Corporate Identity

I help my PR apprentices map their employers' corporate identities using the Birkigt, Stadler, and Funck model. It is a neat way to understand strategy, reputation, and history. I explain how it works, with examples, in this episode.

Transcript

Corporate Identity

I help my PR apprentices map their employers' corporate identities using the Birkigt, Stadler, and Funck model. It is a neat way to understand strategy, reputation, and history. Let me explain.

The corporate identity mix in the model has three elements, each of which can be managed and changed by the organisation: symbolism, communication, and behaviour. Each projects an image and set of values for stakeholders. Align them so they all project a similar, complementary image, and the organisation’s reputation should be enhanced. 

Symbolism is fascinating, and this is where a bit of history comes in. I often ask my apprentices if they know the background of their company logo. For example, let’s take Sage, the world-leading accountancy software company. The three founders drafted the business plan in a Newcastle pub in 1981. The question came up: what should we call the company? One founder, looking at the wall pictures of herbs, said “sage”. It stuck, as did the green corporate colour. Next, the familiar logo on a Mercedes-Benz car. Did you know that the three-pointed star was inspired by a postcard on which Gottlieb Daimler, the company’s founder, marked his family home with a star? The 1909 logo represented their engines’ versatility across land, sea, and air applications. When Daimler merged with Benz in 1926, they incorporated the star with Benz’s laurel wreath, symbolising success in racing.

Corporate communication should project the organisation’s purpose—why, how, and what. Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle provides an excellent description of how to do this effectively. This framework emphasises the importance of starting with “why” (the purpose that drives an organisation) before addressing “how” (strategies) and “what” (products or services).

Staff behaviour is the third element in the mix. If staff generally say and do something different to the image portrayed by the corporate communications and/or the symbolism, there will be ‘mixed messages’. Think of a few organisations that you regard as having a poor reputation. I expect that one or more elements of the mix are not aligned. For the Post Office, it was the behaviour of senior management. For Meta, during the Cambridge Analytica scandal, it was poor communication. Gap changed its iconic blue box logo in 2010 with plain text. There was an outcry over destroying the brand’s heritage, and six days later, it had reverted to the old logo. Change can work. Buckinghamshire New University had three colourful, modern swirls for their logo. Yet they were low in the university ranking tables. They changed to a crest, and the comms emphasised their academic rigour. They are now much higher in the rankings, which prefer academic standing to vocational excellence.

The organisation’s strategy greatly influences the corporate identity mix—what it wants to achieve. As communicators, do we understand the strategic details of our employer’s (or client’s) strategy?

The history and organisational culture will also influence the strategy. An entrepreneurial start-up's culture and history differ from those of a long-established public sector organisation. After the Libor rate-rigging scandal, the then-CEO of Barclays Bank, Bob Diamond, was called before a parliamentary committee. He was asked to name the three principles of Barclays set by its Quaker founders. He hadn’t a clue. The Board subsequently sacked him. The new CEO made every employee of Barclays sign a statement that they would abide by the original principles (with a few added updates to honesty, integrity and plain dealing).

The corporate identity of an organisation is an essential element of every organisation.