Comments from the ‘founding fathers’ (1)
The value of the identity approach to the study and management of
brands
Majken Schultz, Copenhagen Business School, and Mary Jo Hatch,
University of VirginiaBranding is constantly on the move, both in theory and in practice. Since the
early days, when it was rooted in the marketing discipline, branding has
become a strategic concern for corporations which requires a much more inte-
grative approach than marketing alone can provide. A range of different disci-
plines and organizational functions need to be engaged and inspired so that the
organization is motivated to deliver the brand promise throughout all activ-
ities. The recent development of what here is called the identity approach is an
example of this shift in the foundation for analyzing and managing brands.
Originating from corporate identity with its focus on the expressive side
of branding, the identity approach draws on insights from organization
studies, social psychology and stakeholder theory. Through these influ-
ences, the approach embraces the relational and dynamic nature of identity,
claiming that, when corporate branding works, it is intimately tied into the
organization’s identity, continuously arcing between the poles of ‘Who am
I?’ and ‘What do others think about me?’ Knowing what creates the sense of
‘we’ allows organizations to authentically tell others what they stand for.
But knowing who you are also requires intimate knowledge of how stake-
holders see your organization. This is because external images interact with
the ways in which employees think about their organization and the organi-
zational culture that helps them make sense of what they hear and know
about the organization. Together, what they know themselves to be through
direct experience and contact with the images of others creates an identity
dialogue that provides the foundation for branding.
We claim that strong brands are based in the alignment between strategic
vision, organization culture and stakeholder images. This is represented in
chapter 5 as the corporate branding toolkit. As with most conceptual models,
this is an ideal to aim for. The reality for most companies is that they contin-
ually struggle to maintain alignment through most of their lives, at times
confronting significant gaps in the relationships between vision, culture and
images that require more radical intervention. It is our experience that what
makes the difference between leading brands and the rest is their willingness
and ability to pose questions to their corporate brands – and use the answers
in their continuous development of their vision, their culture and their
images. This is a process that never ceases.
Meanwhile, as a practice and a field of study, branding continues to
evolve from its roots in product thinking and its further development as a78 Seven brand approaches