Corporate identity and internal implementation of a corporate brand

Abstract

Companies cannot build their strategy on predictable markets anymore ‐ all organizations nowadays need to adapt to change. In the heart of the change lies organizations identity. Corporate identity is closely related to corporate branding. This study focuses on a situation of change in a company with multiple identities. The case organization used to operate under several product and company brands that were merged into one and began building a coherent corporate brand.

The theory part presents the concepts of brand, identity and identification. Building a corporate brand involves everyone in the organization, so the employees are treated as brand ambassadors. The internal aspect of the brand implementation is demonstrated by introducing the brand identity approach, brand management and the internal branding process. Identity is linked with employees’ identification.

The aim of the study is to describe the organization’s experienced identity among the employees. It also brings insight on the corporate brand’s situation within the company after the change, i.e. clarifies how the implementation of the brand strategy has succeeded and how the employees see their role in the brand building process.

The research method used in this study is a quantitative survey executed within a random sample of employees world wide. The survey consisted of both structured and open questions. As such, the survey produced a great deal of information concerning all the research objectives, but then again, due to the wideness of the data, part of the results had to be treated on a quite general level. Good answering activity also tells about the importance of the topic.

Results show that employees are quite well aware of the brand issues in general ‐ e.g. the reasons for the unification, strategic importance of the brand’s dimensions and need for consistent ways to operate. For the most part, employees are committed to the strategy and willing to benefit the brand in their work. They also see the corporate brand and image in a positive light at the time of the research execution and in the future. The experienced identity is however a bit more complex. A big part of the respondents still indentify more with one’s own unit/division rather than a unified company. The primary feelings about working for the company and its’ meaning for oneself were pride, seeing the company as a good employer and the atmosphere of change.