2004:196 SHU BACHELOR’S THESIS Corporate Identity A Business-to-Business Perspective Christian Di Schiena Malin Westgerd Social Science and Business Administration Programmes Department of Business Administration and Social Sciences Division of Industrial Marketing and e-Commerce INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS PROGRAMME Supervisor: Tim Foster 2004:196 SHU • ISSN: 1404 - 5508 • ISRN: LTU - SHU - - 04/196 - - SE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis was written during the spring semester of 2004 at Luleå University of Technology, under the department of Industrial Marketing. There are several individuals who have contributed to our work and made it possible for us to conduct the thesis. Initially, we would like to thank our supervisor Tim Foster, PhD candidate. He has been a major support during the whole writing process. His constant availability and positive energy have helped us through all steps of the thesis. We always left his office with regained confidence, focus and enthusiasm. Furthermore, we would like to thank Tina Andreasson and Mai Al Torki at AR Alimentare. They both took time of their busy schedule in order for us to be able to conduct the interviews. Finally, we would like to thank our opponents Malin Johansson and Cecilia Ivarsson for reading our thesis and providing us with relevant remarks. They enlightened us with a new perspective of our work that has helped us to improve the overall content. Luleå, 2004-06-02 Christian Di Schiena Malin Westgerd ABSTRACT A large number of products and services have almost identical physical specifications and performances. Corporations have traditionally used branding as a tool in order to differentiate and gain competitive advantage. However, it is only during recent years the interest towards branding within business-to-business has gained attention. The concept of corporate branding has received substantial attention due to the fact that the products and services are generally more complex and demand greater flexibility within industrial markets. In order to create a successful corporate brand it is crucial to understand the corporate identity. The identity consists of the corporate personality and how it is communicated. To be able to express the corporation as intended, towards all stakeholders, it is vital to have a solid appreciation of the corporation’s personality and how it is communicated. This thesis covers how corporate identity is used within business-to-business, which also is the purpose of the thesis. The focus is on the intended corporate brand personality and how it can be implemented. In order to reach our purpose we have conducted a case study on an Italian corporation that produces and supplies single portion food solutions towards the hospitality industry. Our main findings are that in order to generate initial interest it is crucial to have a sincere personality. Furthermore, it is also vital to be competent in order to generate continuous re-buys. When implementing the corporate brand personality, product category, package, price and attributes are the most important drivers in order to generate re-buys. Moreover, the country of origin is the most important driver in order to create added value regarding the quality of products. The director of sales is a vital driver regarding networking and communicating with clients. SAMMANFATTNING Ett stort antal produkter och tjänster har nästintill identiska fysiska specifikationer och prestanda. Företag har traditionellt använt sig av varumärkning som ett medel för att differentiera sig och skapa konkurrensfördelar. Emellertid, det är endast under senare år som intresset för varumärkning på industriella marknader har uppmärksammats. Konceptet av ett företags varumärke har mottagit avsevärd uppmärksamhet på grund av att produkter och tjänster på industriella marknader generellt är mer komplexa och kräver mer flexibilitet. För att kunna skapa ett framgångsrikt företagsvarumärke är det avgörande att förstå företagets egna identitet. Identiteten består av företagets personlighet samt hur den kommuniceras. För att kunna förmedla företaget som avsett, gentemot alla intressegrupper, är det vitalt att ha en gedigen uppfattning gällande företagets personlighet och hur den kommuniceras. Denna uppsats behandlar hur företagsidentitet används inom industriella marknader, vilket även är syftet med uppsatsen. Fokus riktas mot den avsedda varumärkespersonligheten av företaget och hur den kan implementeras. För att kunna nå vårt syfte har vi utfört en fallstudie på ett italiensk företag som producerar och säljer enportions-matlösningar till serviceindustrin. Vår studie visar att det är avgörande att ha en ärlig personlighet för att kunna skapa initialt intresse. Dessutom är det även vitalt att vara kompetent för att kunna generera regelbundna återköp. När ett företag implementerar sin varumärkespersonlighet är de viktigaste faktorerna för att kunna generera återköp, produktkategori, paketering, pris och attribut. Vidare är landets ursprung den viktigaste faktorn för att möjliggöra skapandet av mervärde gällande produktens kvalité. Försäljningschefen är en vital faktor gällande nätverk och kommunikation med kunderna. TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................1 1.1 BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................1 1.1.1 Branding.........................................................................................................1 1.1.2 Business-to-Business.......................................................................................3 1.2 PROBLEM DISCUSSION ............................................................................................3 1.3 PURPOSE AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS .....................................................................5 1.4 LIMITATIONS ..........................................................................................................6 1.5 DISPOSITION...........................................................................................................6 2. LITERATURE REVIEW .........................................................................................7 2.1 CORPORATE BRAND PERSONALITY .........................................................................7 2.1.1 Variables of Brand Personality .......................................................................7 2.2 CORPORATE BRAND PERSONALITY IMPLEMENTATION .............................................8 2.2.1 Corporate Brand Communication ...................................................................8 2.2.2 Brand Personality Drivers ............................................................................10 2.3 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ..................................................................................13 2.3.1 Corporate Brand Personality ........................................................................13 2.3.2 Implementation of Corporate Brand Personality...........................................14 3. METHODOLOGY..................................................................................................15 3.1 PURPOSE OF RESEARCH ........................................................................................15 3.2 RESEARCH APPROACH ..........................................................................................16 3.3 RESEARCH STRATEGY...........................................................................................16 3.4 DATA COLLECTION METHOD ................................................................................17 3.5 SAMPLE SELECTION..............................................................................................19 3.6 ANALYSIS OF DATA ..............................................................................................20 3.7 QUALITY STANDARDS ..........................................................................................21 3.7.1 Reliability .....................................................................................................21 3.7.2 Validity .........................................................................................................22 4. EMPIRICAL DATA................................................................................................24 4.1 RQ 1....................................................................................................................26 - HOW CAN THE INTENDED CORPORATE BRAND PERSONALITY BE DESCRIBED?..............26 4.2 RQ 2....................................................................................................................28 - HOW CAN THE CORPORATE BRAND PERSONALITY BE IMPLEMENTED?.........................28 5. DATA ANALYSIS...................................................................................................32 5.1 CORPORATE BRAND PERSONALITY – RESEARCH QUESTION ONE ...........................32 5.1.1 Within Case Analysis: ARA ...........................................................................32 5.2 CORPORATE BRAND PERSONALITY IMPLEMENTATION ...........................................35 - RESEARCH QUESTION TWO ......................................................................................35 5.2.1 Within Case Analysis: ARA ...........................................................................35 TABLE OF CONTENTS 6. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS.........................................................................38