Brand Management: Research, theory and practice

of the theoretical building blocks further by suggesting how a corporate brand
should be managed.

Supporting theme: corporate identity (internal)

The first internal supporting theme of brand identity is corporate identity.
Corporate identity is an assembly of visual, physical or behavioural cues repre-
senting the company, making it immediately recognizable to consumers and other
stakeholders. The academic literature forms two clusters representing two
perspectives on how to create and manage corporate identity: a visual perspective
using visual means to build brand identity and a strategic perspective focused on
the strategic vision of the brand.
The visual identity is mainly concerned with the way the organization expresses
itself visually and should ideally be outward signs and symbols of the inward
commitment of the organization. The visual school focuses on tangible visual mani-
festations of the corporate identity and on how these manifestations can affect lead-
ership behaviour and company structure and vice versa. This perspective has its
origin in graphic design, where focus is on the creation and management of logo, the
name, colour, sound, touch and smell of brand identity that ensures optimum
reflection of brand identity. From the visual school’s perspective, corporate identity
can be aligned through graphic design, by using systems of visual identification.
These systems are useful because they can act as catalysts for change, vehicles of
communication, and tools to ensure that the visual expression of brand identity is up
to date. Recognition is in this perspective important because it breeds favourability.
The visual school has often been criticized for being too narrowly conceived and
misunderstood in practice because of too much focus on the design, name and logo.
Corporate identity is, however, also about merging behaviour and the visual identity;
it is only when behaviour and appearance are linked that corporate identity emerges.

Core theme:

Brand identity

External elements

Internal elements

Supporting theme:

Reputation

Supporting theme:

Image

Supporting theme:

Organizational

Identity

Supporting theme:

Corporate

Identity

Figure 5.3Supporting themes of the identity approach

56 Seven brand approaches