The analysis of corporate brand marks and their communication strategies

Corporate brand identity has undergone a remarkable transition from a strictly design-orientated activity into a very complex, multidisciplined activity. As the scope of corporate brand identity expanded, academic interest followed. As each of the parent disciplines contributed to the greater understanding of the domain, attention increasingly became focused on the management of its disparate activities, with the exception of design-the origin of the domain. Consequently, very little is known about the design component of corporate brand identity, and, in particular, the construction of the primary visual manifestation - the corporate brand mark. Yet this prominent component, on occasions, has been subjected to considerable criticism. This thesis, therefore, set out to examine the expressions of corporate brand marks, with the intention of developing a theory of how such devices are constructed. Archival data were collected from 100 cases spanning a 50-year period of activity and subjected to a content analysis. The emergent theoretical issues were subsequently explored through data generated from eight expert witness interviews. The findings from this mixed methods research indicate that corporate brand identity has migrated from being a mechanism for expressing internal personality to being an instrument for expressing external relevance. It emerged that audience awareness and audience appeal were the two determinants that influenced the selection of the five possible brand mark expressions (arbitrary, antecedents, activity, attitude, and aspiration). This thesis, therefore, provides a firm theoretical contribution to the existing body of knowledge, and has substantial implications for education, practice and scholarship.