Chapter 28

Corporate image, identity and advertising

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES At the end of this chapter you will be able to:

define corporate image and identity; illustrate the process of changing an organizations image; differentiate between groups of stakeholders for image campaign purposes; understand the importance of logos and straplines in corporate advertising campaigns.

Identity crisis or image problem?

Frequently, commentators misunderstand the difference between corporate image and corporate identity. They are very two different things, although the second should contribute positively to the first. Put very simply, the first is mental and the second is physical, or what one thinks about an organization and how one sees or identifies it respectively. Sometimes, people talk about creating, improving, polishing and projecting a positive corporate image, but this is not always possible. It is very important that public relations practitioners should understand what corporate image and identity are and how they affect a firms corporate reputation. PROs may well need to explain to management what a corporate image actually is, commission research to identify its

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Corporate image, identity and advertising

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components amongst appropriate publics, and how corporate identity schemes and corporate advertising can contribute to its development. A corporate image is not invented as such, but it can be influenced. Sometimes, members of an organizations publics may not know what it is, or equally they may have an incorrect or unfair idea of what it is compared with how management feel their company should be seen. Equally, where managements view of themselves and how they should be viewed is unrealistic, that can be put right through using appropriate PR techniques: public relations techniques generally (e.g. media relations), and corporate identity and corporate advertising specifically. So a poor image problem can be principally twofold: the firm is badly perceived because it is misunderstood, or because it has a deservedly bad image. Whilst the first can be righted by means of public relations techniques, corporate image schemes and corporate advertising, the second can only be corrected by the organization itself. Thus, corporate advertising might be used to explain a companys Buy this file from particular situation when they feel a particular public views them http://www.download-it.org/learning-resources.php?promoCode=&partnerID=&content=story&storyID=1374 unfairly. A good example of this was when low-cost airline, EasyJet, placed adverts in the Daily Mail to explain that their fares were going up disproportionately because the majority shareholder, Barclays Bank, of Luton Airport had voted for increased landing charges. But the company might also decide to initiate corporate identity schemes in a bid to improve its image, to be more presentable and to be identified more clearly. Corporate identity schemes might involve renaming the company, redesigning its slogan, livery, logos and other associations. In the situation where the company has a deservedly poor image, the public relations manager or consultant might well also be able to advise on how an image change can be brought about. It might, for instance, require staff training. Cable telephone companies in the UK have a poor reputation amongst their consumers for customer service, particularly non-payment telephone enquiries. Equally, it may require a change in company policy (e.g. strategic sourcing as a part of procurement policy). Nike and its alleged use of foreign sweatshop labour is a good example of this. GlaxoSmithKline also encountered a blow to its image worldwide when it, and a number of other international drug companies, took the South African government to court for patent infringement. The cause: the Pretorian government introduced emergency legislation to allow its pharmaceutical industry to import generic versions of AIDS/HIV drugs from India and Brazil. When the South African governments cause was taken up by the likes of Medicines Sans Frontieres and the United Nations, the drug companies, fearing the potential backlash, terminated their court action and lowered their prices to tiny fractions of what they had been (Brennan and Baines, 2002). But Miller (2001) cites Erik Stern, managing director of

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Public Relations

Stern Stewart Europe, a financial consulting outfit, who argues the more they [GSK] are made to look evil, the more people will question their profitability . . . if other countries invoke this case [to challenge GSKs patents], then its share price will be affected. GSK had been using this very argument; that if patents werent recognized, how could it continue to invest in R&D? It looks like GSK may well have lost this PR battle for the time being. It remains to be seen whether or not other badly affected regions of the world will also contest the anti-retroviral patents (e.g. the Caribbean countries) and the GSK brand/reputation suffers any long-term effects.

Corporate image, identity and reputation

So a corporate image is the impression of an organization held by a public based on knowledge and experience. Since everyones knowledge and experience of an organization will be personal and will differ, the Buy this file from http://www.download-it.org/learning-resources.php?promoCode=&partnerID=&content=story&storyID=1374 corporate image will vary between one public to another, and even within publics. The PROs task is to increase peoples knowledge and experience, uniformly, so that they have as clear and as correct an impression of the organization as is possible. It may not necessarily be a favourable impression. Use of PR techniques may not lead to love, but it could lead to understanding and tolerance between an organization and its publics. An image will go on developing in the minds of various publics, just as the character of a person develops on better acquaintance. The corporate image defines the character of the organization. The way the company is seen to behave will influence the impression people have of it. In the world today there is great strife between some groups simply because of a lack of understanding (e.g. Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, Jews and Arabs in Israel/Palestine). Such a breakdown in communication and understanding can be brought down to the commercial level, e.g. between management and employees. The lack of clear corporate images in all sorts of social, religious, political, industrial and commercial situations is frequently the cause of conflict and misunderstanding. Corporate image is defined as the global evaluation (comprised of a set of beliefs and feelings) a person has about an organization (Dowling, 2001, p. 19). Once these beliefs and feelings are recognized by a member of a particular public, individuals start to become familiar with an organization and how it goes about doing things. Eventually, members of a public develop an understanding of the companys values (for more on values, attitudes, opinions and beliefs, see Chapter 2). It is at this point that a company is said to have developed a reputation. Dowling (2001, p. 19) defines corporate reputation as the attributed values (such as authenticity, honesty,

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Chapter extract

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