Corporate identity: the concept, its measurement and management

Abstract

Corporate identity: clarifying the concept There are divergent views within the literature as to what is meant by corporate identity. In this article the authors refer to three main developments in the area which variously equate corporate identity with graphic design, with integrated corporate communication and last, with a multidisciplinary approach which draws heavily on organizational behaviour. Each of the three approaches has tended to follow a separate line of development and it would appear that the literature on each of the three strands has started to reach maturity. Increasingly, writers are drawing on several of these strands and this has led to a multidisciplinary approach. The characteristics of each of the three aforementioned strands will be discussed in the next section. Corporate identity: the graphic design paradigm Originally, corporate identity was synonymous with organizational nomenclature, logos, company housestyle and visual identification. Many corporate identity practitioners had (and have) their roots in graphic design and understandably a good deal of importance was assigned to graphic design. The authors contend that graphic designers have been hugely influential in two regards, in that they articulated the basic tenets of corporate identity formation and management and succeeded in keeping the subject on the agenda of senior managers. Of note are North American practitioners who were the first to create managerial interest in the area and include

Theory of planned behaviour and the family business

“…However, revealing beliefs at the family or organisational level requires broad access to these social structures and makes a qualitative design with interviews, observations and the examination of organisational documentation more appropriate (Van Riel & Balmer, 1997). Nevertheless, in organisational identity research where beliefs and values are often considered, surveys and quantitative research are applied (Hofstede, Neuijen, Ohayv & Sanders, 1990;Brickson, 2005).…”

Consumer affinity for foreign countries: Construct development, buying behavior consequences and animosity contrasts

“…These may then take many different forms of which several may be linked to a foreign country, e.g. the values and beliefs of the organization's founder, those of the holding organization, or those of an external culture (van Riel & Balmer, 1997).…”

“…van Riel & Balmer's (1997) affinity audit proposed that corporate identity is grounded in a basic social psychological process based on affinity. The premise is that the basic social psychological process constituting corporate identity is complex and employees had an affinity towards a range of values and beliefs.…”

At the confluence of organisation development (OD) and organisation identity theory (OIT): Enter identity interventions

“…The literature however indicates otherwise and some convergence is for example observed between the views propagated in some quarters in the corporate identity field (cf. Balmer, 1995;Glover, 1993;Olins, 1996;Van Rekom, 1997;Van Riel & Balmer, 1997) and proponents of the classical approach to organisation identity. In keeping with the view of for example Kiriakidou and Millward (2000) and Van Tonder (1999), corporate identity is viewed here as the "external" manifestation of organisation identity (which is core) and, for obvious reasons, should be congruent.…”

“…Initially seven conceptual groupings within the corporate identity literature were identified (Balmer, 1995) but views of corporate identity have since clustered around three (Van Riel & Balmer, 1997) or two literature streams or groupings (cf. Balmer & Wilson, 1998;Van Tonder, 1999;Van Tonder & Lessing, 2003).…”