A) Summary of the textbook and in class
1. What are Identity and Image ?
A company’s identity is the visual manifestation of the company’s reality as conveyed through the organization’s name, logo, motto, products, services, buildings stationery, uniforms, and all other tangible pieces of evidence created by the organization and communicated to a variety of constituencies. Image is a reflection of an organization’s identity. It is the organization as seen from the viewpoint of its constituencies. Thus, to understand identity and image is to know what the organization is really about and where it is headed. Certainly, the products and services, the people, the buildings and the names and symbols are a part of this reality.
2. Differentiating Organizations through Identity and Image
An organization’s identity and image might be the only difference that people can use to distinguish one company from the next. Yet consumers make distinctions about such homogeneous products all the time based on what the company’s image is all about rather than the product itself. As products become much the same all over the world, consumers are increasingly making distinctions based on notions other than the product itself, thereby making image and identity even more powerful differentiators.
3. Shaping Identity
There are some of the things that contribute positively to corporate identity: an inspirational corporate vision, careful corporate branding (with a focus on names and logos); and, importantly, consistent self-presentation.
● A Vision that inspires
Most central to corporate identity is the vision that encompasses the company’s core values, philosophies, standards and goals. Corporate vision is a common thread that all employees, and ideally all other constituencies as well, can relate to.
● Names and Logos
A company’s value can be significantly influenced by the success of its corporate branding strategy. Branding and strategic brand management are critical components of identity management
Companies often institute name changes either to signal identity changes or to make either identities better reflect their realities. Logos are another important component of corporate identity –perhaps even more important than names because of their visual nature and their increasing prevalence across many types of media.
● Putting It All Together : Consistency Is Key
An organization’s vision should manifest itself consistently across all its identity elements, from logos and mottos to employee behavior.
4. Identity Management Action
The dual nature of identity and image – embodied in physical objects yet inextricably tied to perceptions – creates a special dilemma for decision makers.
Here is a method that has been successfully used by many organizations to manage the identity process.
Step 1: Conduct an Identity Audit
To begin, an organization needs to assess the current reality. To avoid superficial input and objectively respond to these questions, consultants from the hundreds of “identity firms” conduct in-depth interviews with top managers and those working in areas most affected by any planned changes. They review company literature, advertising, stationery, products and services, and facilities. They also research perceptions among the most important constituencies, including employees, analysts, and customers. Companies trying to change their image are particularly difficult to audit because the vision that top executives have of what the company will be is so different from what the reality currently is.
Step 2: Set Identity Objectives
Having clear goals is essential to the identity process. These goals should be set by senior management and must explain how each consistency should react to specific identity proposals. It is extremely important, however, that emphasis be placed on constituency response rather than company action. Most managers –particularly senior managers- are internally focused and thus have great difficulty in getting the kind of perspective necessary to see things from the viewpoint of constituents. In addition, change for the sake of change, or change to meet some kind of standardization worldwide, is not the kind of objective that is objective that is likely to meet with success. Usually, such arbitrary changes are the result of a CEO’s wanting to leave his or her mark on the organization rather than a necessary step in the evolution of the company’s image
Step 3: Develop Designs and Names
Once the identity audit is complete and clear objectives have been established, the next phase in the identity process is the actual design.
Companies also should ensure that logos continue to reflect accurately the company’s reality, and should consider modifications if they do not. The process of designing a new look or logo is an artistic one, but despite contracting professionals to develop designs, many company executives get very involved in the process, often relying on their, many company executives get very involved in the process, often relying on their own instincts rather than the work of someone who spent his or her entire career thinking about design solutions. Obviously, there has to be a balance between the professional opinion of a designer and a manager’s own instincts. In the end, strong leadership must be exerted to effect the change, no matter what it is, for it to succeed.
Step 4: Develop Prototypes
Once the final design is selected and approved by everyone involved, consultants develop models using the new symbols or name. At times, negative reactions from constituents can be so strong that proposals have to be abandoned and work started all over again. To prevent this failure, a diversity of people and viewpoints should be involved in the entire identity process. In either approach, everyone has to be informed about the project and involved in it from the beginning: the more people involved in the process from its inception, the less work necessary to sell the idea after much hard work has already taken place.
Step 5: Launch and Communicate
Sometimes such publicity is a positive event, as it can create excitement and a sense of anticipation. As additional communication tools, corporations might want to use advertising, webcasts, or video news releases and satellite links.
Step 6: Implement the Program
Usually, the best approach to ensure consistency across all uses for a new identity program is to develop identity standards. Implementing an identity program is a communication process involving lots of interpersonal savvy and a coordinated approach to dealing with many constituencies.
5. Image : In the Eye of the Beholder
An organization’s image is a function of how constituencies perceive the organization based upon all the messages it sends out through names and logos, and through self-presentations, including expressions of its corporate vision.
Constituencies often have certain perceptions about an organization before they even begin to interact with it. After interacting with an organization, the constituencies may have a different image of it than they did before. The credibility that a company acquires through the repeated application of consistently excellent behavior will determine its image in the minds of constituents in a much more profound way than a one-shot corporate advertising campaign.
6. Building a Solid Reputation
The foundation of a solid reputation exists when an organization’s identity and its image are aligned. Reputation differs from image because it is built up over time and is not simply a perception at a given point in time. It differs from identity because it is a product of both internal and external constituencies, whereas identity is constructed by internal constituencies.
Additionally, reputation is based on the perceptions of all constituencies.
● Why reputation matters
The intangible entity of reputation is undoubtedly a source of competitive advantage. Companies with strong, positive reputation can attract and retain the best talent, as well as loyal customers and business partners, all of which contribute positively to growth and commercial success.
Reputation also can help companies to weather crises more effectively. The changing environment for business has implications for reputation. The proliferation of media and information, the demand for increased transparency, and the increasing attention paid to social responsibility all speak for a greater focus on the part of organizations on building and maintaining strong reputations.
● Measuring and Managing Reputation
In assessing its reputation, an organization must examine the perceptions of all its constituencies.
Employees can be a good starting point, as they need to understand the company’s vision and values and conduct themselves in every customer interaction with those in mind.
Customer perceptions of an organization also must align with the organization’s identity, vision, and values.
● Corporate Philanthropy and Social Responsibility
Every organization today needs to consider corporate philanthropy and social responsibility when thinking about its own reputation. Corporate philanthropy and social responsibility programs should be consistent with a company’s vision to be perceived as credible, rather than as simply “check-the-box” activities or attempts to burnish a tarnished image.
In the changing environment for business, corporate philanthropy and social responsibility are gaining visibility and importance in the eyes of many constituencies.
B) My viewpoint and Experiences at work
As we studied above, the name or logos of companies can be changed as the environment changes and the organization’s roles change to meet to customers’ needs. However, we sometimes see that only the top of management wants to mark something for his or her periods. As a result, usually, changing the name or logo of organizations does not impress to their employees, internal customers, which does not influence on improving firm’s image or not contribute to increase sales. However, outdated thought for long time should be changed in order to reflect on changing environments because the objectives of a organization is not always constant much as the organization begin its operation. In light of my experience, I have worked over 20 years only one office. At that time, my company’s log represents the view of supplier. However, it is not any more useful image to the customers today. Thus, the chairman of the board of directors decided to change the logo to fit the changing environment which customers would be respectful. As a result, the employees also should change their mind to adapt the changing environment.
References:
1. http://www.smallbusinessnotes.com/operating/marketing/image.html
2. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4070/is_n136/ai_21001397
2008년 2월 26일 화요일
Corporate identity, image, and reputation
CORPORATE IDENTITY
From : http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Con-Cos/Corporate-Identity.html
THEORY OF CORPORATE IDENTITY
COMPONENTS OF CORPORATE IDENTITY
CORPORATE IMAGE AND REPUTATION
CORPORATE COMMUNICATION
FEEDBACK
CONCLUSION
The management and communication of a company's identity increasingly is being viewed by senior executives as vital to corporate success. The concept of corporate identity can be traced to the earliest firms that used specific marks or logos to differentiate themselves from their competitors and imprint their image in the minds of consumers. By the 1970s a robust consulting industry that specialized in helping companies improve their image had emerged. More recently, in response to the dynamics of the business environment, many of these design consultants have broadened their focus to embrace a strategic view of communicating corporate identity. With this amplified focus, the epithet for the concept evolved from "corporate image" to "corporate identity" (and, more and more, the term "corporate brand" is being applied).
IMPORTANCE OF CORPORATE IMAGE
The growing significance of managing corporate identity is underscored by a 1989 survey in Britain by Market Opinion Research International, which found that 77 percent of the leading industrialists questioned believed that the importance their firms attached to developing and promoting their corporate identity would increase in the near future. Research a year later by CBI and Fitch Consultants corroborated this finding and the experience of the 1990s strongly suggests that this expectation has materialized.
The overriding reason for the burgeoning concern for corporate identity is abundantly clear. We live in a time of immense environmental complexity and change, and consequently corporations have been forced to significantly alter their strategies to better compete and survive. Mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures represent a major dimension of corporate change over the past several decades. Consider the extreme example of the Greyhound Corporation. For most of this century, Greyhound was the largest busing company in North America. In the 1970s, however, the company initiated an aggressive acquisition/diversification and by the late 1980s was competing in five different industries (it even sold off most of its busing operations). To signal this metamorphosis to its external audiences, the company belatedly changed its name to the Dial Corporation and completely revamped its corporate communications.
The acceleration of product life cycles is another vital dimension of the turbulent business environment. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the electronics industry. Personal computers can become outmoded in the period of less than a year. In the audio segment of the market, tapes replaced records and, in turn, were replaced by compact discs, which may in the future be superseded by digital audiotapes. Companies with strong corporate images, such as Sony Corporation and Casio, obviously have an advantage in such dynamic markets because their name adds value to their products by reducing uncertainty in the eyes of distributors, retailer$, and consumers.
Deregulation has been a critical factor in many industries. For instance, as a result of the court-ordered breakup, AT&T has had to develop a new strategy and a more aggressive marketing-oriented culture to adjust to its new realities. Concurrently, the telecommunications giant adopted a new logo and initiated a communication program to help convey its new identity. In another example, deregulation of the financial services industry has allowed savings and loan associations to expand their services and compete with banks. Consequently, firms such as Glendale Federal Savings and Loan Association and California Federal Savings and Loan Association have changed their charters to become banks. Their new names are Glendale Federal Bank and California Federal Bank, respectively, and they have fittingly redirected their corporate communication programs.
Globalization has been still another catalyst in the rise of corporate identity programs. To illustrate, American Express Co. originally was a freight company in the North American market. As the company matured into a global credit card, banking, and travel organization, it wisely developed a corporate communication program aimed at projecting its new identity. American Express understood that a strong and positive global image can be a powerful weapon for firms expanding internationally. IBM, McDonald's, and Baskin-Robbins are examples of other companies that have been able to expand to all areas of the world with relative ease because of their global prominence.
A related factor is that as a corporation expands its operation internationally, or even domestically, through acquisitions, there is a danger that its geographically dispersed business units will project dissimilar or contrary images to the detriment of corporate synergy. British-based Courtaulds has a globally dispersed organization but until its latest identity review allowed its operating companies to use their traditional names. As a consequence of this policy, there was little cooperation among these units and no cohesive corporate identity. Courtaulds remedied this problem by instituting a common naming policy and a correlated corporate communication program.
Still another factor stimulating the current interest in corporate identity is society's growing expectation that corporations be socially responsive. One salient manifestation of this trend is that many of today's consumers consider the environmental and social image of firms in making their purchasing decisions. Companies such as Ben and Jerry's and Tom's of Maine have built their strategies around this idea and consequently have grown very rapidly. Another manifestation of the trend is the rise of socially responsible investment funds.
THEORY OF CORPORATE IDENTITY
Theory always underlies good practice. Theory identifies and defines the key variables in the process under consideration and explains the interrelationship among them. In the process for managing corporate identity, the fundamental variables are corporate identity, corporate communication, corporate image, and corporate reputation. Corporate identity is the reality of the corporation. It is the unique, individual personality of the company that differentiates it from other companies. To use the marketing metaphor, it is the corporate brand. Corporate communication is the aggregate of sources, messages, and media by which the corporation conveys its uniqueness or brand to its various audiences. Corporate image and corporate reputation are in the eye of the beholder. Image is the mental picture that people have of an organization, whereas reputation constitutes a value judgment about the company's attributes.
The interrelationship among these variables is shown diagrammatically in Figure 1. The objective in managing corporate identity is to communicate the company's identity to those audiences or constituencies that are important to the firm in a manner that is both positive and accurate. This process involves fashioning a positive identity and communicating this identity to significant audiences in such a way that they have a favorable view of the company. The feedback loops in the model indicate that an unsatisfactory image or reputation can be improved by modifying corporate communication or reshaping the corporate identity or both. The principal issues relating to the five components of the model—identity, image, reputation, communication, and feedback—will now be examined in greater detail.
COMPONENTS OF CORPORATE IDENTITY
Corporate identity, as explained above, is the reality and uniqueness of the organization. It may be broken down into its component parts: corporate strategy, corporate culture, organizational design, and operations. Strategy is the overall plan that circumscribes the company's product/market scope and the policies and programs by which it chooses to compete in its chosen markets. For example, Southwest Airlines is a regional carrier competing in the airline industry through strategies that result in low costs and low fares.
Figure 1
Corporate Image Moedl
Corporate culture is the shared values, beliefs, and assumptions that the organization's members hold in common as they relate to each other, their jobs, and the organization. It defines what the firm's personnel believe is important and unimportant, and explains to a large degree why the organization behaves the way it does. Southwest Airlines has a strong corporate culture that highly prizes company loyalty, internal cooperation, and service to the customer. Southwest's culture supports the company's strategy and is a prominent component of its identity.
Organizational design refers to the basic choices top managers have in developing the pattern of organizational relationships. It encompasses issues such as whether basic departmentation should be by function or product division, the overall configuration (tall vs. flat), the degree of decentralization, the number of staff personnel, the design of jobs, and the internal systems and procedures. All of these factors can affect, to some degree, corporate identity. From the perspective of the firm's external constituents, however, the corporate/product relationship normally is the most critical element of organizational design. The corporate/product relationship refers to the deliberate approach a firm follows in structuring the relationship of its products to one another and to the corporate entity. Corporate/product relationships may be categorized as single entity, brand dominance, equal dominance, mixed dominance, or corporate dominance.
Single entity companies offer one product line or set of services; consequently, the image of the company and that of the product tend to be one and the same. Southwest Airlines is an obvious example of a single entity company; it is 100 percent involved in the airline business. Identity problems typically arise for single entity firms such as Southwest Airlines if they expand into areas and activities not immediately related to their current strategy. The corporate planners must carefully consider the corporate identity they desire to have and the concomitant image they wish to project.
Under the brand-dominant approach, the decision has been made not to relate the product brand and corporate names. This approach is followed by many consumer products companies. For instance, Marlboro and Merit cigarettes, Post cereals, Jell-O, Kraft cheeses, and Oscar Mayer meats are all well-known products but few consumers realize that they are all marketed by the Philip Morris Companies, Inc.
General Motors Corp., historically, has exemplified the equal-dominance approach. The principal General Motors' automobile divisions—Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, and Cadillac—maintained separate identities, but each was also closely associated with the corporation. Neither the corporate nor the individual brand was predominant.
In mixed-dominance companies, sometimes the brand name is dominant, sometimes the corporate name is dominant, and in some cases they are used together with equal emphasis. The German firm Robert Bosch GmbH follows this approach. Bosch identifies some of the products it manufactures (for example, spark plugs) with the corporate name, but chooses to allow other brands such as Blaupunkt radios to stand independently.
IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Xerox Corporation, and Gerber Products Co. are exemplars of the corporate-dominance strategy. In these companies, the corporate identity is paramount and all implementation decisions are aimed at reinforcing this identity.
Two examples will illustrate the identity considerations involved in corporate/product relationship decisions. A number of years ago, Pillsbury developed a franchised restaurant chain called Bennigan's Tavern. The company had to decide if it wanted to create an identity for Bennigan's that linked the restaurant to Pillsbury or create a separate identity for it. A crucial question was whether a corporation known for its traditional kitchen products such as flour and cake mixes should associate its name with an institution serving beer. Prudently, Pillsbury chose the brand dominant approach.
The classic example of the Transamerica Corporation illustrates an equally logical but very different outcome. Transamerica was a conglomerate with divisions in such diverse fields as air travel, business forms, entertainment, and insurance. For many years the company followed a brand dominant (or more precisely, a subsidiary-dominant) approach in which the relationships between the subsidiaries and the parent were deemphasized. In the late 1960s, however, company executives decided to take advantage of the synergies that a unified corporate identity could render. As part of the implementation program, Transamerica created the "T" logo as a unifying symbol to connect the various subsidiaries to the parent and to each other. Each subsidiary retained the company name under which its reputation had been built, and the corporate relationship was communicated through a linking phrase such as, "Entertainment from the Transamerica Corporation."
Operations, the fourth and final component of corporate identity, is the aggregate of activities the firm engages in to effect its strategy. These activities become part of the reality of the corporation and can influence its image and/or reputation in a wide variety of ways. Several examples will highlight the range of possibilities. First, the cleanliness of Disney Corporation's theme parks, together with the efficiency and helpfulness of their employees, has become a significant and very positive dimension of the corporation's identity. At the other end of the spectrum, the inappropriate treatment of African-American customers at some Denny's restaurants negatively affected that company's overall reputation as did the now infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill for the Exxon Corporation.
CORPORATE IMAGE AND REPUTATION
Corporate image and reputation are discrete but related concepts. As noted earlier, corporate image is the effigy that people have of a company. Corporate reputation, on the other hand, represents a value judgment that people make about the firm as a whole or one or more of its attributes. Corporate images typically can be fashioned fairly quickly through specific actions and well-conceived communication programs, whereas reputations evolve over time as a result of consistent performance (and they can be reinforced through corporate communication).
Clearly, a corporation must be concerned about its image and reputation amongst its important constituent groups. In academic parlance, these significant constituent groups are called stakeholders. They are groups that have a stake in the company. Stakeholders are affected by the actions of the company and, perhaps more importantly, their actions can affect the company. Consequently, its image and reputation in the eyes of its stakeholders is critical to the company. The principal stakeholders with which most large firms must be concerned are:
* Customers
* Distributors and retailers
* Financial institutions and analysts
* Shareholders
* Government regulatory agencies
* Social action organizations
* The general public
* Employees
The company's image and reputation vis-a-vis its various stakeholders will influence their willingness to provide or withhold support. Thus, if its customers develop a negative perception of the company or its products, its sales and profits assuredly will decline. Consider the recent travails of the Nissan Motor Company. In the 1980s it enjoyed the image of a customer-oriented, trendsetting automobile manufacturer with an excellent reputation for automotive engineering. By the mid-1990s, however, as a result of a series of poor decisions, its image as a cutting-edge producer, along with sales and profits, had declined precipitously. It is now perceived by customers as well as other stakeholders as a conservative maker of stodgy, boxy cars with its engineering reputation compromised.
The impact of corporate identity in the financial community can be seen through the history of the British packaging, printing, and coating company that recently changed its name from Bowater to Rexham in response to confusion in the financial community as well as among its customers as to its identity. In North America the company traded under the name Rexham, whereas in the rest of its markets it operated under the Bowater banner. The name change was initiated by its chief executive officer to create the image of a global competitor in the eyes of financial institutions and investors, as well as its customers.
The company's shareholders are another critical stakeholder group because they ultimately give or withhold their approval of management's decisions through their proxies. Moreover, their "buy" and "sell" decisions influence the corporation's stock price.
Government regulatory agencies, another important set of stakeholders, are required by law to monitor and regulate firms for specific, publicly defined purposes. Nevertheless, these agencies have considerable discretion in how they interpret and apply the law. Where they have a positive perception of the firm, they are likely to be much less censorious.
Social action organizations represent still another set of stakeholders. To the extent a corporation has a negative reputation in the particular area of concern of a social action group, it likely will be targeted for criticism and harassment by that group. For example, the Labor/Community Strategy Center has organized a boycott of Texaco stations and products in an effort to influence the company to reduce the air pollution emanating from its refinery in Wilmington, California. Although there are many refineries in the Wilmington area, the environmental group targeted Texaco for its boycott because of a recent much publicized explosion at the company's refinery.
A strong positive image with the general public can be beneficial to the firm. Research suggests that a prominent corporate image and an outstanding reputation are a consequential factors in attracting a high quality workforce. Merck, Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard, for instance, have traditionally attracted topnotch job applicants because of their sterling reputations.
Current employees represent the internal constituency that a firm must consider when communicating corporate identity. It is widely believed that a positive reputation in the eyes of employees is a prime causal factor of high morale and productivity. This condition is frequently cited as a fundamental reason for the success of Japanese firms. Additionally, it should be emphasized that employees play a large role in representing the company to its external stakeholders.
Obviously, each of the various stakeholder groups is likely to have a somewhat different perception of the corporation because each is concerned primarily with a different facet of its operation. Thus, customers are principally interested in the price, quality, and reliability of the company's products and services. Financial institutions are concerned with financial structure and performance. Employees are mainly concerned with wages, working conditions, and personnel policies. Logically, then, a company should tailor its communication to each stakeholder group individually to engage the special concerns of that group.
A consistent image among the various stakeholder groups, however, is also essential. Although it is prudent to stress different facets of the firm's identity to its various publics, the firm should avoid projecting an inconsistent image for two key reasons. First, some of the concerns of the stakeholders overlap. For example, the financial community and the shareholders would have many of the same financial and strategic concerns about the company. In fact, many shareholders rely heavily on the advice of experts from financial institutions. Both employees and the general public have an interest in the overall prestige of the firm and the reputation of its products. A social action group's criticism, as in the case of the Texaco boycott, whether economically effective or not, is bound to influence some customers and affect the company's public reputation. Of course, a regulatory agency such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration would focus narrowly on the firm's safety record and policies but the company's employees and their labor unions also have a stake in these matters.
The second and related reason for avoiding an inconsistent image is that the sundry stakeholders are not separate, discrete entities. Membership overlaps. Consider the example of a typical public utility where almost all of its employees are also customers and a significant number may also be shareholders. Furthermore, it is not unlikely that some of its employees will be active in environmental or consumer rights groups that challenge the company on specific issues. It is also likely that some of the company's bankers and regulators will be among its customers.
CORPORATE COMMUNICATION
Corporate communication is the link between corporate identity and corporate image and reputation. It should be defined in the broadest possible sense because companies communicate their identities in many different ways. This includes almost everything they do from the way telephones are answered to the involvement of their employees in community affairs. A description of the principal communication media is presented below.
NOMENCLATURE.
The primary concerns in this category are the names used to identify the corporation, its divisions, and its products. In recent years, many firms have changed their corporate names to communicate a major change in identity. To illustrate, International Harvester changed its name to Navistar to signal its exit from the agricultural equipment industry. Carter Hawley Hale Stores changed its name to Broadway Stores to identify more closely with its store operations and accentuate its revitalization since emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
GRAPHICS.
Graphics, which were the original focus of image consultants, are concerned with the overall visual presentation of the organization. The graphics system should dictate the design style of the company's literature, signs, and stationery. It involves coordinating the style of the typeface, photography, illustrations, layout, and coloring in all the company's graphics. The key question here, as with the nomenclature issue, is whether the company's visual presentation is appropriately communicating its identity. Consider the example of Alitalia Airline. Although Alitalia was one of the largest transatlantic carriers, it projected an image of a relatively small, casual, inefficient "Italian" airline. To counter this negative image, Alitalia, following the lead of Olivetti and Ferrari, developed a graphics program stressing superior design and high technology. All forms of corporate communication such as aircraft insignias, uniforms, baggage tags, and promotional materials were redesigned to consistently project and reinforce this positive image. Today Alitalia is regarded by the flying public as a major global carrier.
The logo is the heart of the corporate graphics design system. Unlike nomenclature, logos can be changed subtly over time to reflect the evolving corporate identity. For example, Shell has varied its graphics system many times over the past century. Through all its changes, the company retained, for the sake of continuity, some version of its basic seashell logo. In contrast, Transamerica Corporation abruptly replaced its recognizable "T" logo with the "Transamerica Pyramid" (a well-known San Francisco landmark) to signal its metamorphosis from a conglomerate to a focused financial services company.
FORMAL STATEMENTS.
This category includes mission statements, credos, codes of ethics, annual reports, advertising copy, and company slogans. Company slogans can be a particularly potent means of communicating to stakeholders. Avis's "We Try Harder," for instance, has been remarkably effective in conveying the company's identity. Other examples include Prudential's "Own a Piece of the Rock," which communicates the company's financial stability, and E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.'s "Better Living through Chemistry," which underscores the firm's science-driven culture.
ARCHITECTURE.
The design of corporate buildings and the interior layout of offices and factories also can reveal much about a company. A series of closed offices suggests a very different culture from a large open room with desks in full sight of each other. The Transamerica Pyramid as a symbol of financial services illustrates the potential for communicating through architecture. SmithKline Beecham (the resultant company from the merger of the pharmaceutical firms Beecham and SmithKline Beckman) specifically selected a corporate headquarters complex in London that projects a culture that it hopes will evolve at the merged company.
INTERACTIONS AND EVENTS.
This is a catch-all category, but a critical one, because every interaction a company employee has with a stakeholder, and every event related to a company, communicates something of the firm's identity. This means, for one thing, that employees should be trained and motivated to project a positive image of the company. The increased popularity of training employees on answering telephones shows that many firms understand the criticality of this communication source.
Unexpected events also can conspicuously communicate corporate identity. As mentioned above, the Exxon Valdez oil spill became a dimension of the Exxon Corporation's identity, but it also immediately imparted the image of an environmentally insensitive firm to most, if not all, of the company's stakeholders. In similar fashion, the catastrophe at Union Carbide's Bhopol plant projected a negative image, as did the controversy over the treatment of African-American customers at Denny's. A company's reaction to such events, however, also can play a prominent role in its projected image. The failure of Chairman Rawls to travel to the site of the oil spill further compounded Exxon's image problems. Conversely, Johnson & Johnson's prompt nationwide recall of Tylenol bottles after Chicago-area deaths were attributed to a few poisoned Tylenol capsules significantly reduced the negative impact of these tragedies on the company. In fact, many observers believe that Johnson & Johnson's image and its reputation for social responsiveness has emerged stronger than ever.
FEEDBACK
Feedback is essential to managing the corporate image. Without it, company executives are "flying blind." They need accurate information on stakeholder perceptions if they are to make sound decisions. Ideally, feedback should be continuous. As a practical matter, relatively continuous feedback can be elicited from salespeople, public relations executives, finance managers, and other employees who routinely interact with stakeholders. Based on such input, modifications may be made in the company's communication methods or, if warranted, a formal study of the corporate identity initiated. In addition to systematically utilizing internal sources, it is prudent to conduct formal studies on a regular basis, say every five years. Formal studies are typically performed by identity/image consultants using in-depth, one-on-one and group interviews as their chief research tools. This type of comprehensive outside review would normally include an analysis of the corporate identity, an appraisal of the firm's image and reputation in the eyes of its stakeholders, and an evaluation of the efficacy of its corporate communications. The consultant's recommendations might run from making slight alterations in the corporate communication program to a reshaping of the firm's identity.
Two examples illustrate the importance of feedback and taking appropriate remedial measures based on the feedback. In the first example, Consolidated Foods found that it had a deficient and inaccurate image in the financial community. Specifically, it learned that its rather bland sounding name translated into a bland image in the eyes of financial analysts. The company also discovered that not only was its name bland, but it also was inappropriate because its organization was decentralized and encompassed a variety of business units; therefore, it could not be accurately described as "consolidated." To remedy the situation, the company renamed itself Sara Lee after its most prestigious product line. Subsequent research showed that awareness of the company among financial analysts increased significantly.
In the second example, Jaguar, in the days prior to privatization, learned from research that it had a terrible reputation for quality and reliability among customers. To correct this problem, Jaguar initiated a rigorous quality program which has helped the firm regain its earlier reputation for quality vehicles.
CONCLUSION
In the past, corporate identity was seen almost universally as the narrow, peripheral function of graphic design. Today, however, as a consequence of the epochal, often abrupt changes occurring throughout the business world, and the resultant danger of corporate images becoming outmoded and erroneous and reputations deteriorating, the issue of managing the corporate identity has been elevated to a level of strategic importance in executive circles.
The modern concept of corporate identity has a broad sweep and a strategic focus. It views a company's image and reputation among its several stakeholders as critical resources over which the firm has control. The framework presented here outlines a conceptual model through which management can comprehend, monitor, and influence the development of these intangible assets. The concept is relatively simple but its effective implementation can be profoundly challenging. The firms that master this challenge will, in all likelihood, be the ones that will survive and prosper today's turbulent business environment.
From : http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Con-Cos/Corporate-Identity.html
THEORY OF CORPORATE IDENTITY
COMPONENTS OF CORPORATE IDENTITY
CORPORATE IMAGE AND REPUTATION
CORPORATE COMMUNICATION
FEEDBACK
CONCLUSION
The management and communication of a company's identity increasingly is being viewed by senior executives as vital to corporate success. The concept of corporate identity can be traced to the earliest firms that used specific marks or logos to differentiate themselves from their competitors and imprint their image in the minds of consumers. By the 1970s a robust consulting industry that specialized in helping companies improve their image had emerged. More recently, in response to the dynamics of the business environment, many of these design consultants have broadened their focus to embrace a strategic view of communicating corporate identity. With this amplified focus, the epithet for the concept evolved from "corporate image" to "corporate identity" (and, more and more, the term "corporate brand" is being applied).
IMPORTANCE OF CORPORATE IMAGE
The growing significance of managing corporate identity is underscored by a 1989 survey in Britain by Market Opinion Research International, which found that 77 percent of the leading industrialists questioned believed that the importance their firms attached to developing and promoting their corporate identity would increase in the near future. Research a year later by CBI and Fitch Consultants corroborated this finding and the experience of the 1990s strongly suggests that this expectation has materialized.
The overriding reason for the burgeoning concern for corporate identity is abundantly clear. We live in a time of immense environmental complexity and change, and consequently corporations have been forced to significantly alter their strategies to better compete and survive. Mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures represent a major dimension of corporate change over the past several decades. Consider the extreme example of the Greyhound Corporation. For most of this century, Greyhound was the largest busing company in North America. In the 1970s, however, the company initiated an aggressive acquisition/diversification and by the late 1980s was competing in five different industries (it even sold off most of its busing operations). To signal this metamorphosis to its external audiences, the company belatedly changed its name to the Dial Corporation and completely revamped its corporate communications.
The acceleration of product life cycles is another vital dimension of the turbulent business environment. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the electronics industry. Personal computers can become outmoded in the period of less than a year. In the audio segment of the market, tapes replaced records and, in turn, were replaced by compact discs, which may in the future be superseded by digital audiotapes. Companies with strong corporate images, such as Sony Corporation and Casio, obviously have an advantage in such dynamic markets because their name adds value to their products by reducing uncertainty in the eyes of distributors, retailer$, and consumers.
Deregulation has been a critical factor in many industries. For instance, as a result of the court-ordered breakup, AT&T has had to develop a new strategy and a more aggressive marketing-oriented culture to adjust to its new realities. Concurrently, the telecommunications giant adopted a new logo and initiated a communication program to help convey its new identity. In another example, deregulation of the financial services industry has allowed savings and loan associations to expand their services and compete with banks. Consequently, firms such as Glendale Federal Savings and Loan Association and California Federal Savings and Loan Association have changed their charters to become banks. Their new names are Glendale Federal Bank and California Federal Bank, respectively, and they have fittingly redirected their corporate communication programs.
Globalization has been still another catalyst in the rise of corporate identity programs. To illustrate, American Express Co. originally was a freight company in the North American market. As the company matured into a global credit card, banking, and travel organization, it wisely developed a corporate communication program aimed at projecting its new identity. American Express understood that a strong and positive global image can be a powerful weapon for firms expanding internationally. IBM, McDonald's, and Baskin-Robbins are examples of other companies that have been able to expand to all areas of the world with relative ease because of their global prominence.
A related factor is that as a corporation expands its operation internationally, or even domestically, through acquisitions, there is a danger that its geographically dispersed business units will project dissimilar or contrary images to the detriment of corporate synergy. British-based Courtaulds has a globally dispersed organization but until its latest identity review allowed its operating companies to use their traditional names. As a consequence of this policy, there was little cooperation among these units and no cohesive corporate identity. Courtaulds remedied this problem by instituting a common naming policy and a correlated corporate communication program.
Still another factor stimulating the current interest in corporate identity is society's growing expectation that corporations be socially responsive. One salient manifestation of this trend is that many of today's consumers consider the environmental and social image of firms in making their purchasing decisions. Companies such as Ben and Jerry's and Tom's of Maine have built their strategies around this idea and consequently have grown very rapidly. Another manifestation of the trend is the rise of socially responsible investment funds.
THEORY OF CORPORATE IDENTITY
Theory always underlies good practice. Theory identifies and defines the key variables in the process under consideration and explains the interrelationship among them. In the process for managing corporate identity, the fundamental variables are corporate identity, corporate communication, corporate image, and corporate reputation. Corporate identity is the reality of the corporation. It is the unique, individual personality of the company that differentiates it from other companies. To use the marketing metaphor, it is the corporate brand. Corporate communication is the aggregate of sources, messages, and media by which the corporation conveys its uniqueness or brand to its various audiences. Corporate image and corporate reputation are in the eye of the beholder. Image is the mental picture that people have of an organization, whereas reputation constitutes a value judgment about the company's attributes.
The interrelationship among these variables is shown diagrammatically in Figure 1. The objective in managing corporate identity is to communicate the company's identity to those audiences or constituencies that are important to the firm in a manner that is both positive and accurate. This process involves fashioning a positive identity and communicating this identity to significant audiences in such a way that they have a favorable view of the company. The feedback loops in the model indicate that an unsatisfactory image or reputation can be improved by modifying corporate communication or reshaping the corporate identity or both. The principal issues relating to the five components of the model—identity, image, reputation, communication, and feedback—will now be examined in greater detail.
COMPONENTS OF CORPORATE IDENTITY
Corporate identity, as explained above, is the reality and uniqueness of the organization. It may be broken down into its component parts: corporate strategy, corporate culture, organizational design, and operations. Strategy is the overall plan that circumscribes the company's product/market scope and the policies and programs by which it chooses to compete in its chosen markets. For example, Southwest Airlines is a regional carrier competing in the airline industry through strategies that result in low costs and low fares.
Figure 1
Corporate Image Moedl
Corporate culture is the shared values, beliefs, and assumptions that the organization's members hold in common as they relate to each other, their jobs, and the organization. It defines what the firm's personnel believe is important and unimportant, and explains to a large degree why the organization behaves the way it does. Southwest Airlines has a strong corporate culture that highly prizes company loyalty, internal cooperation, and service to the customer. Southwest's culture supports the company's strategy and is a prominent component of its identity.
Organizational design refers to the basic choices top managers have in developing the pattern of organizational relationships. It encompasses issues such as whether basic departmentation should be by function or product division, the overall configuration (tall vs. flat), the degree of decentralization, the number of staff personnel, the design of jobs, and the internal systems and procedures. All of these factors can affect, to some degree, corporate identity. From the perspective of the firm's external constituents, however, the corporate/product relationship normally is the most critical element of organizational design. The corporate/product relationship refers to the deliberate approach a firm follows in structuring the relationship of its products to one another and to the corporate entity. Corporate/product relationships may be categorized as single entity, brand dominance, equal dominance, mixed dominance, or corporate dominance.
Single entity companies offer one product line or set of services; consequently, the image of the company and that of the product tend to be one and the same. Southwest Airlines is an obvious example of a single entity company; it is 100 percent involved in the airline business. Identity problems typically arise for single entity firms such as Southwest Airlines if they expand into areas and activities not immediately related to their current strategy. The corporate planners must carefully consider the corporate identity they desire to have and the concomitant image they wish to project.
Under the brand-dominant approach, the decision has been made not to relate the product brand and corporate names. This approach is followed by many consumer products companies. For instance, Marlboro and Merit cigarettes, Post cereals, Jell-O, Kraft cheeses, and Oscar Mayer meats are all well-known products but few consumers realize that they are all marketed by the Philip Morris Companies, Inc.
General Motors Corp., historically, has exemplified the equal-dominance approach. The principal General Motors' automobile divisions—Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, and Cadillac—maintained separate identities, but each was also closely associated with the corporation. Neither the corporate nor the individual brand was predominant.
In mixed-dominance companies, sometimes the brand name is dominant, sometimes the corporate name is dominant, and in some cases they are used together with equal emphasis. The German firm Robert Bosch GmbH follows this approach. Bosch identifies some of the products it manufactures (for example, spark plugs) with the corporate name, but chooses to allow other brands such as Blaupunkt radios to stand independently.
IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Xerox Corporation, and Gerber Products Co. are exemplars of the corporate-dominance strategy. In these companies, the corporate identity is paramount and all implementation decisions are aimed at reinforcing this identity.
Two examples will illustrate the identity considerations involved in corporate/product relationship decisions. A number of years ago, Pillsbury developed a franchised restaurant chain called Bennigan's Tavern. The company had to decide if it wanted to create an identity for Bennigan's that linked the restaurant to Pillsbury or create a separate identity for it. A crucial question was whether a corporation known for its traditional kitchen products such as flour and cake mixes should associate its name with an institution serving beer. Prudently, Pillsbury chose the brand dominant approach.
The classic example of the Transamerica Corporation illustrates an equally logical but very different outcome. Transamerica was a conglomerate with divisions in such diverse fields as air travel, business forms, entertainment, and insurance. For many years the company followed a brand dominant (or more precisely, a subsidiary-dominant) approach in which the relationships between the subsidiaries and the parent were deemphasized. In the late 1960s, however, company executives decided to take advantage of the synergies that a unified corporate identity could render. As part of the implementation program, Transamerica created the "T" logo as a unifying symbol to connect the various subsidiaries to the parent and to each other. Each subsidiary retained the company name under which its reputation had been built, and the corporate relationship was communicated through a linking phrase such as, "Entertainment from the Transamerica Corporation."
Operations, the fourth and final component of corporate identity, is the aggregate of activities the firm engages in to effect its strategy. These activities become part of the reality of the corporation and can influence its image and/or reputation in a wide variety of ways. Several examples will highlight the range of possibilities. First, the cleanliness of Disney Corporation's theme parks, together with the efficiency and helpfulness of their employees, has become a significant and very positive dimension of the corporation's identity. At the other end of the spectrum, the inappropriate treatment of African-American customers at some Denny's restaurants negatively affected that company's overall reputation as did the now infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill for the Exxon Corporation.
CORPORATE IMAGE AND REPUTATION
Corporate image and reputation are discrete but related concepts. As noted earlier, corporate image is the effigy that people have of a company. Corporate reputation, on the other hand, represents a value judgment that people make about the firm as a whole or one or more of its attributes. Corporate images typically can be fashioned fairly quickly through specific actions and well-conceived communication programs, whereas reputations evolve over time as a result of consistent performance (and they can be reinforced through corporate communication).
Clearly, a corporation must be concerned about its image and reputation amongst its important constituent groups. In academic parlance, these significant constituent groups are called stakeholders. They are groups that have a stake in the company. Stakeholders are affected by the actions of the company and, perhaps more importantly, their actions can affect the company. Consequently, its image and reputation in the eyes of its stakeholders is critical to the company. The principal stakeholders with which most large firms must be concerned are:
* Customers
* Distributors and retailers
* Financial institutions and analysts
* Shareholders
* Government regulatory agencies
* Social action organizations
* The general public
* Employees
The company's image and reputation vis-a-vis its various stakeholders will influence their willingness to provide or withhold support. Thus, if its customers develop a negative perception of the company or its products, its sales and profits assuredly will decline. Consider the recent travails of the Nissan Motor Company. In the 1980s it enjoyed the image of a customer-oriented, trendsetting automobile manufacturer with an excellent reputation for automotive engineering. By the mid-1990s, however, as a result of a series of poor decisions, its image as a cutting-edge producer, along with sales and profits, had declined precipitously. It is now perceived by customers as well as other stakeholders as a conservative maker of stodgy, boxy cars with its engineering reputation compromised.
The impact of corporate identity in the financial community can be seen through the history of the British packaging, printing, and coating company that recently changed its name from Bowater to Rexham in response to confusion in the financial community as well as among its customers as to its identity. In North America the company traded under the name Rexham, whereas in the rest of its markets it operated under the Bowater banner. The name change was initiated by its chief executive officer to create the image of a global competitor in the eyes of financial institutions and investors, as well as its customers.
The company's shareholders are another critical stakeholder group because they ultimately give or withhold their approval of management's decisions through their proxies. Moreover, their "buy" and "sell" decisions influence the corporation's stock price.
Government regulatory agencies, another important set of stakeholders, are required by law to monitor and regulate firms for specific, publicly defined purposes. Nevertheless, these agencies have considerable discretion in how they interpret and apply the law. Where they have a positive perception of the firm, they are likely to be much less censorious.
Social action organizations represent still another set of stakeholders. To the extent a corporation has a negative reputation in the particular area of concern of a social action group, it likely will be targeted for criticism and harassment by that group. For example, the Labor/Community Strategy Center has organized a boycott of Texaco stations and products in an effort to influence the company to reduce the air pollution emanating from its refinery in Wilmington, California. Although there are many refineries in the Wilmington area, the environmental group targeted Texaco for its boycott because of a recent much publicized explosion at the company's refinery.
A strong positive image with the general public can be beneficial to the firm. Research suggests that a prominent corporate image and an outstanding reputation are a consequential factors in attracting a high quality workforce. Merck, Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard, for instance, have traditionally attracted topnotch job applicants because of their sterling reputations.
Current employees represent the internal constituency that a firm must consider when communicating corporate identity. It is widely believed that a positive reputation in the eyes of employees is a prime causal factor of high morale and productivity. This condition is frequently cited as a fundamental reason for the success of Japanese firms. Additionally, it should be emphasized that employees play a large role in representing the company to its external stakeholders.
Obviously, each of the various stakeholder groups is likely to have a somewhat different perception of the corporation because each is concerned primarily with a different facet of its operation. Thus, customers are principally interested in the price, quality, and reliability of the company's products and services. Financial institutions are concerned with financial structure and performance. Employees are mainly concerned with wages, working conditions, and personnel policies. Logically, then, a company should tailor its communication to each stakeholder group individually to engage the special concerns of that group.
A consistent image among the various stakeholder groups, however, is also essential. Although it is prudent to stress different facets of the firm's identity to its various publics, the firm should avoid projecting an inconsistent image for two key reasons. First, some of the concerns of the stakeholders overlap. For example, the financial community and the shareholders would have many of the same financial and strategic concerns about the company. In fact, many shareholders rely heavily on the advice of experts from financial institutions. Both employees and the general public have an interest in the overall prestige of the firm and the reputation of its products. A social action group's criticism, as in the case of the Texaco boycott, whether economically effective or not, is bound to influence some customers and affect the company's public reputation. Of course, a regulatory agency such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration would focus narrowly on the firm's safety record and policies but the company's employees and their labor unions also have a stake in these matters.
The second and related reason for avoiding an inconsistent image is that the sundry stakeholders are not separate, discrete entities. Membership overlaps. Consider the example of a typical public utility where almost all of its employees are also customers and a significant number may also be shareholders. Furthermore, it is not unlikely that some of its employees will be active in environmental or consumer rights groups that challenge the company on specific issues. It is also likely that some of the company's bankers and regulators will be among its customers.
CORPORATE COMMUNICATION
Corporate communication is the link between corporate identity and corporate image and reputation. It should be defined in the broadest possible sense because companies communicate their identities in many different ways. This includes almost everything they do from the way telephones are answered to the involvement of their employees in community affairs. A description of the principal communication media is presented below.
NOMENCLATURE.
The primary concerns in this category are the names used to identify the corporation, its divisions, and its products. In recent years, many firms have changed their corporate names to communicate a major change in identity. To illustrate, International Harvester changed its name to Navistar to signal its exit from the agricultural equipment industry. Carter Hawley Hale Stores changed its name to Broadway Stores to identify more closely with its store operations and accentuate its revitalization since emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
GRAPHICS.
Graphics, which were the original focus of image consultants, are concerned with the overall visual presentation of the organization. The graphics system should dictate the design style of the company's literature, signs, and stationery. It involves coordinating the style of the typeface, photography, illustrations, layout, and coloring in all the company's graphics. The key question here, as with the nomenclature issue, is whether the company's visual presentation is appropriately communicating its identity. Consider the example of Alitalia Airline. Although Alitalia was one of the largest transatlantic carriers, it projected an image of a relatively small, casual, inefficient "Italian" airline. To counter this negative image, Alitalia, following the lead of Olivetti and Ferrari, developed a graphics program stressing superior design and high technology. All forms of corporate communication such as aircraft insignias, uniforms, baggage tags, and promotional materials were redesigned to consistently project and reinforce this positive image. Today Alitalia is regarded by the flying public as a major global carrier.
The logo is the heart of the corporate graphics design system. Unlike nomenclature, logos can be changed subtly over time to reflect the evolving corporate identity. For example, Shell has varied its graphics system many times over the past century. Through all its changes, the company retained, for the sake of continuity, some version of its basic seashell logo. In contrast, Transamerica Corporation abruptly replaced its recognizable "T" logo with the "Transamerica Pyramid" (a well-known San Francisco landmark) to signal its metamorphosis from a conglomerate to a focused financial services company.
FORMAL STATEMENTS.
This category includes mission statements, credos, codes of ethics, annual reports, advertising copy, and company slogans. Company slogans can be a particularly potent means of communicating to stakeholders. Avis's "We Try Harder," for instance, has been remarkably effective in conveying the company's identity. Other examples include Prudential's "Own a Piece of the Rock," which communicates the company's financial stability, and E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.'s "Better Living through Chemistry," which underscores the firm's science-driven culture.
ARCHITECTURE.
The design of corporate buildings and the interior layout of offices and factories also can reveal much about a company. A series of closed offices suggests a very different culture from a large open room with desks in full sight of each other. The Transamerica Pyramid as a symbol of financial services illustrates the potential for communicating through architecture. SmithKline Beecham (the resultant company from the merger of the pharmaceutical firms Beecham and SmithKline Beckman) specifically selected a corporate headquarters complex in London that projects a culture that it hopes will evolve at the merged company.
INTERACTIONS AND EVENTS.
This is a catch-all category, but a critical one, because every interaction a company employee has with a stakeholder, and every event related to a company, communicates something of the firm's identity. This means, for one thing, that employees should be trained and motivated to project a positive image of the company. The increased popularity of training employees on answering telephones shows that many firms understand the criticality of this communication source.
Unexpected events also can conspicuously communicate corporate identity. As mentioned above, the Exxon Valdez oil spill became a dimension of the Exxon Corporation's identity, but it also immediately imparted the image of an environmentally insensitive firm to most, if not all, of the company's stakeholders. In similar fashion, the catastrophe at Union Carbide's Bhopol plant projected a negative image, as did the controversy over the treatment of African-American customers at Denny's. A company's reaction to such events, however, also can play a prominent role in its projected image. The failure of Chairman Rawls to travel to the site of the oil spill further compounded Exxon's image problems. Conversely, Johnson & Johnson's prompt nationwide recall of Tylenol bottles after Chicago-area deaths were attributed to a few poisoned Tylenol capsules significantly reduced the negative impact of these tragedies on the company. In fact, many observers believe that Johnson & Johnson's image and its reputation for social responsiveness has emerged stronger than ever.
FEEDBACK
Feedback is essential to managing the corporate image. Without it, company executives are "flying blind." They need accurate information on stakeholder perceptions if they are to make sound decisions. Ideally, feedback should be continuous. As a practical matter, relatively continuous feedback can be elicited from salespeople, public relations executives, finance managers, and other employees who routinely interact with stakeholders. Based on such input, modifications may be made in the company's communication methods or, if warranted, a formal study of the corporate identity initiated. In addition to systematically utilizing internal sources, it is prudent to conduct formal studies on a regular basis, say every five years. Formal studies are typically performed by identity/image consultants using in-depth, one-on-one and group interviews as their chief research tools. This type of comprehensive outside review would normally include an analysis of the corporate identity, an appraisal of the firm's image and reputation in the eyes of its stakeholders, and an evaluation of the efficacy of its corporate communications. The consultant's recommendations might run from making slight alterations in the corporate communication program to a reshaping of the firm's identity.
Two examples illustrate the importance of feedback and taking appropriate remedial measures based on the feedback. In the first example, Consolidated Foods found that it had a deficient and inaccurate image in the financial community. Specifically, it learned that its rather bland sounding name translated into a bland image in the eyes of financial analysts. The company also discovered that not only was its name bland, but it also was inappropriate because its organization was decentralized and encompassed a variety of business units; therefore, it could not be accurately described as "consolidated." To remedy the situation, the company renamed itself Sara Lee after its most prestigious product line. Subsequent research showed that awareness of the company among financial analysts increased significantly.
In the second example, Jaguar, in the days prior to privatization, learned from research that it had a terrible reputation for quality and reliability among customers. To correct this problem, Jaguar initiated a rigorous quality program which has helped the firm regain its earlier reputation for quality vehicles.
CONCLUSION
In the past, corporate identity was seen almost universally as the narrow, peripheral function of graphic design. Today, however, as a consequence of the epochal, often abrupt changes occurring throughout the business world, and the resultant danger of corporate images becoming outmoded and erroneous and reputations deteriorating, the issue of managing the corporate identity has been elevated to a level of strategic importance in executive circles.
The modern concept of corporate identity has a broad sweep and a strategic focus. It views a company's image and reputation among its several stakeholders as critical resources over which the firm has control. The framework presented here outlines a conceptual model through which management can comprehend, monitor, and influence the development of these intangible assets. The concept is relatively simple but its effective implementation can be profoundly challenging. The firms that master this challenge will, in all likelihood, be the ones that will survive and prosper today's turbulent business environment.
2008년 2월 12일 화요일
3. Communication Theories
A) Summary of Theory from Communication(PPT) and website.
1. What is communication ?
1)the information-related behavior
2)the necessary life process
3)takes three common settings
- interpersonal(face – to- face)
- machine-assisted(computer, fax, email, telephone..etc.)
- mass(Television, radio, print media like magazines, newspapers)
2. The overview of theorists’ opinion
1) Lasswell’s Model(1948) -----linear model
“Who says what to whom in what channel with what effect.”
2) Shannon & Weaver’s Model (1949)
Claude Shannon founded the subject of information theory and he proposed a linear
schematic model of a communications system.
Shannon is called as “the father of information”
3) Schramm's First Model (1954)
Wilbur Schramm is considered one of the founders of modern communication theory.
He played an important role in legitimizing communication as a unique discipline in academe. Schramm’s research and writing dealt primarily with the process and effects of mass communication.
Schramm added some detail to the existing model, he included feedback loops, and what he termed “field of experience” and “role exchangeability.”
Encoding and decoding are an integral part of Shannon’s model, but Schramm emphasized that these roles are performed by both the sender and the receiver.
4) Schramm's Second Model
5) Schramm's Third Model
Schramm added a few essential details to Shannon’s model of communication what was
one of the essential details?
= Feedback – Signal - Receiver Signal – Transmitter
Schramm added a feedback loop to the existing model!
6) Westley – MacLean Model
This model focuses on democratic debate.
Westley and MacLean's communication model was the first to attempt to model the mass communication process specifically. It takes into account several factors that are especially prominent in, if not peculiar to, mass communication situations
7) Kincaid’s Convergence Model
In the convergence model, "communication" is defined as a process in which participants create and share information with one another in order to reach a mutual understanding.
Lawrence Kincaid proposed the Convergence Model in 1979, which lead to a relational perspective of human communication. When information is shared with individuals or groups taking part in the communication process, it may lead collective action towards mutual agreement and mutual understanding. Before this, the information is understood, interpreted and perceived by individuals.
Communication is this model is viewed as a process rather than a single event. The model emphasizes information exchange and networks that exist between individuals.
References and Link
http://www.natcom.org/nca/files/ccLibraryFiles/FILENAME/000000000157/Pathways%20
Excerpt.pdf
http://corporatecommunications-divya.blogspot.com/2007/07/ communication-theories-
communication.html
http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/media/kl.html
http://buchpayal.blogspot.com/2007/07/theories-of-communication.html
B) My viewpoint and Experiences
The delivery of messages through various information channels is critical elements among people in daily life. And then, nothing to speak in from day to day, even many messages from the top management in a number of organizations might be delivered to be distorted to low – level employees because of ambiguous expression of senders as well as bad condition of communication channels, involving of receivers’ attitude. From my experiences during almost 20 years at work, I often saw that a vague message of senders brought about strange results such as failure of achievement of goals or unnecessary unbelief between members in a organization.
However, today the skills or means of physical communication methods such as phone, email, and mass media have increasingly developed since the growth of computer industry and information technology. As a result, these days miscommunication by delivery methods has considerably been decreasing among people as well as in organizations.
In this sense, I think that mistake or failure of communication among members in organizations or among people depends on the attitude of senders or audiences rather than the skills or physical delivery means. The friendly emotional messages of top managers enable employees to foster the efforts for achievement of goals in organizations. By contrast, the messages coming from formal hierarchy cannot attract the voluntary efforts for goals of organization.
1. What is communication ?
1)the information-related behavior
2)the necessary life process
3)takes three common settings
- interpersonal(face – to- face)
- machine-assisted(computer, fax, email, telephone..etc.)
- mass(Television, radio, print media like magazines, newspapers)
2. The overview of theorists’ opinion
1) Lasswell’s Model(1948) -----linear model
“Who says what to whom in what channel with what effect.”
2) Shannon & Weaver’s Model (1949)
Claude Shannon founded the subject of information theory and he proposed a linear
schematic model of a communications system.
Shannon is called as “the father of information”
3) Schramm's First Model (1954)
Wilbur Schramm is considered one of the founders of modern communication theory.
He played an important role in legitimizing communication as a unique discipline in academe. Schramm’s research and writing dealt primarily with the process and effects of mass communication.
Schramm added some detail to the existing model, he included feedback loops, and what he termed “field of experience” and “role exchangeability.”
Encoding and decoding are an integral part of Shannon’s model, but Schramm emphasized that these roles are performed by both the sender and the receiver.
4) Schramm's Second Model
5) Schramm's Third Model
Schramm added a few essential details to Shannon’s model of communication what was
one of the essential details?
= Feedback – Signal - Receiver Signal – Transmitter
Schramm added a feedback loop to the existing model!
6) Westley – MacLean Model
This model focuses on democratic debate.
Westley and MacLean's communication model was the first to attempt to model the mass communication process specifically. It takes into account several factors that are especially prominent in, if not peculiar to, mass communication situations
7) Kincaid’s Convergence Model
In the convergence model, "communication" is defined as a process in which participants create and share information with one another in order to reach a mutual understanding.
Lawrence Kincaid proposed the Convergence Model in 1979, which lead to a relational perspective of human communication. When information is shared with individuals or groups taking part in the communication process, it may lead collective action towards mutual agreement and mutual understanding. Before this, the information is understood, interpreted and perceived by individuals.
Communication is this model is viewed as a process rather than a single event. The model emphasizes information exchange and networks that exist between individuals.
References and Link
http://www.natcom.org/nca/files/ccLibraryFiles/FILENAME/000000000157/Pathways%20
Excerpt.pdf
http://corporatecommunications-divya.blogspot.com/2007/07/ communication-theories-
communication.html
http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/media/kl.html
http://buchpayal.blogspot.com/2007/07/theories-of-communication.html
B) My viewpoint and Experiences
The delivery of messages through various information channels is critical elements among people in daily life. And then, nothing to speak in from day to day, even many messages from the top management in a number of organizations might be delivered to be distorted to low – level employees because of ambiguous expression of senders as well as bad condition of communication channels, involving of receivers’ attitude. From my experiences during almost 20 years at work, I often saw that a vague message of senders brought about strange results such as failure of achievement of goals or unnecessary unbelief between members in a organization.
However, today the skills or means of physical communication methods such as phone, email, and mass media have increasingly developed since the growth of computer industry and information technology. As a result, these days miscommunication by delivery methods has considerably been decreasing among people as well as in organizations.
In this sense, I think that mistake or failure of communication among members in organizations or among people depends on the attitude of senders or audiences rather than the skills or physical delivery means. The friendly emotional messages of top managers enable employees to foster the efforts for achievement of goals in organizations. By contrast, the messages coming from formal hierarchy cannot attract the voluntary efforts for goals of organization.
Theories of Communication
From : http://buchpayal.blogspot.com/2007/07/theories-of-communication.html
“To communicate,” means to let one’s ideas, views, opinions or simply just a message, action or touch flow as information through a channel to a targeted listener. Communication is the process of information flow by which living creatures can convey and acquire information related to their surroundings; to carry out the daily life activities. Communication is thus an information related behavior.
Three common communication settings are:
1.Interpersonal (face- to- face) – direct one to one communication
2.Machine assisted (computers, cell phones, etc) – use of email, instant messages, conversation over cell phones, etc, which makes use of machines as a channel for information exchange.
3.Mass communication- information to be conveyed is targeted at a larger audience that is scattered. Television, radio, print media like magazines, newspapers, etc are used as medium of communication.
Models of Communication
Theorists have proposed various models of communication from time to time. Linear models dominated communication research earlier but gradually convergence models of network communications evolved. In linear models individuals as the unit of analysis and the information flow is unidirectional whereas in convergence models information exchange relationships are the unit of analysis.
•Lasswell's Model
Harold Lasswell a political scientist in 1948 proposed a linear model, which explains the communication process as "Who says what to whom in what channel with what effect." Lasswell’s model focuses primarily on verbal communication just as Aristotle’s. The model is a simple description of one-way communication process, which comprises of a speaker who communicates a message to a receiver by making use of any of the media like print, radio, television, etc to finally convey the information.
•Shannon & Weaver’s Model
The Father of Information Theory, Claude Shannon’s published work for Bell Telephone forms the basis of the Shannon and Weaver model. The model consists of an information source, which selects a desired message out of a set of possible messages, and the selected message may consist of written or spoken words, or of pictures, music, etc. It has a transmitter that converts the message into a signal, which is sent over the communication channel from the transmitter to the receiver.
During signal transmission through the channel, receiver may come across noises, which are any mental or physical distraction that interferes with the transmission of a signal from the source to the destination. "Correction channels” are introduced which overcomes the problems created by noise and the information in form of the signal finally reaches the receiver.
•Schramm’s Model
Wilbur Schramm in 1954 provided several additional models out of which the first was essentially an elaboration of Shannon's. He introduced the concept of “commonness” between the source and the receiver. The message from the source is encoded and is transmitted in form of a signal to the receiver where it gets decoded. Here the information carried in form of a signal is encoded and decoded in the common way in which both the sender and receiver can interpret it easily.
In his second model, he introduced the concept of field experience, which helps in determining whether a message would be received at its destination in the manner intended by the source.
Schramm’s third model is based on the convergence or network approach. Due to various kinds of noise there are chances that the message gets distorted till it reaches the receiver, to overcome the problem he introduced the concept of feedback which helps the sender to modify the information form what he observes or hears from the receiver or the audience. The communication process now takes a circular form as both parties take on the roles of sender and recipient.
Schramm’s model emphasizes on the importance of feedback for the information to reach the receiver in the same manner as desired by the sender. Feedback is essential in the business environment to ensure that the constituencies interpret the information correctly from the companies.
•Westley-MacLean Model
Bruce Westley and Malcolm MacLean, Jr. proposed a model, which tells that in an environment various events occur on which advocates may choose to comment. The advocate’s comment are taken up by different types of media like print, radio, television, etc which passes on the information to the audience. The audience responds to these comments and gives its feedback to the media and to the advocates. Even the media can give its feedback to the advocates. The model elaborates the feedback concept and emphasizes on mass communication and interpersonal communication, as well as the relationship between the two.
•Kincaid’s Convergence Model
In the convergence model, "communication" is defined as a process in which participants create and share information with one another in order to reach a mutual understanding.
Lawrence Kincaid proposed the Convergence Model in 1979, which lead to a relational perspective of human communication. When information is shared with individuals or groups taking part in the communication process, it may lead collective action towards mutual agreement and mutual understanding. Before this, the information is understood, interpreted and perceived by individuals.
Communication is this model is viewed as a process rather than a single event. The model emphasizes information exchange and networks that exist between individuals.
“To communicate,” means to let one’s ideas, views, opinions or simply just a message, action or touch flow as information through a channel to a targeted listener. Communication is the process of information flow by which living creatures can convey and acquire information related to their surroundings; to carry out the daily life activities. Communication is thus an information related behavior.
Three common communication settings are:
1.Interpersonal (face- to- face) – direct one to one communication
2.Machine assisted (computers, cell phones, etc) – use of email, instant messages, conversation over cell phones, etc, which makes use of machines as a channel for information exchange.
3.Mass communication- information to be conveyed is targeted at a larger audience that is scattered. Television, radio, print media like magazines, newspapers, etc are used as medium of communication.
Models of Communication
Theorists have proposed various models of communication from time to time. Linear models dominated communication research earlier but gradually convergence models of network communications evolved. In linear models individuals as the unit of analysis and the information flow is unidirectional whereas in convergence models information exchange relationships are the unit of analysis.
•Lasswell's Model
Harold Lasswell a political scientist in 1948 proposed a linear model, which explains the communication process as "Who says what to whom in what channel with what effect." Lasswell’s model focuses primarily on verbal communication just as Aristotle’s. The model is a simple description of one-way communication process, which comprises of a speaker who communicates a message to a receiver by making use of any of the media like print, radio, television, etc to finally convey the information.
•Shannon & Weaver’s Model
The Father of Information Theory, Claude Shannon’s published work for Bell Telephone forms the basis of the Shannon and Weaver model. The model consists of an information source, which selects a desired message out of a set of possible messages, and the selected message may consist of written or spoken words, or of pictures, music, etc. It has a transmitter that converts the message into a signal, which is sent over the communication channel from the transmitter to the receiver.
During signal transmission through the channel, receiver may come across noises, which are any mental or physical distraction that interferes with the transmission of a signal from the source to the destination. "Correction channels” are introduced which overcomes the problems created by noise and the information in form of the signal finally reaches the receiver.
•Schramm’s Model
Wilbur Schramm in 1954 provided several additional models out of which the first was essentially an elaboration of Shannon's. He introduced the concept of “commonness” between the source and the receiver. The message from the source is encoded and is transmitted in form of a signal to the receiver where it gets decoded. Here the information carried in form of a signal is encoded and decoded in the common way in which both the sender and receiver can interpret it easily.
In his second model, he introduced the concept of field experience, which helps in determining whether a message would be received at its destination in the manner intended by the source.
Schramm’s third model is based on the convergence or network approach. Due to various kinds of noise there are chances that the message gets distorted till it reaches the receiver, to overcome the problem he introduced the concept of feedback which helps the sender to modify the information form what he observes or hears from the receiver or the audience. The communication process now takes a circular form as both parties take on the roles of sender and recipient.
Schramm’s model emphasizes on the importance of feedback for the information to reach the receiver in the same manner as desired by the sender. Feedback is essential in the business environment to ensure that the constituencies interpret the information correctly from the companies.
•Westley-MacLean Model
Bruce Westley and Malcolm MacLean, Jr. proposed a model, which tells that in an environment various events occur on which advocates may choose to comment. The advocate’s comment are taken up by different types of media like print, radio, television, etc which passes on the information to the audience. The audience responds to these comments and gives its feedback to the media and to the advocates. Even the media can give its feedback to the advocates. The model elaborates the feedback concept and emphasizes on mass communication and interpersonal communication, as well as the relationship between the two.
•Kincaid’s Convergence Model
In the convergence model, "communication" is defined as a process in which participants create and share information with one another in order to reach a mutual understanding.
Lawrence Kincaid proposed the Convergence Model in 1979, which lead to a relational perspective of human communication. When information is shared with individuals or groups taking part in the communication process, it may lead collective action towards mutual agreement and mutual understanding. Before this, the information is understood, interpreted and perceived by individuals.
Communication is this model is viewed as a process rather than a single event. The model emphasizes information exchange and networks that exist between individuals.
2008년 2월 11일 월요일
Katz and Lazarsfeld: Two-Step Flow
From :
http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/media/kl.html
The study of the 1940 election campaign
In 1940, Lazarsfeld, Berelson and Gaudet conducted the first full-scale investigation of the effects of political mass communication. Their research focused on the 1940 Presidential election campaign and their findings were published in 1944 in The People's Choice after more research had been conducted.
The importance of social influence
Their research was originally based on something like the simplistic hypodermic needle model of media influence, whereby it was assumed that a message would be transmitted from the mass media to a 'mass audience', who would absorb the message. However, their investigations suggested that media effects were minimal, that the conception of a 'mass audience' was inadequate and misguided and that social influences had a major effect on the process of opinion formation and sharply limited the media's effect.
Limited effects
The study by Lazarsfeld et al concluded that only some 5% of people changed their voting behaviour as a result of media messages. Their exposure to election broadcasts turned out to be a relatively poor predictor of their voting behaviour, particularly when compared with other factors such as their interpersonal communication with friends, union members, business colleagues and the political tradition they had grown up in. This view of media effects was confirmed n a variety of other investigations and came to be known as the 'limited effects paradigm' of media influence.
Two-Step Flow: general conclusions
Consequently Lazarsfeld and his colleagues developed the notion of a 'two-step' flow of media messages, a process in which opinion leaders played a vitally important r?e.
This was later developed by Katz and Lazarsfeld and presented in their book Personal Influence (1955). A number of significant conclusions follow from their research:
our responses to media messages will be mediated through our social relationships, the effects of media messages being sharply limited by interpersonal relationships and group membership (this is confirmed also by Hovland who identifies our adherence to group norms as a major factor; see also the more general sections on Social Influence)
it is misleading to think of receivers as members of a 'mass audience' since that implies that they are all equal in their reception of media messages, whereas in fact some play a more active r?e than others
receiving a message does not imply responding to it; nor does non-reception imply non-response (since we may still receive the message via interpersonal communication)
there are some people amongst the media audience who act as opinion leaders - typically such people use the mass media more than the average, mix more than the average across social classes and see themselves and are seen by others as having an influence on others
Reasons suggested for the greater effectiveness of personal influence over media influence include the following:
The content and development of a conversation are less predictable than mass media messages. Consequently, the receiver cannot be as selective in advance as (s)he is able to be when choosing which media messages to attend to.
In a face-to-face conversation, the critical distance between the partners is less than in mass communication.
By direct questioning of the partner in the conversation, the assumptions underlying the conversation can be rapidly and accurately established, which is not so with mass communication.
In face-to-face interaction the communicator can rapidly adjust to the receiver's personality. (S)he has direct feedback as to the success of the communication, can correct misunderstandings and counter challenges.
Criticisms
The model is often presented graphically as shown on the right. In fact, that is somewhat misleading as it suggests that mass media messages flow first to opinion leaders and from them to the rest. Obviously, that's not the case, since you and I can both receive messages directly. The point is that the messages we receive are then modified through the pattern of our social contacts.
Katz and Lazarsfeld are perhaps also somewhat misleading when they suggest that individuals with certain characteristics are opinion leaders. It may be the case that many opinion leaders will have the characteristics they mention, but we also know that some opinion leaders in some subject areas will not have those general characteristics. However, I should mention that Katz and Lazarsfeld certainly did not take the view that opinion leaders were necessarily those formally recognized as such (e. g. celebrities, politicians etc.) Thus, their studies showed that top-down influence was relatively slight. Influence tended to be horizontal across a particular socio-economic class, except that in the 'higher' social classes there was a tendency for people to find opinion leaders in the next class up. No opinion leader was an opinion leader in all aspects of life. For example, the car mechanic in your local pub may not use the media much at all because he's always working late. Nevertheless, he knows a lot about cars and so what the rest of those in the pub 'know' from the media about different makes of car will be influenced by his views. Similarly, your Politics lecturer may not use the media anything like as much as you do, but her reading and viewing is targeted on political issues. Together with her broad knowledge of political theory and history, that is likely to make her an opinion leader as far as your Politics class is concerned. Allowing for those differences from one class to another and from one subject area to another, we probably can recognize in opinion leaders the characteristics which Katz and Lazarsfeld suggested, in particular that opinion leaders will be more active users of the mass media than others.
Katz and Lazarsfeld may also be misleading in suggesting that people are either active opinion leaders or passive followers of opinion leaders. Apart from the evidence that people can be opinion leaders on some matters and not on others, there is also the objection that some people may be neither leaders nor followers, but quite simply detached from much media output.
Much depends also on the accessibility of countervailing opinions. In the 1940s the general public would have had access to far fewer sources of information than they have today and may, broadly speaking, have had less time to access those sources. Under such circumstances it is likely that an opinion leader in the community may be especially influential. This was recognized by the Nazi party in its gradual rise to power during the 1920s and 1930s. Nazi agitation and propaganda became increasingly successful at forcing themselves onto the front pages of newspapers, thus becoming an everyday topic of conversation. They were particularly keen to capitalize on that attention, directing it in the right direction through influencing the leading members of the various small associations which were spread throughout German communities.
Where local leaders, enjoying respectability and influence, were won over, further converts often rapidly followed. In the relatively homogeneous villages in Schleswig-Holstein, where feelings about the 'Weimar system' were running high on account of the agrarian crisis, the push from one or two farmers' leaders could result in a local landslide to the NSDAP [the Nazi Party].
Kershaw (1999 : 321)
Katz and Lazarsfeld's Influence
Despite those and other criticisms, the fact remains that Katz and Lazarsfeld's research is widely accepted and still highly influential. Advertisers and spin doctors recognise that 'the best form of advertising is word-of-mouth advertising'.
http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/media/kl.html
The study of the 1940 election campaign
In 1940, Lazarsfeld, Berelson and Gaudet conducted the first full-scale investigation of the effects of political mass communication. Their research focused on the 1940 Presidential election campaign and their findings were published in 1944 in The People's Choice after more research had been conducted.
The importance of social influence
Their research was originally based on something like the simplistic hypodermic needle model of media influence, whereby it was assumed that a message would be transmitted from the mass media to a 'mass audience', who would absorb the message. However, their investigations suggested that media effects were minimal, that the conception of a 'mass audience' was inadequate and misguided and that social influences had a major effect on the process of opinion formation and sharply limited the media's effect.
Limited effects
The study by Lazarsfeld et al concluded that only some 5% of people changed their voting behaviour as a result of media messages. Their exposure to election broadcasts turned out to be a relatively poor predictor of their voting behaviour, particularly when compared with other factors such as their interpersonal communication with friends, union members, business colleagues and the political tradition they had grown up in. This view of media effects was confirmed n a variety of other investigations and came to be known as the 'limited effects paradigm' of media influence.
Two-Step Flow: general conclusions
Consequently Lazarsfeld and his colleagues developed the notion of a 'two-step' flow of media messages, a process in which opinion leaders played a vitally important r?e.
This was later developed by Katz and Lazarsfeld and presented in their book Personal Influence (1955). A number of significant conclusions follow from their research:
our responses to media messages will be mediated through our social relationships, the effects of media messages being sharply limited by interpersonal relationships and group membership (this is confirmed also by Hovland who identifies our adherence to group norms as a major factor; see also the more general sections on Social Influence)
it is misleading to think of receivers as members of a 'mass audience' since that implies that they are all equal in their reception of media messages, whereas in fact some play a more active r?e than others
receiving a message does not imply responding to it; nor does non-reception imply non-response (since we may still receive the message via interpersonal communication)
there are some people amongst the media audience who act as opinion leaders - typically such people use the mass media more than the average, mix more than the average across social classes and see themselves and are seen by others as having an influence on others
Reasons suggested for the greater effectiveness of personal influence over media influence include the following:
The content and development of a conversation are less predictable than mass media messages. Consequently, the receiver cannot be as selective in advance as (s)he is able to be when choosing which media messages to attend to.
In a face-to-face conversation, the critical distance between the partners is less than in mass communication.
By direct questioning of the partner in the conversation, the assumptions underlying the conversation can be rapidly and accurately established, which is not so with mass communication.
In face-to-face interaction the communicator can rapidly adjust to the receiver's personality. (S)he has direct feedback as to the success of the communication, can correct misunderstandings and counter challenges.
Criticisms
The model is often presented graphically as shown on the right. In fact, that is somewhat misleading as it suggests that mass media messages flow first to opinion leaders and from them to the rest. Obviously, that's not the case, since you and I can both receive messages directly. The point is that the messages we receive are then modified through the pattern of our social contacts.
Katz and Lazarsfeld are perhaps also somewhat misleading when they suggest that individuals with certain characteristics are opinion leaders. It may be the case that many opinion leaders will have the characteristics they mention, but we also know that some opinion leaders in some subject areas will not have those general characteristics. However, I should mention that Katz and Lazarsfeld certainly did not take the view that opinion leaders were necessarily those formally recognized as such (e. g. celebrities, politicians etc.) Thus, their studies showed that top-down influence was relatively slight. Influence tended to be horizontal across a particular socio-economic class, except that in the 'higher' social classes there was a tendency for people to find opinion leaders in the next class up. No opinion leader was an opinion leader in all aspects of life. For example, the car mechanic in your local pub may not use the media much at all because he's always working late. Nevertheless, he knows a lot about cars and so what the rest of those in the pub 'know' from the media about different makes of car will be influenced by his views. Similarly, your Politics lecturer may not use the media anything like as much as you do, but her reading and viewing is targeted on political issues. Together with her broad knowledge of political theory and history, that is likely to make her an opinion leader as far as your Politics class is concerned. Allowing for those differences from one class to another and from one subject area to another, we probably can recognize in opinion leaders the characteristics which Katz and Lazarsfeld suggested, in particular that opinion leaders will be more active users of the mass media than others.
Katz and Lazarsfeld may also be misleading in suggesting that people are either active opinion leaders or passive followers of opinion leaders. Apart from the evidence that people can be opinion leaders on some matters and not on others, there is also the objection that some people may be neither leaders nor followers, but quite simply detached from much media output.
Much depends also on the accessibility of countervailing opinions. In the 1940s the general public would have had access to far fewer sources of information than they have today and may, broadly speaking, have had less time to access those sources. Under such circumstances it is likely that an opinion leader in the community may be especially influential. This was recognized by the Nazi party in its gradual rise to power during the 1920s and 1930s. Nazi agitation and propaganda became increasingly successful at forcing themselves onto the front pages of newspapers, thus becoming an everyday topic of conversation. They were particularly keen to capitalize on that attention, directing it in the right direction through influencing the leading members of the various small associations which were spread throughout German communities.
Where local leaders, enjoying respectability and influence, were won over, further converts often rapidly followed. In the relatively homogeneous villages in Schleswig-Holstein, where feelings about the 'Weimar system' were running high on account of the agrarian crisis, the push from one or two farmers' leaders could result in a local landslide to the NSDAP [the Nazi Party].
Kershaw (1999 : 321)
Katz and Lazarsfeld's Influence
Despite those and other criticisms, the fact remains that Katz and Lazarsfeld's research is widely accepted and still highly influential. Advertisers and spin doctors recognise that 'the best form of advertising is word-of-mouth advertising'.
2008년 2월 7일 목요일
Communication Theories
From : http://corporatecommunications-divya.blogspot.com/2007/07/communication-theories-communication.html Thursday, Feb 6, 2008
Communication consists of transmitting information from one person to another, Communication is a learned skill. Speaking, listening and the ability to understand verbal and nonverbal meanings are skills in communication. Communication theories are the key to fully understanding the communication process. Communication is known as the sharing of information, thoughts, and ideas, communication technology can be thought of as the use of knowledge, tools, and skills for the purpose of facilitating communication and also making it easier, more economical, and more efficient.
As Communication is the base for what ever we do, we would not be able to do even the everyday things that we do on a daily basis. When it comes to the work world, whether it’s a small family run company, or a giant corporation, communication is the only way to run a business smoothly.
Without effective communication, messages can get mixed, and information can be skewed. I think that everyone should learn about these models and about effective ways to communicate, because it doesn’t matter where you are, or what you are doing, communication is a constant part of everyone’s lives.
Many authors and researchers divide communication by what they sometimes called "contexts" or "levels", but which more often represent institutional histories. There are many different views on every communication theory, but there are different views given by different Theorists regarding communication theory. The few important theorist of communication theory are
- Harold Lasswell
- Wil bur Schramm
- Claude Shannon
- Bruce Westley & Malcolm MacLean
- Lawrence Kincaid
HARLOD LASSWELL defines communication has
"who says what to whom in what channel with what effect,"
WILBUR SCHRAMM has given a model on communication theory in 1954
Schramm’s Model
Wilbur Schramm (1954) was one of the first to alter the mathematical model of Shannon and Weaver. He conceived of decoding and encoding as activities maintained simultaneously by sender and receiver; he also made provisions for a two-way interchange of messages. Notice also the inclusion of an “interpreter” as an abstract representation of the problem of meaning.
Classical Communication Models
1. Aristotle’s definition of rhetoric. Ehninger, Gronbeck and Monroe: One of the earliest definitions of communication came from the Greek philosopher-teacher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.).
- “Rhetoric” is “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of
persuasion” (Rhetoric 1335b).
- Aristotle’s speaker-centered model received perhaps its fullest development in the hands of Roman educator Quintilian (ca. 35-95 A.D.), whose Institutio Oratoria was filled with advice on the full training of a “good” speaker-statesman.
These are various communication theories explained by different people. Harold Lasswell explained the communication model in 1948. He explained the model by “who says what to whom in what channel with what effect”. Shannon & Weaver’s model was introduced in 1949. They are known as the fathers of information theories and they have focused on the noise source in communication. Schramm’s first model was introduced in 1954 and focused on signal. He has also introduced the second model with field of experience. He has also introduced the third model with feedback. He was known as the founder of information studies. Katz and Lazarsfeld’s model was introduced in 1955. It was the first model to deal with mass media and communication. The Westley-Maclean model was introduced with mass media and communication in organization. At last, Kincaid’s convergence model was introduced in1979 and included mutual understanding. It is a cyclic model. All of these models are very useful in organization. These models are useful to offer convenient ways to think, to provide graphical checklists and to change to mass communications methods.
What is communication?
What is Communication?
From :
http://www.natcom.org/nca/files/ccLibraryFiles/FILENAME/000000000157/Pathways%20Excerpt.pdf
Communication is a learned skill.
Most people are born with the physical ability to talk,but we must learn to speak well and communicate effectively. Speaking, listening, andour ability to understand verbal and nonverbal meanings are skills we develop in variousways. We learn basic communication skills by observing other people and modeling ourbehaviors based on what we see. We also are taught some communication skills directlythrough education, and by practicing those skills and having them evaluated.
Communication as an academic discipline relates to all the ways we communicate, so itembraces a large body of study and knowledge. The communication discipline includesboth verbal and nonverbal messages. A body of scholarship all about communication ispresented and explained in textbooks, electronic publications, and academic journals. Inthe journals, researchers report the results of studies that are the basis for an everexpandingunderstanding of how we all communicate.
Communication teachers and scholars, in 1995, developed a definition of the field ofcommunication to clarify it as a discipline for the public. That definition is now used bythe U.S. Department of Education in its national publication, Classification ofInstructional Programs, 2000:
The field of communication focuses on how people use messages to generatemeanings within and across various contexts, cultures, channels, and media. Thefield promotes the effective and ethical practice of human communication.
Why is Communication Important?
Oral communication has long been our main method for communicating with oneanother. It is estimated that 75% of a person’s day is spent communicating in some way.A majority of your communication time may be spent speaking and listening, while aminority of that time is spent reading and writing. These communication actions reflectskills which foster personal, academic, and professional success.
The National Communication Association collected and annotated nearly 100 articles,commentaries, and publications, which call attention to the importance of the study ofcommunication in contemporary society. Themes in the bibliography provide support forthe importance of communication education to: the development of the whole person;the improvement of the educational enterprise; being a responsible citizen of the world,both socially and culturally; and, succeeding in one’s career and in the business enterprise.2
A multitude of examples stem from these studies. The Wall Street Journal reported thefindings of a survey of 480 companies that found that employers ranked communicationabilities first among the desirable personal qualities of future employees (1998).3 In areport on fastest growing careers, the U.S. Department of Labor states thatcommunication skills will be in demand across occupations well into the next century.4 Ina national survey of 1000 human resource managers, oral communication skills areidentified as valuable for both obtaining employment and successful job performance.5Executives with Fortune 500 companies indicate that college students need bettercommunication skills, as well as the ability to work in teams and with people from diversebackgrounds.6 Case studies of high-wage companies also state that essential skills forfuture workers include problem solving, working in groups, and the ability tocommunicate effectively.7 When 1000 faculty members from a cross section ofdisciplines were asked to identify basic competencies for every college graduate, skills incommunicating topped the list.8 Even an economics professor states that, “. . . we areliving in a communications revolution comparable to the invention of printing . . . In anage of increasing talk, it’s wiser talk we need most. Communication studies might well becentral to colleges and universities in the 21st century.” 9
History of the Communication Discipline
The communication discipline has a long history of accomplishments, dating back forages. According to a well known communication scholar and educator:
The ability to speak clearly, eloquently, and effectively has been recognized asthe hallmark of an educated person since the beginning of recorded history. Systematiccomment on communication goes back at least as far as The Precepts of Kagemni andPtah-Hopte (3200-2800 B.C.). Under the label “rhetoric,” the study of the theory andpractice of communication was a central concern of Greek, Roman, medieval,Renaissance, and early modern education. In the United States, rhetorical training hasbeen a part of formal education since Harvard’s founding in 1636.10
Today, communication and its study are especially relevant. In the 21st century,contemporary society is increasingly diverse and communication is more complex.Modern day communication studies are keeping up with and, in most cases, stayingahead of the curve. Educators and researchers in the discipline are focusing their workand their courses on the challenges of communicating in a diverse and often computermediatedsociety. Many also are stressing the role of communication and citizenship in acivil and democratic society. Frequently, the communication discipline is referred to asthe “engaged discipline,” as a result of teachers’ and students’ participation in servicelearningprojects and researchers concern for community-based research on criticalsocial issues.11
What was once seen as the field of speech and rhetoric is now the discipline ofcommunication that includes communication in the workplace, in families, in massmedia, and in advertising, to name a few. Contemporary students of communicationdraw on theories and practices common in the fields of anthropology, psychology,sociology, linguistics, semiotics, and rhetoric. Students in broadcast communicationmake use of work in computer engineering for web development and streaming audioand video. Communication as a discipline, now includes interpersonal, small group,organizational, intercultural and international, public, mass, and mediatedcommunication. The study of communication considers how people communicate asindividuals, in society, and in various cultures.
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