In a brand management context, the key assumption of the identity approach is
that all marketing and communication activities should be integrated, aligned and
elevated from a product-focused and tactical level to a strategic, corporate level.
Only in that way will it be possible to create a coherent company experience for
the consumer. It is from that assumption that the idea of corporate branding and
integrated market communication stems. The notion of identity is applicable to the
individual brand level, but corporate branding plays a vital role in the identity
approach because alignment of all communication in one unified identity requires
strategic-level brand management. Identity is something that is initiated from
inside the company. Some of the questions corporations need to ask themselves
are in the identity approach. Who are we? What do we stand for? What do we want
to become? Brand value creation is hence dependent on finding the right answers
to these questions and implementing them in every aspect of the business.
From product to corporate branding
Traditionally, the general notion of the classic brand management system has been
that each individual product must have an individual and distinct product brand
Visual identity
Wally Olins is a brand identity pioneer. In his first big publication about
corporate brand identity, The Corporate Personality: An Inquiry into the
Nature of Corporate Identity(1978), he described the rationale of the
identity concept. Olins advocates the importance of identity for corporate
entities and poses two questions that are still considered pivotal in the
identity approach today: What are we?and Who are we?Olins focuses on
answering these questions primarily through a visual expression of the
essence of the identity. Still, he acknowledges that identity is not only about
appearance but also about behaviour. Olins advocates that corporations use
systems of visual identification to build identity as a communication
vehicle. The communication should uphold a consistent visual expression
while still ensuring that the brand remains fashionable by undergoing
continual adaptation to emergent changes.
Behavioural identity
Kennedy laid the ground for the conceptualization of behavioural identity in- She hypothesized that consumers base consumption decisions on
their perceptions of company personality to a much greater extent than on
rational evaluation of attribute functionality. Consumer perception of
identity is, according to Kennedy, based on the total experience of the
company the consumer gets through all the contacts consumers have over
time with the brand/company. This line of thought adds the employees and
their behaviour as a key factor when building identity.
50 Seven brand approaches