Content area
Full text
T.C. Melewar: Lecturer in Marketing and Strategic Management, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
John Saunders: Head of School, Aston Business School, Aston University, Birmingham, UK
Introduction
A multinational company's personality and identity will become the biggest factor in consumer choice between its products and those of another (Eales, 1990). The pressures of a free, competitive marketplace coupled with extremely rapid technological development, have generated a situation where customers "buy" the company that makes the product: its character, its size, its identity and the confidence it inspires. At the centre of a business's projected image is its corporate visual identity system (CVIS) with its five elements: name, symbol and/or logotype, typography, colour and slogan (Dowling, 1994; Olins, 1986).
CVISs are promoted as an aid to selling companies to their customers and other stakeholders globally. Despite being championed by designers and adopted by many leading businesses, there is little evidence to back the proposed benefits of CVIS globalization and its implementation requirements. Globalization is one of the key catalysts of corporate identity programmes (Ind, 1992). Changing businesses, geographical emphasis and marketplaces all have become incentives for companies to change their corporate identities. As companies begin to operate on an international basis, the image that they acquired as national producers often becomes inappropriate (Mills, 1988).
Some companies opt for a unified global brand in spite of the negative reactions of governments or consumers. The degree of adaptation of the identity to the host country's culture depends upon the strength of that culture and whether competitive advantage is derived primarily from co-ordinating activities centrally or by devolving activities to operational markets. However, if the company has a true global orientation it will generally need to convey consistent values wherever it competes. Thus, the worldwide image that emerges is more likely to be notable for its homogeneity than not. While there are reasons for closer integration of the visible manifestations of a multinational, they need relating to the market and product range (Pilditch, 1970). International organizations face the incessant conflict between the local area and the international headquarters in attempting to arrive at a consistent impression.
A key component of a corporate identity is the corporate structure (Chajet, 1989; Olins, 1986; Strong, 1990). In reality there are...