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.