Corporate Personality


Personality is at the heart of an organisation, it’s the character, ‘the way things are done around here’ and can be viewed as ‘the culture’ to what companies are trying to achieve. Personality also consists of various elements such as; competence, ruthlessness, agreeableness and are all dimensions and aspects that make up the corporate persona.

How tough, informal or easy a company is to work with are all defined by the personality.

Corporate Identity

When initially starting out, a company attempts to build their identity.This is achieved through the following;

  • Perceived identity; what the organisation tries to create – ‘continuity, centrality and uniqueness’
  • Projected identity; how the organisation tries to position itself
  • Applied identity; the actual signals conveyed
  • Desired identity; What top management believes the organisation could become
  • Essences of identity; Design, Culture, Communication

It’s only after time that a clear picture will emerge about the ‘real identity’ an organisation wants to create. This realisation is obtained by a process of discovery and it’s this stage that leads to a new Constructed Identity.

The Constructed Identity is worked out between everyone involved and then communicated internally (employees will have their view) and externally (outside stakeholders will have their view).

The results of this Constructed Identity can be best seen in a lot of the physical outputs of an organisation, ie, the logo, the brand, the products, where it’s made and distributed etc.

Corporate Brand

It must be noted that a brand isn’t just a set of logos trademarks and typefaces; it’s the image and identity of the organisation.

The brand stands for what the company stands for and should communicate the essence and core values of the organisation as a whole, which is a lot broader than just talking about how the logo should be printed and what font size the words in a letter should be.

Tools to help you to further understand your brand

  • A brand blueprint will help you to analyse exactly what might be contained in your brand.
  • Brand positioning statement forces you to think about what it is that your brand stands for.

After you have developed exactly what you want your organisation to stand for you can then begin putting this into your brand positioning statement. This step of the process ensures you are very clear to everyone involved with the organisation exactly what the brand is about. As a result, all activities that take place thereafter come from this understanding and hence reflect the brands true meaning.

Tips

When developing your brand, use character descriptive words to bring it to life, rather than just explaining what it does; think flamboyancy and creativity which will reflect what people think and feel about you; the things that create the personality and character for the brand, rather than just being a description.