New global challenge inspires new corporate identity

New global challenge inspires new corporate identity

By Wisaksono Noeradi

JAKARTA (JP): For about half a century, the Cadillac, made
by General Motors, was viewed by the American public as the
proudest achievement of automobile manufacturers. Just about
everyone aspired to own a Cadillac someday. In fact, the name
"Cadillac" was even used to describe and complement other kinds
of products. For example, one might have heard a certain brand of
electric shaver being described as "the Cadillac of shavers".

But with the arrival of luxury cars from Germany, Japan and
even Sweden, wealthy Americans suddenly had a far wider range of
choices. What's more, the Cadillac came to be associated with
owners above the age of 60. It was typically a car driven by
retired executives with gray hair. As a group, these executives
tend to hold onto their vehicles for many years. Then, instead of
trading them in for new models, they simply have heart attacks
and die. For an automobile manufacturer, that's obviously not the
most desirable target market. As a result, the Cadillac's market
share has been plunging steadily over the past couple of decades.

General Motors is now in the process of redefining the
popular concept of the Cadillac, projecting a less conservative
image with an ad campaign that stresses the rewards of youthful
success. According to Business Week (Sept. 23, 1996), they've
also come up with a new logo to replace the traditional "wreath-
and-crest" emblem. They took one of the six birds facing left,
turned it around, colored it red and made it a cartoon-like
mascot in an attempt to appeal to baby-boomers.

Will this ploy have some effect in changing the Cadillac's
stodgy image? Time will tell. But at least General Motors
recognizes the need to refine and refocus the image of the
Cadillac as part of a campaign to reach the customers it wants.
That's a recent story from the world of American business. But
what does it take for Indonesian companies to compete effectively
in the next century and in the ever-more-competitive global
marketplace?

There are at least three "musts".

First, we must realize that this new global marketing game
is not necessarily being played or driven by the rules that we
know from our own nation's business role models. Therefore, if we
cling to our traditional views of competitiveness and market
success, we'll have a very difficult time winning globally.

Second, we'll surely have to examine and modify our old
beliefs and methods if Indonesian companies aim at marketing
their products or services effectively in this borderless world.

And finally, it will be necessary to develop a corporate
identity that reflects the positive corporate image we want to
put forward, an identity which will leave a strong impression on
our global target audiences.

What's being referred to here is not a corporate image.
That's something broader. A company's overall image may involve
everything from the sophistication of its advertising to its
reputation for customer service. Instead, what's specifically
being referred to is a company's corporate identity. This
involves at least three elements: a logo, one or more corporate
colors, and a particular typeface, along with certain other
design elements. Corporate identity is recognized as a crucial
part of any company's overall communications program.

As we probably know, there are many high-powered
multinational firms specializing in the creation of corporate
identities which deal with clients, each of whom are willing to
spend literally millions of dollars on research with the goal of
developing their company's identity. A strong corporate identity
has immense value because it serves as a company's signature. The
reason is obvious. It sets that company apart from all its
competitors, and positions it in the marketplace. A corporate
identity serves as a kind of statement to the world. `Here's who
we are. This is a visual representation of what we're all about.'
It's a sort of rallying point for a company. It's banner under
which management gathers all its resources to communicate with
the public.

Like a trademark, an effective corporate identity allows the
public to quickly see who made a particular product, or who's
offering a particular service to customers. A fully successful
corporate identity program provides a company with many benefits.
Any company with a distinctive corporate identity really stands
out in the marketplace. That corporate identity bespeaks a
certain vision and a unity of purpose within the company. This
perception is likely to earn the respect of customers, suppliers,
the financial community, competitors and members of the public in
general.

Let's look at two case histories in which companies with
global business interests agreed that creation of a new corporate
identity would serve their best long-term objectives.

Joining the "big league" of the international oil industry
requires a company to be rich and brave. Kuwait Petroleum
International is both. In 1984, it acquired a greater share of
the European network of Gulf Oil, and became the first OPEC
member to move into the retail gasoline business outside its own
territory. The company agreed that it would not use the name or
corporate identity of the well-established Gulf Oil.

Instead, it decided on a new corporate identity -- "Q8" --
based on the English pronunciation of "Kuwait". A logo based on
the sails of Kuwaiti traditional trading vessels was also
developed. This new corporate identity was developed with
worldwide application in mind. The changeover to Q8 took place in
1986. It involved more than 3000 gas stations in Sweden, Denmark,
Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Italy.

Before the changeover, Gulf Oil's market share in those six
countries was under 4 percent, with a retail volume of 2.1 billion
liters annually. But just one year later (even though the
gasoline being sold was exactly the same as before), Q8's market
share was 5.5 percent and annual volume had increased to three
billion liters. These new figures represented a volume increase
of nearly 50 percent in a static market. This means that the
increase came at the expense of Q8's competitors.

Q8 has sustained its position in the year since then.
Although there has also been an advertising campaign, Q8's
management attributes its success largely to the impact of an
effective corporate identity program.

Since 1986, the British Post Office has seen many changes in
both its internal structure and its operations. The old Post
Office has become the Post Office Group, structured like a group
of companies under the banner of its holding company, the Post
Office Corporation. Its three main subsidiaries are the Royal
Mail (for delivery of letters), Post Office Counters Ltd. (for
over-the-counter service) and Royal Mail Parcels.

The reputation of the old Post Office's parcel delivery
services suffered as a result of a major postal strike in 1971.
It suffered further damage during the '70s, due to problems
encountered by its main carrier, British Rail. Then, with the
'80s, came stiff competition from such large private
multinational companies as DHL, TNT, Securicor and Federal
Express.

Research determined that Royal Mail Parcels' image among
customers was either non-existent or that it was perceived as
just a regular part of the British Post Office's
"brown-paper-and-string" operations. Although other companies in
the private sector were better-known for parcel service, the fact
was that Royal Mail Parcels offered far more collection and
delivery points. In other words, Royal Mail Parcels was a real
leader in the market without projecting itself as such.

In the early '90s, Royal Mail Parcels was reborn as a new
company called Parcelforce. What's more, Parcelforce was blessed
with a whole new corporate identity to differentiate itself and
its products. The diamond-shaped portion of the Parcelforce logo
symbolizes the company as a jewel-in-the-crown of Royal Mail.

Obviously, effective and consistent use of a corporate
identity can provide powerful support for a company's efforts to
sell itself to the public. But a corporate identity is not an end
in itself. Rather, it must be integrated into a company's overall
strategy.

What are the future corporate identity trends which appeal
globally?

In addition to the standard red and gold colors, green
should be getting more popular globally. All over the world,
green not only represents "go" or "safe" on traffic lights, but
also symbolizes ecology or the environment, as well as freshness
in food. In ancient Egypt, green-faced Osiris was the God of
fertility. Furthermore, green is the color of Islam.

Of the many shapes available for corporate logos, it is
becoming apparent that square and round will be the preferred
ones. Square not only represents the technology look, but it also
allows easier design effort. The round shape, because it
symbolizes the globe or globalization, is therefore a natural
choice.

How will corporate identity developers be able to meet the
new challenges?

Structural changes are taking place, both inside companies and
amongst their suppliers. These changes will definitely change the
structure of existing suppliers, and will create companies based
on rather more complex and interrelated skills than those we know
today. In his book entitled Corporate Identity, Wally Olins
proclaimed "The century-old domination of the communication
business by advertising agencies, with their impressive,
sophisticated, but highly specialized skill base, is coming to an
end."

Truly, the whole business of researching, developing,
launching and reinforcing corporate identity programs has become
extremely complex. This may lead to adoption of a business
structure already familiar in the defense, construction and
aerospace industries, but so far unknown in the communication
field: consortiums. The future communication consortium will
likely include a team of corporate identity specialists, public
relations practitioners, product design consultants, researchers
and marketing professionals. They will work together on
particular assignments and are likely to be committed for long
periods of time, in order to ensure the overall success of such
corporate identity campaigns.

These days, one can travel to virtually any nation on earth
and find Coca-Cola. One surprising aspect of Coke's global
prominence is that one will never have any trouble recognizing a
Coca-Cola ad, even in those countries where the Roman alphabet
isn't used. In other words, an ad for Coke is just as obvious in
Thai script or Arabic script, or when the lettering is Russian,
Hebrew, Korean or Urdu. The logo, colors and typeface being used
are so distinctive that our brain automatically registers "Coke".
Now, that's an effective corporate identity campaign in action!

Coca-Cola's arch-rival, Pepsi-Cola, just launched a multi-
million dollar corporate identity campaign of its own. It
involved an expensive media blitz, appearances by lots of
celebrities and even the custom-painting of a jet plane with
Pepsi's new blue logo. Most of us tend to think that Coke and
Pepsi taste pretty much the same. But Pepsi is determined to
reinforce its uniqueness in the market.

In a sense, that's what all corporate identity programs
attempt to do. But the most carefully researched corporate image
programs -- and the ones that the are the most consistently
applied -- are the ones that do it best globally.

The writer is a Jakarta-based public relation counselor.