ASTON BUSINESS SCHOOL

Corporate Identity of Start-ups

What are the key factors responsible for Start-ups in building their Corporate Identity and how start-

ups may use these parameters?

Author - Dipankar Verma

September 2015

Supervisor – Dr Gary Burke

This research has been done on the corporate identity of start-up companies. Aim of the research is, to analyse the parameters responsible for building the corporate identity of start-up companies, which has been concluded with the help of previous studies and primary research analysis that it is very important to plan the corporate identity and link the parameters responsible for it.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to sincerely thank the following people for their contribution without whom this work would not have been possible. The original names of the start-up companies and their co-owners have not been mentioned and fictitious names of the companies have been used in this research study.

Dr Gary Burke – Aston Business School, Economics and Strategy Group

Co-owner – Agriculture Ltd.

Co-owner – Textiles Ltd.

Co-owner – Software Services Ltd.

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Contents

1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 4

1.1 Research Question ................................................................................................................... 5

1.2 Research Objectives ................................................................................................................. 6

2 Literature Overview ......................................................................................................................... 6

2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 7

2.2 Visuals, Logo and Corporate Identity ....................................................................................... 9

2.2.1 Evaluation of Logo Design and Consumer Behaviour .................................................... 10

2.3 Elements of Corporate Identity .............................................................................................. 12

2.3.1 Corporate Communications ........................................................................................... 13

2.3.2 Corporate Design and Visual Identity ............................................................................ 15

2.3.3 Corporate Culture .......................................................................................................... 16

2.3.4 Corporate Strategy ......................................................................................................... 17

3 Research Methodology .................................................................................................................. 18

3.1 Research Approach ................................................................................................................ 19

3.2 Research Design ..................................................................................................................... 19

3.3 Data Sources .......................................................................................................................... 20

3.4 Data Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 21

3.5 Research Limitation ................................................................................................................ 21

4 Findings of the Study ...................................................................................................................... 22

4.1 Planning of Corporate Identity for Start-ups ......................................................................... 22

4.2 Agriculture Ltd. ....................................................................................................................... 22

4.2.1 Planning of Corporate Identity ....................................................................................... 23

4.2.2 Corporate Culture of Agriculture Ltd. ............................................................................ 23

4.2.3 Corporate Communication of Agriculture Ltd. .............................................................. 24

4.2.4 Corporate Design and Logo of Agriculture Ltd. .............................................................. 25

4.2.5 Corporate Strategy of Agriculture Ltd. ........................................................................... 25

4.3 Textiles Ltd. ............................................................................................................................ 26

4.3.1 Planning of Corporate Identity ....................................................................................... 27

4.3.2 Corporate Communications of Textiles Ltd.................................................................... 27

4.3.3 Corporate Culture of Textiles Ltd. .................................................................................. 28

4.3.4 Corporate Design and Visual Identity of Textiles Ltd. .................................................... 28

4.3.5 Corporate Strategy of Textiles Ltd. ................................................................................ 29

4.4 Software Services Ltd. ............................................................................................................ 30

4.4.1 Planning of Corporate identity ....................................................................................... 30

4.4.2 Corporate Communications of Software Services Ltd. .................................................. 30

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4.4.3 Corporate Culture of Software Services Ltd. .................................................................. 31

4.4.4 Corporate Design and Visual Identity of Software Services Ltd. .................................... 32

4.4.5 Corporate Strategy of Software Services Ltd. ................................................................ 32

5 Discussion ....................................................................................................................................... 34

5.1 Planning of Corporate Identity ............................................................................................... 35

5.2 Corporate Communications ................................................................................................... 36

5.3 Belief in Corporate Design, Logo & Visual Identity ................................................................ 37

5.4 Corporate Culture .................................................................................................................. 38

5.5 Corporate Strategy ................................................................................................................. 40

6 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 41

7 References ...................................................................................................................................... 42

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1 Introduction

tart-up companies are primarily based on innovation. As per the report in the online business

daily (Russell, 2013), the zeal to start the company, by small number of stakeholders, comes

through their passion and avidness for two elementary factors. First is, they believe in their

potential to create innovative products or services. They have the ability to do things differently that

could make significant difference to the market and potential customers. Secondly, they could start

their own venture or business, through which, they can take their own decisions to make it successful

and valuable.

One of the major difficulties start-ups face, is the lack of financial resources, for which, they seek

investments from venture capitalists and not the banks. This is because banks give credit with heavy

rate of interests and also tend to dominate the decision making and put several restrictions on start-

up’s executive policies of investing money with strict guidelines, which significantly affects the

innovation of their business plan. Thus, in nearly all scenarios, the start-up tends to head towards

venture capitalists, which invest the money into their innovative ideas, rather than their business

projects, thereby, with very little or no restriction of investing money in to the start-up. However, prior

to funding, start-up founders have to go through the difficult cycle of explaining the start-up idea, the

impact of the innovation and how it could make a difference in the market to convince the Venture

Capitalists.

Start-up owners need to design the budget for every business function, such as operations, marketing,

HR, Logistics etc. Apart from putting in these efforts, the most important part of setting up the start-

up is to have an idea of how far the start-up would go or in other words, would the owners be able to

take it forward, as huge amounts of effort and money would be invested in the organisation. This is

very strongly linked to the earnings and ongoing revenues of the firm, as they have the responsibility

to keep innovating in order to make the difference to potential customers.

The likeliness of customers to keep buying products and services from the start-up, is linked to the very

significant element, which is to develop the identity in the market, so that customers and the market

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observe that there is a new, different and innovative company which solves the customers’ problems

that were not addressed by other companies previously. “Strong corporate branding is essential

because it subconsciously shapes consumers’ feelings about an organization and its services or

products” (ridivi, 2015). Hence, building the corporate identity is one of the crucial aspects of running

a start-up firm’s marketing. Few of the benefits of the corporate identity as per Core Media Design

(Core Media Design, 2015), a content management system provider, are listed below:

“A company that invests in corporate identity indicates that it is here to stay. It sends a message

that the company is serious about being successful. It gives the customer a sense of trust.

Corporate identity gives a sense of the culture or personality of the business.

In creating a consistent identity, a company is ensuring that they will be recognised and

remembered.

A uniform corporate identity becomes instantly recognisable amongst its target audience.

A strong corporate identity can improve customer awareness and can increase a company's

competitive edge”.

The primary aim of this study is to analyse how owners of the start-ups put their efforts in building the

corporate identity of their firms. This research has been carried out by collecting primary data from

three start-ups, from three different sectors, of which, two companies have been running for more

than three years and the third one ran their start-up for nearly two years.

Vast amount of research has been done on the corporate identity of larger companies, however little

amount of research analysis is present on the start-up’s corporate identity. Thus, the research is aimed

to fill those gaps in previous research being done on the subject.

1.1 Research Question

With reference to both academic opinions, studied by eminent practitioners, consultants and

researchers and primary research analysis, the research question is as follows:

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What are the key factors responsible for Start-ups in building their Corporate Identity and how

start-ups may use these parameters?

1.2 Research Objectives

1. The first and foremost objective is to study and analyse the efforts taken by the owners of the

Start-ups in building the corporate identity, which helps in creating the first impression among

the potential customers.

2. To study and analyse the importance of corporate identity of start-ups, especially, as little

amount of research is done on the corporate identity of start-ups, through primary research

analysis.

3. Another important objective for the research is the linking of future focus areas for research

on these subjects. The completion of research objective may add considerable value to this

inductive research project.

4. To suggest the areas where the current literature may be outdated in relation to the subject

and suggest future developments that could be produced using further in-depth research and

testing.

2 Literature Overview

“A literature review is a scholarly paper, which includes the current knowledge including substantive

findings, as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to a particular topic. Literature

reviews use secondary resources, and do not report new or original experimental work” (Baglione,

2012).

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2.1 Introduction

As discussed in the previous section about the importance of the corporate identity, corporate identity

is needed and required to keep the image of the corporation distinguished from their peers in the

industry. Corporate Identity is a relatively recent addition to the Strategic Management discussions.

Many practitioners and consultants of corporate identity have different views verbally. However,

overall, the meaning and strategic aim of it is quite similar. Different practitioners and consultants view

corporate identity in different ways. Some sees it as a tool to which has different parameters such as

market behaviour, communication, culture of company.

“Corporate identity, used as a strategic planning and management tool, is a demonstration of

developed economic and corporate culture” (Schmidt, 1995). “It is axiomatic that customers don’t just

see a product or service in isolation; they see the company as a whole, including all aspects and

dimensions of its identity, from its product and services, through its cultural, social, environmental and

market behaviour, to its communication and design. Identity in this comprehensive sense is an

absolute prerequisite for acceptance ad success in the market.” (Schmidt, 1995).

Some defines corporate identity as a complete package of materials and execution, which would last

like a good suit metaphorically. “Carefully selected and cut from variety of materials, individually styled

and tastefully executed, and made to last, corporate identity (CI), like a good suit, allows business to

exude the confidence it needs to win friends and influence people.” (Selame & Selame, 1988).

Some defines the corporate identity under the purview of corporate communication and, brand

comprehension by the customers. “A corporate identity is the overall image of a corporation, firm or

business in the minds of diverse publics, such as customers, investors and employees. It is a primary

task of the corporate communications department to maintain and build this identity to accord with

and facilitate the attainment of business objectives. It is usually visibly manifested by way of branding

and the use of trademarks” ( Knapp, et al., 2001).

There have been various studies which show that the significance of corporate identity has its roots in

previous decades. As per Balmer (1997), North Americans were the first who instigated and created

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managerial interest in the area including Selame and Selame (1975). The interest later on was realised

and got the attention by practitioners and consultants of UK and, other parts of Europe.

As per Schmidt (1995), the emergence of corporate identity dates as far back as the 1980’s, when

different things happened in different countries and decade of identity bubbled. In Britain, identity

was perceived and firmly linked to design and, as design activities grew, so did corporate identity. At

the beginning of the 80’s, the ‘Corporate identity specialists’, who had previously been advertising

consultants, graphic designers and textile designers styled themselves as corporate identity popes and

gurus preaching various creeds. The surfacing of corporate identity among corporations in the 80’s is

also supported by Selame & Selame (1988). Later on, it was realised that corporate identity is not

merely just the design, colours and visuals of organisations. At the same time, it was acknowledged

that the real change in terms of corporate identity consisted of more than logotype or new colours,

which will be discussed in detail in next section.

According to Balmer (1997), the realization by graphic designers and marketers of the efficacy of

consistency in visual and marketing communications led to a number of authors arguing that there

should be consistency in formal corporate communication (Bernstein, 1986). The breadth, complexity,

and importance of corporate communications was pointed out by Bernstein, who argued that

organizations should communicate effectively with all of their stakeholders. Implicit in Bernstein (

1986) comments, and those made a decade back by Grunig (1992), is that the corporate

communication mix and its management is fundamentally different from and is more complicated than

the marketing communications mix.

According to Schmidt (1995), “it is difficult to measure the success of corporate identity, in financial as

well as subjective terms. Corporate identity is often devalued because the term has been worn out

and misused though wrong practice”.

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2.2 Visuals, Logo and Corporate Identity

As the famous saying in psychology, “first impression is the last impression”, many companies spend

huge amounts of money on their creation of their logos, which costs as high as £ 136 million, as with

the case of BP, the flower (Shadbolt, 2015).

Logos and visuals of the companies illustrates the overall central, distinctive and enduring

characteristics of a company as described by (Ban, 2001). Logos are designed with the help of

consultants and sometimes even outsourced to companies which are experts in developing the logos

for the Multinational Companies. Visuals of any corporation consist of the graphic design and the

logogram which reflects the characteristics, beliefs and at times vision and mission of companies.

Innumerable studies and reports have indicated that over 80 percent of what we learn is through sight.

(Selame & Selame, 1988). When the logos and visuals of companies are first looked at, it manifests the

identity of company, through which consumers, investors, and potential employers or even spectators,

could process the information of the visuals and could get positive, negative or neutral vibes.

There have been numerous studies that together show that logos add value to the companies and

work as a commercial tool for them, which get the attention of the stakeholders while providing

recognition and familiarity to the organisation.

Peter (1989) shows that logo acts as a facilitator in providing fast recognition of the company or the

brand. The rationale behind this is that pictures communicates effectively than words (Edell & Staelin,

1983).

While according to Olins (1989), “companies use identity expressed through design, they use it as

commercial tool, which adds value to their business; their purpose is to make greater profit out of

what they do in short term”. In 1994, more than 3,000 new companies in the USA jointly spent an

estimated $120,000,000 to create and implement a new logo (Anson, 1998). The investments are made

as the management expects that the logos can add value to the reputation of the organisation.

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Interestingly, there is a study which clearly defines the two preconditions of choosing a logo for the

organisations as per their suitability of the business and the stakeholders (Henderson & Cote,

1998).First is, stakeholders must remember seeing the logo (correct recognition). Second, logos must

remind stakeholders of the brand or company name (recall). Ultimately, companies want their name

recalled, so the logo serves as shorthand for the company (Henderson & Cote, 1998). However, if the

logo is not chosen correctly, it could even damage the corporate image and reputation of the company

if the visuals of logo and slogan do not communicate effectively with the stakeholders, which is realised

in various studies.

Henderson & Cote (1998) additionally suggested the criticality of the selection of the logo as, if chosen

unsuitably, it can cause damage in terms of company reputation, as the logo is one of the primary

vehicles for communicating the image of the company. Nevertheless, and despite the importance and

widespread use of logos, many evoke negative evaluations, are unrecognisable and can damage the

corporate image (Henderson & Cote, 1998). Within a brand, a logo should swiftly remind stakeholders

of the organisation of a similar meaning (Durgee & Stuart, 1987). Without this consistency,

corporations are at risk of misinterpretation (Keller, 1993) among stakeholders, which may in turn

arouse negativity and harm the corporate image (Bird, 1992). Strategic attention should therefore be

paid to corporate logo design elements, particularly shape and colour (Hynes, 2009), as these serve as

a signature of a company (Snyder, 1993). This is explained in the following section.

2.2.1 Evaluation of Logo Design and Consumer Behaviour

“In an increasingly saturated marketplace, brands help create preference for a product. And as a key

component of brand identity, a logo provides instant recognition for the brand and the product. Logos

help transcend international boundaries and language barriers because of their “visual” character. But

although companies spend considerable amounts of money to create and promote effective logos,

there are no clear guidelines for doing so” (Kohli, et al., 2002). One of the primary reasons for having

a logo is to differentiate the identity of the organisation from their peers and the companies that are

providing similar products and services, as concluded by numerous studies.

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According to Kohli et al. (2002), globalisation is promoting the standardisation. Single letter visuals in

organisation’s logos help in crossing international boundaries. For example, several large corporations

such as Starbucks, a worldwide recognised Coffee brand, when re-designed their logo analysed the

fact that the customers love their brand and feel emotionally connected with it. “The result is an

evolved logo that celebrates the Siren in a much bolder way – it’s more expressive and energetic and

still uses the same vibrant green circle that is so well recognized by our customers around the world”

(Mike, 2011).

Kohli, et al. (2002) also revealed that “the brand identity has three components: name, logo, and

slogan. Undoubtedly, the name is the most important, but a logo can be an immensely helpful tool”.

Moreover, Kohli, et al., (2002) also suggested that “logo design has two facets: content and style.

Content refers to the elements contained in the logo, including text and graphic representation. Style,

on the other hand, refers to how these elements are presented. The main thrust of logo design is on

the content”.

As per the quantitative study by Pimentel & W. (1996), in which “respondents were shown colour

photographs of various geometric patterns and were questioned about the content and visual quality.

The respondents’ evaluations were influenced by both, but with a stronger emphasis on content. Most

remarks were about content, even when specifically asked about visual quality. People apparently look

for meaning in logos”.

Giberson et al. (1995) support this assertion. “They found that a logo is retrieved faster from memory

when a product category is cued in the logo. This makes a case for the emphasis of content over style

by suggesting a connection with the product category. Thus, logos that incorporate a hint of the

product category would be more effective”. A popular method used by the design consultancies and

others is the ‘visual audit’, which has the objective of revealing some of the basic traits of an

organization's identity, by interpreting organizational symbolism as described by Napoles (1988) and

Olins (1989.

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Not many studies have looked at the myriad logo elements in an effort to understand how logos are

evaluated and on what dimensions. Henderson & Cote (1998) performed a very thorough factor

analysis of a large number of design dimensions on which logos are evaluated (independent variables)

and the response dimensions (dependent variables), with some interesting and pragmatic results. The

response dimensions that emerged included correct recognition, false recognition, affect, and familiar

meaning. Correct recognition occurs when the respondents recognize the stimuli they have seen in the

past (Henderson & Cote, 1998).

“False recognition occurs when they profess recognition but have not really seen the logo in the past.

It is important to note that false recognition can be desirable when only a low investment can be made.

While care should be taken not to infringe on another company’s trademark, the desire may be to

make people believe they have seen the logo” (Henderson & Cote, 1998). “Affect refers to the overall

liking for the logo, and meaning refers to the ability of a logo to capture a clear connotation of the

product or the company. Logos with high meaning are “highly codable” symbols that evoke

consensually held interpretation within a culture or subculture” (Henderson & Cote, 1998).

2.3 Elements of Corporate Identity

According to the workshop on corporate identity (Designarttia, 2013), “building a strong and consistent

corporate identity is essential for businesses of every size, from large multinationals to sole traders.

Companies with a strong identity have loyal customers, repeat business, and respect from their

industry and a greater commitment from their employees”, which is more than just having a logo and

visual identity of the organisation.

After analysing various research and studies by various practitioners of corporate identity, it is realised

that, as corporate identity is intangible, it is very hard to define specifically, what it is composed of?

However, as per the study conducted by Melewar & Karaosmanoglu (2006), which comprised 32 in-

depth interviews mainly with directors and senior managers but also with some lower level employees

in 20 companies, it tried to suggest that, there are seven dimensions of corporate identity, as

manifested in the study. The seven dimensions are:

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1) Corporate Communication

2) Corporate Design

3) Corporate Culture

4) Behaviour

5) Corporate Structure

6) Industry Identity

7) Corporate Strategy

As the aim of the research is to study the key factors for building corporate identity of start-ups, the

four of the above points from start-up point of view will be discussed in detail, which is the mix of the

Corporate Identity, as evaluated by Melewar & Karaosmanoglu (2006).

2.3.1 Corporate Communications

A number of academics have pointed out the link between the corporate communications and

corporate identity (Cornelissen & Harris, 2001) (Van Riel, 1995) (Varey, et al., 2000).

As per Melewar & Karaosmanoglu (2006), “Corporate communication is a term that encompasses all

the ways in which the organisation communicates with its various stakeholders”. Thus, all the

communications emanating from an organisation will act towards shaping the stakeholders’

perceptions. Melewar & Karaosmanoglu (2006) further states that corporate communications could

be controlled or uncontrolled.

“Communication intentionally instigated by management with the aim of improving stakeholder

relationships is classified as controlled corporate communication. Conversely, uncontrolled

communication takes place when organisations influence stakeholders’ perceptions unintentionally”

(Melewar & Karaosmanoglu, 2006).

2.3.1.1 Controlled Corporate Communication

Melewar & Karaosmanoglu (2006) made a distinction between three primary types of communication,

categorised as management, marketing and organisational communication. Marketing

communications is normally associated with 4 P’s i.e. product, price, place, promotion. Van Riel (1995)

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conceptualised the organisational communication as all forms of communication with stakeholders

with whom an organisation has an interdependent relationship. Investor relations and labour relations

are part of organisational communication.

Hatch & Schultz (1997) revealed that marketing and organisational communication both act as the

main link between image and strategic management. Management communication attempts to

“communicate the vision and mission of the company in order to establish a favourable image and

ultimately a good reputation amongst its internal and external stakeholders” (Olins, 1989). An example

is an investor’s conference, where management attempts to reveal and discuss their further strategy

for achieving their designated vision and mission.

Management communication is perceived by various academics and practitioners as being the most

significant of these three forms of communication, as it involves the expression of organisational goals

directly to internal stakeholders (Kennedy, 1997).

After reviewing analysis of various studies on corporate communications, how stakeholders perceive

communications by the management, organisation and their marketing activities, are very significant

for corporate identity management.

2.3.1.2 Uncontrolled Corporate Communication

As per many studies, uncontrolled corporate communication plays considerable role as everything the

company does leads to corporate identity management, directly or indirectly. Cornelissen (2000)

argues that linear model of corporate identity (Stuart, 1999b) overlook the fact that corporate identity

is perceived by public. In other words, corporate identity is a mix of controlled and uncontrolled

communication.

Uncontrolled communication can be understood as the two way communication process between

organisations and stakeholders, in which, what public perceive of the organisation is uncontrolled,

which is an important aspect of corporate identity management.

As deciphered by Melewar & Karaosmanoglu (2006), “a dynamic inter-relationship between culture

and communication must be acknowledged. Corporate cultures will generally be communicated to

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stakeholders in some form, particularly through employee behaviour and therefore one method of

reducing the occurrence of negative uncontrolled communication is by gaining employee commitment

of core corporate values”.

In the study of Melewar & Karaosmanoglu (2006), where many respondents were interviewed, “every

respondent believed that corporate communication was a fundamental influence on the corporate

identity at his or her company. However, many interviewees did state that communication could only

be effective if it was supported by performance achievements and that corporate rhetoric must be

congruent with the reality of its operations and behaviour”.

2.3.2 Corporate Design and Visual Identity

Apart from the logo that has already been discussed in detail in ‘2.2’ above, it also has the visual

identity that can be conveyed in other ways, for example, office building infrastructure, products,

vehicles and location of the organisation (Dowling, 1994). Dowling (1994) also highlights other

applications of the corporate visual identity system which includes advertising, clothing, packaging,

promotion and give-aways. Visual identity has two fundamental purposes. Firstly it portrays an

organisations’ values and philosophy, and secondly, it supports corporate communication Baker &

Balmer (1997), which leads to build corporate reputation of the organisation among customers and

other stakeholders as per the findings by Elving (2005) and supported by Bickerton (2000).

Fombrun & Rindova (2000) also inseparably links organisational reputation and corporate identity

management related to visuals and logos. For example, Golden arches of McDonald, when seen on the

corner of the street, shows the identity of the burgers and somehow relates to it. Just a simple ‘M’

designed shape gives the customers, a sense that, McDonald store is quite near to them and they can

hop in and feed themselves their favourite burger. Thus, this is the visual identity of the McDonald

which makes customers realise the reputation of the organisation and they can expect quality time

inside the store.

Elving (2005) also suggests distinctiveness of organisation through visual identity and logo, which is

the unique position of the organisation in the minds of customers and other stakeholders. The

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organisation can achieve distinctiveness through strategic alignment (bringing together aspects of its

vision and strategy to build the business), through emotionally appealing features, and by attracting

attention through the use of startling messages (Fombrun & Van Riel, 2004). For example, Intel

marketing campaign encourages the PC manufactures to use Intel Inside® logo in all their

advertisements. The logo became unique and distinct through these “manufacturers, referring to

Intel’s technology as it is used in personal computers”.

Fombrun & Van Riel (2004) also mention a number of distinctive trademarks, logos and visual elements

– such as the swoosh of Nike, the swan of KLM, and the logo of Akzo Nobel.

Elving (2005) illustrate the fact that, “Corporate Visual Identity (CVI) is influenced by a lot more than

just a logo; additional visual elements, which can be both attractive and surprising, also help build up

the company’s image among stakeholders. The distinctiveness of the design requires considerable

creativity and it must match the organisation’s strategy”.

2.3.3 Corporate Culture

There are different arguments by various practitioners who studied Corporate Culture. Peter &

Waterman (1982) argue that, “employees are central to culture and what is important is the “shared

values” of participants”, although the evidence of this viewpoint has been strongly questioned. In

contrast, some argue that it is strongly associated with rituals, for example, one interviewee of

Melewar & Karaosmanoglu (2006) explicitly stated that culture: “. . . is the way we do things around

here”.

As per study by Melewar & Karaosmanoglu (2006) corporate culture consists of:

Corporate Philosophy

Corporate Values

Corporate Mission

Corporate Principles

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Corporate Guidelines

Corporate History

Founder of the Company

Country-of-Origin

Corporate culture reflects the corporate identity of an organisation and it is one of the very important

determinants of the Corporate Identity. From above bullet points, one of the most important

parameters, especially for start-up companies is ‘Founder of the Company’. For example, in the case

of Virgin, founded by Sir Richard Branson, the brand name Virgin is very much connected with the

founder of the company and is still part of the identity of the company. On the contrast, sometimes,

founder of the organisation may not come in front to highlight the Corporate Identity of the

organisation. An example is Binny Bansal of Flipkart, an Indian E-commerce giant start-up that was

founded in 2007 and has grown to more than $3 Billion in revenues till date (Sharma, 2014). The name

Flipkart is a brand of trust among Indian market. The founder is not known to the buyers as they just

know the brand.

Corporate values and corporate mission plays a very important role in designing the culture of an

organisation, which concomitantly helps in defining the identity of the organisation, which is

corroborated by Downey (1986), one of the American practitioners, who said “Corporate culture flows

from and is the consequence of corporate identity." Downey (1986) considers that “corporate culture

is the consequence of corporate identity and argues that culture is the “what” of a company and

identity is the “why””.

2.3.4 Corporate Strategy

One of the significant parameters in defining the corporate identity of a start-up company is corporate

strategy. Two types of strategies have been evaluated by Melewar & Karaosmanoglu (2006) that is,

positioning strategy and differentiation strategy. “Corporate strategy can be considered as a subset of

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corporate identity because it provides the means by which identity is perpetuated throughout the

company”. Corporate strategy of an organisation can be understood as the blueprint of the firm’s

objective and strategies to compete in the given market as evaluated by Melewar & Karaosmanoglu

(2006). It could be either expansion of their already set-up operation, that is market penetration, or

entering a new market.

Many commentators evaluates that a strong link exists between corporate strategy and corporate

identity. It uncovers what the company produces, the level of profit made and stakeholder perceptions

about the company.

Differentiation strategy: As seen by Melewar & Karaosmanoglu (2006), “differentiation strategy is a

part of overall corporate strategy relating to the specific strengths of a company and how it chooses

to compete by using these”. Many writers agree that this is strongly linked with corporate identity as

Simpson (1988) states, differentiation takes advantage of a firm’s strengths that are important

constituents of its primary identity.

Positioning strategy: “Positioning strategy is associated with the identity that a company strives for.

Companies position themselves in order to be distinguished from competitors and they do this through

an analysis of their inherent strengths and weaknesses”. In positioning strategy, market research

should be carried out to position the brand differently from their competitors in the market

(Entrepreneur, n.d.).

Above mentioned strategies are very important for start-up companies. This helps the firm to design

the strategies on how to land their product or services in to the target market.

3 Research Methodology

This section is to explain and outline the decisions made on the research conducted on the three start-

up companies of different sectors. The research used three case studies to study the pre-defined

parameters for building corporate identity for start-ups, as described in the literature review. In the

research, the three cases that have been studied are start-up companies in three completely different

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industries. Primary data has been collected from each of these start-up firms and an attempt has been

made to analyse the data to understand how they tried to build the corporate identity for their

respective start-up companies.

3.1 Research Approach

As per Saunders et al. (2009), “something that people undertake in order to find out things in a

systematic way, thereby increasing their knowledge” is defined as research. Inductive research consists

of collection of primary data and analysing it in order to derive a conclusion or theory. On the other

hand, deductive research is analysis of predefined theory to test if the data analysis is in line with the

theory concluded before Thomas, (2006). This research has been undertaken through inductive

analysis.

Thomas (2006) also added that “the primary purpose of the inductive approach is to allow research

findings to emerge from the frequent, dominant, or significant themes inherent in raw data, without

the restraints imposed by structured methodologies”. Thomas (2006) highlighted the following

purposes for carrying out inductive research.

“To condense extensive and varied raw text data into a brief, summary format;

To establish clear links between the research objectives and the summary findings derived from

the raw data and to ensure that these links are both transparent (able to be demonstrated to

others) and defensible (justifiable given the objectives of the research); and

To develop a model or theory about the underlying structure of experiences or processes that

are evident in the text data”.

The above points befits the research question and objective.

3.2 Research Design

As per Robson (2002), there are several research strategies that can be employed by researcher such

as case study analysis, survey experiments are usually adopted. The strategy that has been adopted

for this study is case analysis. Robson (2002) defines the case study as “a strategy for doing research

20

which involves an empirical investigation of a particular contemporary phenomenon within its real life

context using multiple sources of evidence”. A case study analysis helps the researcher to come to a

conclusion, on the basis of the data collection, which is primarily collected from the individual,

organisation. Generally, case study analysis involves, questionnaire, interviews, observation, and

documentary analysis.

3.3 Data Sources

While undertaking inductive research, the data analysis must depend on the data collected through

various sources. Largely, that data will have been primary data. Primary data is the data that has been

collected through interview of an individual or group of people or through organisational data.

Secondary data, on the other hand, is the data which have already been collected by someone else

and have been utilised in previous research. Primary data potentially has advantages over secondary

data, but comes with certain limitations. Primary data comes with accurate data as the data is collected

post the meeting of the interviewer.

Quality of the data is better than the secondary one, as the data collected is the latest and up to date

with more accuracy. Thus, this is also known as primary research. Furthermore, the primary data also

allows researcher to specifically focus on the research objective and question. In order to answer the

research question, the researcher can collect the relevant data by asking certain set of questions as

relevant to the research question. This, thereby, increases the quality of the analysis and conclusion.

This research has been undertaken through the interviews of three different co-founders of three

different start-up companies, followed by analysis of the data collected from the interviews, which is

followed by the conclusion in order to answer the research question and objective. The data was

collected through the following pattern described in the table on the next page.

21

Interview Company / Interviewee Style Contact Date

1 Agriculture Ltd. – Co-

owner

Semi - Structured,

one to one

interview

Face to face June 2015

2 Textiles Ltd. – Co-owner

Semi - Structured,

one to one

interview

Telephonic July 2015

3 Software Services Ltd. –

Co-owner

Fully structured,

one to one

interview

Face to face August 2015

3.4 Data Analysis

These is no particular procedure of data analysis, especially for qualitative data. Data could be

summarised, categorised or structured. This research has used summarised form of data analysis. Post

the collection of the primary data, the information collected was analysed as per the theories used in

Literature Overview. Conclusion is made on the basis of the discussion and the primary data collected.

In qualitative data, summarising helps to consolidate the data to reach on to the conclusion as per the

collection of data.

3.5 Research Limitation

As this research is a case study analysis of three start-ups, conclusion have been made purely on the

basis of Literature Review used and the data collected. Country of origin has not been included in this

research neither have been mentioned in the research. Different countries may have different

parameters, however, the dimensions or parameters that have been discussed are universally

applicable. Furthermore, corporate identity may vary on industry but as per the aim of the research is

to study the building of corporate identity of start-up companies. The information has been used while

studying this research is totally dependent the start-ups co-owner’s interview answers.

22

4 Findings of the Study

In this section, the detailed analysis of the start-up companies is explained as to how they made an

attempt to build the corporate identity of company?

4.1 Planning of Corporate Identity for Start-ups

Corporate identity plays an important role and a matured organisation knows how to play and design

it. However, designing the corporate identity for the organisation takes tremendous efforts and could

be challenging. It is very important to study if start-ups are giving due importance to the subject. There

have been several incidences where start-up companies do not even know about the topic or even

have heard it before. They may be taking the right steps without even knowing that, theoretically, it

comes under corporate identity. Eventually, when they come to know that their company has some

kind of image in the market, they start handling and managing the image of the company thereafter.

On the contrast, not all companies meet the lucky fate and ends up having drastically gone wrong, not

just because of their operations, but because of their company identity. Therefore, in this study all the

interviewees have been asked about the planning of the corporate identity or if they were even aware

of the subject while starting their respective companies.

4.2 Agriculture Ltd.

Agriculture Ltd. was started in 2010 and has still been running their operations with 300 acres of land

for cultivation, following business to business (B2B) model. When the owner was interviewed about

the start-up, the owner expressed a desire to start with the land. Using the land, cultivation of

vegetable, rice, maize, lentils and coconut happens, which the company sells to the wholesalers, which

after packaging, is sold to the retailers. Their slogan line is ‘Discover. Empower. Prosper’, in which the

organisation very firmly believes in. The motto is to discover the opportunities in cultivating and

empower the stakeholders which follows from the prosperity by producing quality products.

23

The primary customers for the company are the wholesalers. The firm use their land resources to

cultivate the above mentioned crops. The important point to be noted is that 300 acres of land is in

relatively remote locations and firm’s operations exist in semi-rural areas and hence, the customers of

the companies do not respond to the sophisticated marketing campaigns on digital platforms through

Twitter, Facebook and various other digital social media. As per the data collected, the firm has well

established logo and visual identity, which relates to their vision statement.

4.2.1 Planning of Corporate Identity

When contacted, the co-owner of Agriculture Ltd. talked about the planning of corporate identity. He

said, “… we were not aware of the corporate identity exactly, but have always kept in mind to keep our

company image distinct from the competitors”. When asked about the logo, it was mentioned from his

end that “none of their competitors in the market were using the logo”. The firm is the only major

player in the market which has well designed logo and visual identity of the company. It is very

interesting to note that although the company management was not aware of the identity as business

subject, but eventually they were taking numerous steps to build the image and they certainly did not

plan the corporate identity nor did they follow a particular strategy for building their company identity.

4.2.2 Corporate Culture of Agriculture Ltd.

Agriculture Ltd. consists of five internal stake holders that operates the firm with combined efforts,

having centralised operations. The owner of the organisation primarily takes all the major decisions

and himself takes care of major functions. The nature of the business in which the firm operated does

not allow them to use much professionalism, however, all efforts have been made to maintain the

integrity in their business, as their primary communication exist with the farmers, who do not possess

any professional education and have very little understanding about the organisation skills.

Consequently, management does not use emails to contact with farmers, who acts as external vendors

to the firm.

24

The firm has five years plan and vision to take their business further while maintaining and creating

new values. At present, the company follows three values while conducting the business. These values

are:

Quality – The Company strives for making quality products for their customers, who serves end users

as consumers of the cultivated products.

Efficiency – The Company believes in cultivating efficient products exploiting the land and resources

fully.

Flexibility – The Company makes all efforts to be as flexible as a start-up. It has limited technological

resources.

Agriculture Ltd. has vision for their business as far their operations are concerned, which concomitantly

would impact the culture of the organisation, as they would have to redefine the values of their

business. The vision of the company five years down the line is to move their operations to business

to consumer (B2C model), while enhancing their brand value.

4.2.3 Corporate Communication of Agriculture Ltd.

As per the discussion above in literature review, that corporate communication consists of controlled

and uncontrolled communications. While talking to the firm co-owner, this seems to have been related

with the theory explained in literature review. For controlled communication, which is the

communication to the stake holders, external vendors and costumers primarily develop the word of

mouth in the market. As previously mentioned, due to the nature of the business it has been involved

in, the firm has very little room to communicate to the stake holders involved through digital, print &

electronic medium. However, in the given market, customers especially, realise the word of mouth

through the external stakeholders, vendors and competitors and executes their decision-making solely

based on word of mouth.

The one comparative advantage Agriculture Ltd. has over the competitors is the economies of scale,

as the firm has the largest amount of land in the given market presence it operates in. This comes with

25

the benefit that the cultivated crop would be more economical than their competitor’s. Hence, the

customers, who are wholesalers in the given case would appear to buy from the firm. This could be

perceived as uncontrolled communication. The firm has vision of slightly shifting their marketing

campaign to digital and print medium, if not the electronic channel, to tap the urban market.

Customers in urban market are fully aware of these channels and the market could be tapped using

other mediums apart from the conventional word of mouth.

4.2.4 Corporate Design and Logo of Agriculture Ltd.

It is noteworthy that the firm’s co-owner, while interviewing, mentioned that they had very little

awareness about the corporate identity in overall perspective but they were fully confident of their

logo design, text, colours and visuals in it. While explaining the process, the co-owner was clear that,

“… with logo, company gets an image, be it with design and the symbol or anything relating it, it is a

primary tool that is used in marketing as costumers may recognise the brand instantly while having a

glimpse of it”. This statement is strongly linked with one of the theory used while writing literature

review. The firm strictly believes in creating the organisation perception through the use of their logo.

It was understood from the interview that while designing logo, the company designed their own logo

with their beliefs relating to the cultivation, agriculture. This was because the firm had been in start-

up mode and lacked financial resources. They labelled the Sun & Moon in their logo. Labelling of Sun

and Moon relates to the fact that, in cultivation, nature has the most important role to play. The

colours used in the logo narrates the definite meaning and relates with the agriculture. For example,

the two colours used in the logo are Green and Orange. Green is the natural colour, which connects

with the nature, consisting of all flora. The orange colour represents the soil, with which, the local

people have deep sentiments. Overall, their visual identity firmly connects with the core business of

the firm.

4.2.5 Corporate Strategy of Agriculture Ltd.

Agriculture Ltd. has always been working on executing differentiation strategy. When asked on the

plans of the strategy, the co-owner answered “….. We strictly believe in following differentiation

26

strategy as this would give us the room to take some measurable risks”. The company strives to

produce and cultivate their crops and vegetables through the help of technology. They do this while

making the external vendors, who are farmers in the given case, ready by educating them, so that they

can produce efficiently and most importantly beat the competition and differentiate themselves from

their peers in the market.

The firm rigidly follows differentiation strategy and five years from now, the co-owner expects to

position the firm as per their vision. The firm wants to make a shift to B2C model, as earlier mentioned.

The firm has plans to sell ready-to-go meals by using their land resources. Being a start-up company,

it requires lot of financial support, for which the firm has been in talks with several venture capitalist

(VC) firms. While making this kind of shift, the company aims not to redefine the values it has at

present, but to amend and add a different set of values.

4.3 Textiles Ltd.

Textiles Ltd. was started in 2012 and unfortunately was shut down in 2014. During these two years,

company ran a brick and mortar establishment by selling clothing products, primarily targeted to youth

aged between 12 and 30. The clothing company took a shop on lease on hefty monthly rent. The firm

was formed with three stakeholders, who invested equal amount of money to form a shop with a

vision to develop a branded clothing company in the market. By the middle of 2014, due to disparity

in their decisions, they closed their operations, for which they had to make a hefty loss as well.

They followed a B2C model. They would go to the wholesaler as retailer to buy the stock of clothes of

mixed low to medium range brands for diverse costumers and then bring them to their well-furnished

shop to sell. They did not plan their operations. Three investors presented their interest to start a

clothing shop to which all of them agreed, post which, a hefty amount of money was invested to furnish

their shop. After searching for land, they finally agreed to setup a shop in a business complex in a main

city. How they made an attempt to design the corporate identity for their business is described in the

upcoming section.

27

4.3.1 Planning of Corporate Identity

Over a telephonic conversation, when asked about the Textiles Ltd., one of the three investors

uncovered the planning phase of their corporate identity of their business. Before they started the

operations of the shop, they came up with the name. The investor was already aware of the subject,

not deeply, but heard of the term before, and had a very slight impression of it. However, they only

took care of the logo, slogan line and the overall visual design. For logo selection, the firm did not

consult any identity consultant or practitioner, in spite of having enough financial resources.

The firm took a survey of B-school students, studying in the nearby university to their showroom as

they wanted to know the view points of the younger population for the clothing line business, since

they primarily concentrated on young population market. Although, the investor was not confident

about the selection of the design, text, and backend business meaning that would relate the logo with

ongoing business operations. The start-up firm did not think much of their operations, once their shop

was set up. The investor said, “…. we did not ever think of how we would going to operate the

showroom” as that was the very first time, they were about to run a business operation.

4.3.2 Corporate Communications of Textiles Ltd.

As the showroom was setup in a plush business complex in an urban area, the costumers would come

to the business complex and would notice the showroom in the area. This was the major

communication from the Textiles Ltd. end. During the interview, one thought-provoking point that was

noted was that the investors were initially working as sales persons of the shop while selling the

clothing products to the customers. After few months of starting the operations, they hired a

salesperson, but did not make him wear anything particular as dress code. Being a start-up, having

done their research on communicating to the costumers while selling products to the costumers, they

were struggling to understand the costumers’ requirements. After 6 months, they had little

understanding of the tactics and skills of selling products to the costumers or costumer handling.

They had several plans of using technology, such as creating the database of their costumers, to

communicate with costumers for telling about the new clothing line or promotional offers. However,

28

plans did not convert into reality. The most important datum that was found was that due to lack of

financial resources, after spending on other required resources, the firm was providing hand written

receipt with their name and logo and address printed on it, and not the computer printer one. The

investor also revealed that they were not sure of their promotional strategies and marketing campaign.

They analysed a few marketing campaigns but their financial budget did not allow to use conventional

channels such as radio, television or print medium. However, they made an initial effort to start the

campaign on Facebook, a very famous social medium. Their Facebook’s official page did not

communicate significantly to their target customer base.

4.3.3 Corporate Culture of Textiles Ltd.

Corporate culture shows how external stake holders perceive the value of the brand. The investor

disclosed that their ambience of the showroom was not too bad, but the design of the infrastructure

resisted costumers to select their favourite clothes. The corporate values and mission were very clearly

defined but were not executed on the ground. There were very few incidences, when all the three

stakeholders were on same platform, while they used to discuss ideas. Even after concluding their

ideas, the investor also revealed that, the other two were not as motivated and excited to work on the

planned ideas, principles, and vision as he was. As per his statement, “…. This is the most regretful

thing that we were never on same page, while executing plans and the other two investors were very

little bothered to do work on the ground”.

Mismanagement of financial budget was an issue as told by the investor in the interview. The investors

did not get much benefit of reputation, as they would buy the stock of their clothes from supplier on

credit and several times did not pay back on time, which ruined their reputation in the market.

4.3.4 Corporate Design and Visual Identity of Textiles Ltd.

As earlier mentioned, they took survey of business school students to name and design the logo and

visuals of it. The company invested huge amount of time and money in the logo selection. Through

their logo and overall visuals, they wanted to reflect the positivity and energy to target the youth.

However, the slogan of the company neither communicated their beliefs nor their corporate principles

29

and vision. “We were trying to make our brand look different, funky, and cool, and at the same, we

made sure our products were affordable to their target market”. The investor said in the telephonic

interview that their elementary aim was that the potential costumers should get ‘good feelings’, once

the logo is glimpsed by them.

The slogan line that had been used was ‘the IN thing’ followed by a wink smiley. The text used in the

logo design reflected handmade craft. The background used is black, to express the positivity and

energy. The noteworthy point in the logo marketing is that there were two different logos which were

used, one in their showroom and another on their Facebook page. Both differed in the colours and the

design. As the Facebook page was just created for the sake of digital presence, the investors did not

have any plans to exploit the digital space, as interpreted from the interview.

4.3.5 Corporate Strategy of Textiles Ltd.

The Corporate Strategy of Textiles Ltd. used by the three stake holders was defined and very clear, as

far as the location of the showroom is concerned. First of all, the showroom was located inside a plush

business complex, where many highly branded retailers had their shops. For entrepreneurs like them,

this makes it very difficult to pay the rent of the land rented. The strategic location of the showroom

helped Textiles Ltd. to spur the brand awareness among the local customers in the market. The second

important point to be noted is that none of the competitive retailers in the business complex was

operating the business like them, which is, selling the mix of medium to low brand clothing products.

All of the retailers were branded and had already have the market position and share.

While running the showroom, the business strategy was to sell the economically affordable clothing

products to the target customers. They followed the positioning strategy strictly. They were

entrepreneurs and as almost every entrepreneur goes through the same phase of tight financial

budget and learning about the daily cash flows, so did they. Initially they had a very hard time making

the margins, but however, down the line, they made the margins, albeit sporadic every month. They

even started forecasting the revenues and expenses for every month but the intrinsic values did not

30

match with the respective forecasted values. Marketing campaigns and strategy had very little effect

on their sales as they did not recognise the business communications to the customers.

4.4 Software Services Ltd.

Software Services Ltd. was incorporated in 2012 and has come long way till date. The company was

established on the sincere belief of acting differently from the conventional way. The primary business

of the start-up is making softwares for businesses, hence, following the B2B model. “…We create

Patent Development and Monetisation products for global invention and technology companies. We

develop Intellectual property products which provide automation and intuitive Web 2.0 experience;

assisting various stages of patent prosecution and litigation”, as described on the company’s website

and narrated by one of the stakeholders of the software start-up.

This start-up was founded by five engineering students in a room with just five laptops and an

intelligent idea, which turned out to be a reality after they passed out from their college and leased

out an office space in the central business area of the city, where various other start-up companies

exist. All the investors are passionate about their work and have been gaining expertise in their

respective field of work, such as web development, problem solving, client interaction, and marketing.

4.4.1 Planning of Corporate identity

While being interviewed, one of the stakeholders said that they were fully aware of building the image

of the company but did not study or carry out market research on how to build it. They were

perceptive, using their instinct that the company image is strongly linked to just marketing. The team

firmly believes in doing things differently. Like the other two aforementioned firms above, Software

Services Ltd. also, did not plan the corporate identity but was aware of the brand image of the

company.

4.4.2 Corporate Communications of Software Services Ltd.

When contacted, one of the investors informed with great concern that since most of their clients live

outside the home country, they used to connect with clients primarily through email. Being a start-up,

31

it is understandable without much pondering, that they could not go physically to meet them. On a

few occasions, they got the opportunity to attend conferences and meetings, they would go with a

planned strategy of communicating with their potential customers. The investor very enthusiastically

said that their manner of communication was very uncommon to their peers in the market. They never

wore a business suit to attend the conference but wore semi casuals with a trim beard and shirt sleeves

folded to convey energy, positivity and dynamism, while being professional in unusual way, to which

they received significant response as well from the customers.

“We have worn white shirt and blue jeans with folded sleeves and a short beard to express that, we are

trying to do it differently, so that, customers would immediately discern and try to approach us. We

totally believe in ‘Speak Less. Do More’”.

As they were making multiple products, for some of the products, they have been exploiting the digital

space to communicate with their target customers. From the digital medium, they invite the reviews

and feedback of their products and the start-up company, which is a kind of uncontrolled

communication. They would fetch all the data received through the feedback and utilise it for the

analytics functions.

4.4.3 Corporate Culture of Software Services Ltd.

Corporate culture of Software Service is based on candour. The remarkable point is that not only

customers but the employees of the firm can also disapprove of each other’s work. As per the excerpt

from the interview of the investor, the company runs weekly meetings, where they discuss and criticise

their work in a very open manner. They have named this activity as ‘samaajan’, which means ‘a

gathering for open discussion’ in their local language.

To create a healthy team environment, which would reflect on their business culture, the investor also

shared that they occasionally cook together as a challenging activity. Every team member has to play

a role in the activity. For example, one would cut the vegetables, another would take care of cooking

and spices. Some take care of garnishing before serving it. This was done so that they could understand

each other much better outside their professional life, which would be helpful to take this team

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relationship forward. The investor also revealed that all their team members, as they all are bachelors,

live under one roof, which makes them professionally synchronised 24/7.

Their vision is to “put the “WOW’ in Intellectual property”. Software Services Ltd has defined 5 values,

which they strive to strictly follow in their business culture. These are as follows:

Honesty

Integrity

Candour

Innovation

Respect

4.4.4 Corporate Design and Visual Identity of Software Services Ltd.

Software Services Ltd. is very confident of their logo design, texts, and overall visual of their dynamic

logo. The investor also shared the interesting story of their logo design. As Software Services Ltd. is a

start-up company, they did not have the luxury of paying the fees to a consultant for logo design. The

logo has been designed by one of their team members, who has expertise in designing. The designer

created various designs and colours and showed them to the team, after which, with unanimous

decision of their team members, the logo was finalised.

The team members gave emphasis to the colours and text style on their logo. They chose blue as their

logo colour to reflect the trust of their brand to the potential stakeholders. The investor said that, as a

symbol, they used the design of an aeroplane, which shows dynamism, moving upwards, and flying

high. To maintain their corporate identity, they have made sure that they use their same logo design

and sustain the uniformity everywhere, either be it in digital space or in the conferences. With the logo

and visuals selection, they aim to reflect the positivity, energy, being young and trust, apart from the

values they have had already defined.

4.4.5 Corporate Strategy of Software Services Ltd.

One of the most important details the investor shared in the interview is that, the company strictly

follows the differentiation strategy to make their products stand noticed by the customers in the

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market. The investors said that “we strictly follow the differentiation strategy to make our product

different in the market. Earlier we were hesitating to make different products from the market, but

someday one of our team members designed exceptionally different product from our competitors and

accentuated it, and we all disapproved of it in the beginning, however, the designer emphasised that

let us do see the reaction of the customers and fortunately, customers really loved the product”. Since

then, they fully believed in doing things differently.

The investor also revealed that, to make this strategy work, they have been following the

‘Build.Break.Deliver’ model, in which, after making the product, they would let their product out for

testing among a few potential customers, followed by their feedback. After reviewing the feedback,

they would work on it and iterate the process till they receive satisfactory feedback and then finally

launch the product. By following this process, they ensure the quality of the product and the designer’s

job at the end is to give the product a different, innovative look and feel of the product, to make it look

different from the competitors in the market. While talking about the revenues of the organisation,

the investor very clearly said that “…. We in fact enjoy the best corporate identity and image among

our major competitor, but however, we do not earn revenues according to our image”.

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Corporate

Identity

Determinants

Agriculture Ltd. (2010-till

date)

Textiles Ltd. (2012-

2014)

Software Services

Ltd. (2012-till date)

Planned

Corporate

Identity

Not aware of Corporate

Identity, however, they

were concerned about the

image of the company.

It was very planned and

firm was quite aware of

company brand in

general

Very much planned

and all intricacies

were taken care of.

Corporate

Communications

/ Marketing

Communicated one to one

only to stakeholders. Word-

of-mouth was the primarily

communication among

external stakeholders.

Twitter presence is not

much.

Digital presence has

been less.

High presence in

digital space.

Concentrating more

on Twitter than on

Facebook to

communicate

external stake

holders.

Belief in

Corporate

Design, Logo &

Visual Identity

Discover.Empower.Prosper.

The logo narrates the

beliefs of the local people of

the market.

“The in thing”.

Targeted the youth as

their clothing products

Quality trendy clothes

in reasonable prices.

“To put WOW in IP”.

Thought on text

designs and colours of

logo strategically.

Corporate

Culture

Centralised Lack of decision making

among internal stake

holders.

Highly Decentralised

Corporate

Strategy

Differentiation at present

and aim to follow

positioning strategy in near

future.

Price Positioning

Strategy

Strictly following

Differentiation

Strategy

Association of

the dimensions

/parameters

Low Very Low Medium

Table 1. Summary of the primary data collected through the interviews.

5 Discussion

As elucidated in the previous section about the data collected through the primary research of the

three start-ups on their plan of action of building the corporate identity for their respective firms. Post

the collection of the data, it was analysed thoroughly to understand the efforts towards building the

corporate identity of their respective firms. The analysis was strongly linked to the theories used in the

35

Literature Overview section (See section 2). A framework that consists of 7 dimensions, which is

evaluated by Melewar & Karaosmanoglu (2006), was used to carry out the primary research. However,

as this research is carried out keeping in mind about the start-ups, four of the seven dimensions have

been used and studied in the findings.

In this section, as per these four parameters, the corporate identity will be discussed, from start-ups’

perspective. An effort will be made to discuss and conclude from the data collected on building

corporate identity.

5.1 Planning of Corporate Identity

Planning of corporate identity is one of the very important processes out of all the mechanisms in

building the corporate identity for a start-up. Potential customers, investors or the general public do

not know the company. Hence, reflecting the image and having uncontrolled communication between

various stakeholders and start-up is vital. The start-ups were not aware of the term ‘corporate identity’

in the first place. Establishing corporate identity for a start-up is a mixed blend of the four parameters,

or may be more than that, which have been discussed in the Literature Overview. In contrast, on the

basis of data collected, the start-ups do not link these parameters in order to reflect the identity of the

start-ups. The start-ups tried to operate these parameters as different functions and do not attempt

to link them, so that the image of the company comes out at one single brand, with clear motives.

Two of the start-ups, that is, Textiles Ltd. and Software Services Ltd. planned their corporate identity,

but however, did not make an attempt to link the four important building blocks of the corporate

identity together, which is also termed as corporate identity management. Agriculture Ltd. on the

other hand did not even bother much about the branding of the company, due to their particular

geographical presence. They have not made much effort in planning the identity of the organisation,

with which they would have got much benefit. Although, it is understandable that it is not easy to

design without even launching the corporation, the key stakeholders should definitely contemplate and

envisage the kind of image or perception they would want to create among the public, which may

reflect the overall characteristics of the start-up.

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5.2 Corporate Communications

As mentioned earlier, corporate communication consist of management communication, marketing

communication and organisational communication, which has already been explained in literature

overview. The most strongly linked with the start-up’s corporate identity is management

communication, as it communicates the firm’s objectives, in order to establish favourable image and

good reputation among key stakeholders as analysed by Hatch & Schultz (1997). Corporate

communication influences and manipulates the perception of the various stakeholders of the start-up

firms. Two types of corporate communication have been studied by various practitioners, which is

controlled communication and uncontrolled communication, as discussed in Literature Overview.

In one to one stakeholders’ communication, as in the case of Agriculture Ltd., it becomes very

strenuous to communicate to all the stakeholders one by one. In this scenario, controlled

communication has very limited number of opportunities. However, with innovation and

management, one can make an effort to conduct regular meetings & gatherings to communicate the

objectives and motto of the start-up firm with all the stakeholders including vendors, so that all the

stakeholders can understand the vision and mission of the firm, which would reflect the corporate

identity. This approach could have been practised by Agriculture Ltd.

In the case of Textiles Ltd., where the showroom setup was in an urban area, in the centre of a business

complex with fantastic strategic location, corporate communications should have been utilised in

today’s age of information. They did not exploit the digital space for their marketing and corporate

communications, with which potential customers of diverse backgrounds could have been lured. In

daily client service business, as in the case of Textiles Ltd., one should be wary of handling clients,

which influences the customers’ frame of mind about their newly set-up firm. In this case, as the

showroom is of clothing line, the salesmen should wear the same brand of clothes that they are selling

to their customers. By doing this, customers would believe more in their brand and perceive that the

seller is confident of their product. This is an example of uncontrolled communication.

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In contrast, Software Services Ltd. efficiently exploited their digital space to talk about their products

and lure potential customers with their unconventional style of communicating, be it in physical or

electronically. Software Serves Ltd. has been highly planned and strategic in their communication to

the stakeholders, be it internal or external. Their way of communication reflects the fact that their

controlled communication was so controlled that they even influenced the uncontrolled

communication from customers and investor’s perspective. For example, as discussed in the previous

section, when they wore blue jeans and white shirt rather than conventional business wear, it attracted

many customers to know about them and their products, as they were trying to differentiate

themselves from their competitors. One most important point here to be noted is that, they have been

communicating uniformly while interacting physically and digitally, which strongly solidify their facts

and viewpoints.

5.3 Belief in Corporate Design, Logo & Visual Identity

First time, especially in the case of the start-ups, when customers don’t know about the company, they

come across the logo or the name of the start-up company. By seeing the logo, customers process the

information that may have been penned in the logo, with which customer forms impression of the firm

in the first look. Secondly, logo communicates to all the stakeholders, including investors, about the

company, ‘what is the company about’. As discussed in Literature Overview section, the logo and the

overall visual identity should differentiate from the peers in the given market, as it helps to showcase

the distinctiveness of the firm. Care should be taken not to infringe the other company’s copyright

trademark. It is very important to note that the beliefs in the logo and slogans should be communicated

to the stakeholders and executed as well. It does not make sense just to create the logo and visuals

just for the sake of it, and not following the beliefs, which otherwise would contradict the company’s

beliefs and doings and could harm the image of the company.

Taking the example of Agriculture Ltd., they do not have as strong a corporate identity as they could

have made. Apart from the fact that the company is the only one which has a logo in the given market,

neither did they try to propagate their belief, nor did they execute it on the ground. They have defined

38

their slogan which is discussed in Literature Overview section but that belief of the slogan line had

been used very little and not to the full degree.

While analysing Textiles Ltd., one of the important points that was noted was that the clothing start-

up did not take care of the consistency of their logo in the digital space, which may have hampered

the image of the company in the market among the customers in particularly. Textiles Ltd. also did not

make much efforts to link their beliefs, vision and mission to other important building blocks of

corporate identity, which otherwise, would have reflected in their branding. The most important point

is that their slogan line is not communicated effectively to the customers. Their slogan line is “The IN

thing”, which they believe relates to their new and trending clothes, which was not publicised properly

to the potential customers. As per the interview interpretation, the few customers thought it was an

undergarments shop. Thus, it is very important to convey the message very clearly after designing the

logo and slogan lines.

Software Services Ltd., on the other hand, has perfectly maintained their consistency and have been

trying to walk towards their vision which is ‘To put the WOW in IP’. However, lack of communicating

the vision to the customers again is slightly felt as per the interpretation of the interview. Although

they have clearly defined motto, vision in their logo, which is designed, keeping in mind that the colours

play very important role with particular meaning. This planned approach looks somewhat substantial

to the customers, which is very essential and helps in shaping the identity of the organisation.

5.4 Corporate Culture

As mentioned in literature review, the corporate culture and corporate identity is strongly linked

together as Downey (1986) expressed that “culture is “what” of a company and identity is the “why””.

This means that the expression of the organisational culture reflects in the identity of the company

and especially in the case of start-ups, as people are less aware of the company and solely forms the

image in their mind, of what the company is about and why it is doing so. This explanation is further

corroborated by Hatch & Schultz (1997). Employees of the company are central to the culture, which

is reflected by the shared values, as explained by Peter & Waterman (1982).

39

Agriculture Ltd., has maintained integrity while doing their business, which is very critical. It helps to

define the values of the start-up company. However, they did not make an attempt to look at the

company culture, as they only tried to concentrate on making profits and running operations of the

business. Given the nature of the business of the start-up, it is understandable why the start-up has no

or very little consumption of technology. However, little usage of mobile internet or just mobile

messages could change the picture of the company’s operations, which would be more open and

decentralised with innovations. Company culture is also the key parameter for the potential employees

and fresh talent, as they would want to explore it before their hankering of joining the start-up

companies.

While interpreting the interview given by the co-owner of Textiles Ltd., it was noted that the key

investors of the firm did not want to take it further after spending time with each other in running the

business operations, which reflected in their company culture and prevents them from making major

decisions. This creates the negativity in the company culture and prevents the openness among the

stakeholders to have the audacity to take precise actions sometimes. This negativity later led to closing

their showroom, halting their clothing business. All these factors, overall impacts the identity of the

company, especially start-up companies, which try to grow up while defining their mission, vision and

values, with which customers may not connect, should the culture of the company be in disturbance.

On the other hand, while analysing Software Services Ltd., the company’s operations are highly

decentralised and the culture is very open in the sense that, any of the stakeholders could raise the

issues and fantastic business ideas in presentable manner to each other, post which, the stakeholders

sit together and brainstorm the idea for further analysis, if it is good for their business. This also brings

the atmosphere of positivity in the start-up’s culture, which definitely exhibits the identity of the start-

up. One of the good things about this start-up is that they have been very strictly following their values

that they have defined for running their business. Unlike the other two start-ups, this start-up has

given the importance to planning and executing it, for example, improving the professional

relationships of the employees, by organising team activities such as cooking together and analysing

40

what went wrong in the process and what were the good efforts. The start-ups should be culturally

very strong to reflect it in the corporate identity and the branding.

5.5 Corporate Strategy

Corporate strategy is the core of running any business operations. Corporate strategy leads the

company to achieve its vision while following the values. As mentioned in the literature overview,

especially for start-up firms, two major strategies that have been followed by the key stakeholders of

the start-ups are differentiation strategies and positioning strategies. The strategies played by the large

companies is generally different from the strategies executed by the start-up firms, as seen by Cohan

(2014). The start-up strategies also depends on which industrial sector they are in.

Taking example of Agriculture Ltd., the start-up has been taking efforts since the beginning, to have an

innovative and differentiated process to cultivate their crops, which eventually provide them the

benefits of economies of scale. Differentiation strategy leads to innovation, which brings a different

service or products in the market and, makes the start-up stand out of the league and gets market

attention, as is the case with Agriculture Ltd. It is relatively easier to bring innovation in a start-up than

to bring in a matured organisation. It gives the competitive advantage over the competitors in the

market while exploiting the unique strengths of the start-up.

Looking at Textiles Services Ltd., on the contrary, the start-up seemed to have followed the positioning

strategy. However, the clothing start-up aimed to follow the strategy but could not execute it, due to

many unfortunate reasons ranging from a mismatch of their budget to lack of decision making due to

different stakeholder’s interests and opinions. This is very important to note that strategy execution

failure could lead to damaging the business severely or even shutting down the operations, as is the

case of this start-up.

In the case of Software Services Ltd., the technology start-up planned and strictly followed the

differentiation strategy and they have been confident of their strategy. As deciphered from the

interview of one of the co-owner of the start-up, they have been very successful while following this

strategy.

41

6 Conclusion

As the aim of the research, the answer to the research question should be described post the analysis,

which is, that the start-up companies try to reflect the aforementioned parameters of corporate

identity, but fails to link those parameters. Melewar & Karaosmanoglu (2006) also corroborated that

that all the dimensions, especially the four, which is Corporate Communications, Corporate Culture,

Corporate Design and Corporate Strategy, for start-up companies discussed in detail in Literature

Overview, should be linked to each other to reflect the corporate identity of the firm. It is observed

through the case studies that start-ups work with different parameters but do not give the emphasis

on the linking of those parameters discussed in the literature review. The combined identity of the

organisation with respect to the four crucial parameters would be reflected as a whole package in their

corporate identity, which is depicted in the below figure.

Figure 1. Interconnection of Dimensions of Corporate Identity

Corporate

Culture

Corporate

Communication

Corporate

Design

Corporate

Strategy

Corporate Identity

42

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