However, research indicates that even though the above-mentioned factors are important to employee perceptions of the organization, the employee orientation constructs are the most meaningful factor. The employee orientation construct is essentially the ability of the organization to create genuine dialogue in which the employees feel valued and respected (De Bussy, & Suprawan, 2012). As organizations look to understand what is important to the employee, and how their perception will affect the external perceptions it will lead to organizational competitiveness. In addition, it’s important to note that research conducted by Holzthausen, and Fourie demonstrates that employees are not influenced by the corporate identity visual symbols but, the non-visible symbols
Increasing awareness of a personal and unique identity distinguishes us from the pack. A brand mantra differs from a tagline, explains Guy Kawasaki, as a mantra describes internal business, a standard for a company to abide by. A tagline is for customers and what they can expect to be delivered (Martinuzzi, 2014). John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing defines branding "the art of becoming knowable, likable and trustable” (Martinuzzi, 2014). Many specialists on the subject agree that trust building is essential in success. Being honest is one of the top five steps Forbe’s advises when it comes to brand building (Biro, 2013). Some suggestions to follow from, How to Build an Unforgettable Personal Brand (2014) include, making sure customers are provided what is promised, leading with unwavering quality and being consistent in making good on one’s word. The article also warns that the public will assign a default brand if a
In every given business, the name itself portrays different meanings. This serves as the reference point and sometimes the basis of customers on what to expect within the company. Since personality affects product image (Langmeyer & Shank, 1994), the presence of brand helps in the realization of this concept. Traditionally, brand is a symbolic manifestation of all the information connected with a company, product, or service (Nilson, 2003; Olin, 2003). A brand is typically composed of a name, logo, and other visual elements such as images, colors, and icons (Gillooley & Varley, 2001; Laforet & Saunders, 1994)). It is believed that a brand puts an impression to the consumer on what to expect to the product or service being offered (Mere, 1995). In other application, brand may be referred as trademark, which is legally appropriate term. The brand is the most powerful weapon in the market (LePla & Parker, 1999). Brands possess personality in which people associate their experience. Oftentimes, they are related to the core values the company executes.
If companies wanted to be successful in the marketplace, then they needed to understand the idea that their true product was not their product, but a lifestyle and the meaning of life itself. This is lifestyle branding. This philosophy explains why we see products internationally and specifically marketed toward teens and young adults. Lifestyle branding is why we are hearing more and more of sweatshops, “McJobs”, and the quality of the product diminishing. Nearly every corporation in America has been McDonaldized: where companies sacrifice individualization in employees and quality products for cheap, mass-produced, assembly line production. The promise of choice seems to ironically create less choice. No logo is the spirit of anti-corporate resistance. The process of branding in its simplest form is
More important than product, people, and advertising, branding is going forward as one of the most important factors in a business. While Klein has a bias against branding and wishes the reader a word of warning, in this specific essay she focuses on what branding means for the future. Klein starts off her minor claims with the bloating of corporations. “A consensus emerged that corporations were bloated, oversized; they owned too much, employed too many people, and were weighed down by too many things (Klein 769).” Through the use of branding, these same businesses could cut down all of their problems and payrolls through importing and simply putting their brand name on the product. Then when the dreaded “Marlboro Friday” happened, and it seemed that all brand significance was for naught, Klein showed us examples of businesses that thrived from a new age of marketing. “For these companies, the ostensible product was mere filler for the real production: the brand (Klein 774).” With brand driven marketing rather than product driven sales, businesses soared with selling the idea of their products more than their products quality. Using the example of Starbucks, Klein also supports her claims of branding not through marketing but weaving its name into products and culture. “The Starbucks coffee chain was also expanding during this period spinning its name into a wide range of branded projects: Starbucks airline coffee, office coffee, coffee ice cream, coffee beer (Klein 775).” By spreading its name not through marketing, but through spreading the brand through new and different products Starbucks found success in turning their brand concept into a virus and sending it through cultural sponsorship, political controversy, consumer experience and brand extensions. These forms of image building could make a company like Starbucks successful with branding over
There are multiple scenarios where one might manage their identities. Generally the importance of identity management surfaces when we want to begin or maintain a relationship, when we want someone to act or behave a certain way, when we feel the need to preserve an image of someone, or when we are experimenting with different personalities to alter the perception that others have of us. Managing your identity is essential to sculpting the image that we want some to have of us and the way we behave in different situations will manipulate this perception as well. That is to say, when the situation changes, so does our personality
All greatly successful companies have a set vision and mission that guide them in order to achieve their objectives, but they also serve as the principal by which all employees act. It can go from a very simple statement to the most elaborated thoughtful message, but the point is that it has to deliver orientation to all that look up to it, from the people that work for the company to its costumers to other stakeholders. The impact of t...
While people have differing opinions on what the relationship between packaging and brand identity is, it is clear that most support the idea that success depends on how well these two elements are collated. [1] On its own, a brand identity is the vessel in which a brand communicates its “identity and value[s] to consumers and […] stakeholders.” [5] (Nandan, S., 2005, p. 265) It plays a central role in a successful marketing strategy for any company, providing a brand with a “direction, purpose and meaning”. [2] (Aaker, D. A., 2010, p. 68) With such a competitive and overcrowded market, the role of a brand identity becomes essential. A brand identity helps communicate a brand’s individuality, enabling it to establish a powerful presence amongst competitors. [5] (Nandan, S., 2005, p. 265) In fact, Nandan, S. (2005, p. 276) states that,
...of brand equity in an organizational-buying context. Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 6(6), pp. 428-437.
Companies use a collection of brand equities to represent their products in the market (Voolnes, 2012). Brand equity refers to the commercial value that is derived from the perception of consumers on any given brand name of particular products in the market as opposed to the product itself. Ataman (2003) notes that the effect to the consumer is in the brand name and not the product itself. Companies use logos, trademarks and a collection of other symbols to present this information to the customers. The use of these symbols is meant to try and capture the customer mindset so that they can be thinking about the company products at all times through the items they possess at home (Estes, Gibbert, Guest, & Mazursk, 2012). This can well be explained by use of the customer-based brand equity model that brings together the requirements for a publicly renowned brand in the market.
Nowadays, many companies using the re-branding strategy of corporate marketing and build strong corporate brand to increase their competitive advantage between other companies such as Google, Mazda, LG, Zara and more (Punjaisri & Wilson, 2007; Temporal, 2010). Thereby, internal branding is a good strategy to increase a company’s competitiveness, especially in service industries (Raj & Jyothi, 2011). It is because a service industry almost has a closer relationship between customer and employee and customer’s impression of the brand are influenced by the employee who they connected with (Leberecht, 2004).
A company’s brand is one of its most valuable assets (Green and Smith 2002). Brands owners invest millions of dollars every year in advertising and promotion to raise awareness and create demand for their brands.
If the organization succeeds then the employees also succeeds. Employees must see the bigger picture and must feel that they are part of the organization and not just a one man show.
Today businesses believe that the sustaining of performance and competitive advantage to becoming a great organization. As an organization’s success depends on their employees’ performance, the value of specific individual employee has played an important role within an organization to be competitive. At that time, the value of each and individual employee and their satisfaction with their jobs are one of the key factors for an organization and organizations need to find ways to improve employee job satisfaction to achieve organizational goals.
Identity based brand management has its main cause for repositioning, if a brand’s consistency and continuity are harmed. Continuity requires the retention of a brand’s essential characteristics over time. Consistency refers to the avoid-ance of controversy within the repositioning strategy in comparison to its former positioning. The major importance is to not overstretch the repositioning by changing too many characteristics of the brand, which would otherwise lead to a destroyed brand identity (cf. Kapferer 2008, p.
This can be manifested in an ability to attract and retain customers and employees, achieve strategic alliances, gain the support of financial markets and generate a sense of direction and purpose. Corporate identity is a strategic issue. Corporate identity differs from traditional brand marketing since it is concerned with all of an organization’s stakeholders and the multi-faceted way in which an organization communicates.” (Ballmer, Bernstein, Riel et al. 1997)