Corporate Identity
(CI)
In marketing, a corporate identity is the
"persona" of a corporation which is designed to accord with and facilitate
the attainment of business objectives, and is usually visibly manifested
by way of branding and the use of trademarks.
Corporate identity comes into being when
there is a common ownership of an organizational philosophy which is
manifest in a distinct corporate culture - the corporate personality.
At its most profound, the public feel that they have ownership of the
philosophy.
In general Corporate identity amounts to a logo and supporting devices
commonly assembled within a set of guidelines. These guidelines govern
how the identity is applied and confirm approved color palettes, typefaces,
page layouts and other such methods of maintaining visual continuity
and brand recognition across all physical manifestations of the brand.
Many companies Corporate
identity, such as McDonald's and Electronic Arts have their own identity
that runs through all of their products and merchandise. The trademark
"M" logo and the yellow and red appears consistently throughout the
McDonald's packaging and advertisements. Many companies pay large amounts
of money for an identity that is extremely distinguishable, so it can
appeal more to its targeted audience.
Corporate Identity is often
composed of three parts:
-
Corporate Design
-
Corporate Communication
-
Corporate Behavior
Corporate Identity has
become a universal technique for promoting companies and improving corporate
culture. Most notably is the company PAOS, founded by Motoo Nakanishi
in Tokyo Japan in 1968. Nakanishi fused design, management consulting
and corporate culture to revolutionize CI in Japan.
Corporate identity can
also have a sociological sense. In any large society members of a minority
tend to develop a "corporate identity" where they feel a special bond
to any other member of that minority even if they have never met the
person before. This bond develops because they generally have similar
experiences, face similar discrimination, have similar cultural values,
economic limitations, etc.
In the United States, for
instance, persons of Arab or Jewish ancestry, blacks, Hispanics, lesbians
and gay men, and persons who follow non-Christian religions, among many
other minorities, each have a sense of corporate identity. Within a
particular group there are feelings of "we have to watch out for each
other" and "I have an obligation not just to succeed, but to help others
of my group."
A common corollary to this
sense of corporate identity is a concern about assimilating into the
majority culture to the extent where the minority group ceases to exist
for all practical purposes. Corporate identity is promoted, strengthened
and encouraged by activities such as teaching the ancestral language,
practice of rituals and social customs, observance of holidays, etc.
In a recent monograph on
Chinese Corporate Identity (Rutledge, 2006), Peter Peverelli, proposes
a new definition of corporate identity, based on the general organization
theory proposed in his earlier work, in particular Peverelli(2000).
This definition regards identity as a result of social interaction:
Corporate identity is the
way corporate actors (actors who perceive themselves as acting on behalf
of the company) make sense of their company in ongoing social interaction
with other actors in a specific context. It includes shared perceptions
of reality, ways-to-do-things, etc., and interlocked behaviour.
In this process the corporate
actors are of equal importance as those others; corporate identity pertains
to the company (the group of corporate actors) as well as to the relevant
others;
Corporate actors construct different identities in different contexts.
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