Although every organisation disposes of a corporate identity, it is not a given that the organisation will also have a corporate brand. Corporate brands refer not only to the visual corporate identity elements such as the name, the logo and the corporate colours but also reflect the associations that the internal and external interest groups attach to the organisation. The staff members of the organisation are regarded as the ambassadors of an organisation’s corporate brand which they should live and express in their work and actions. For that reason it is important that the corporate brand should be well established within the organisation itself. The North-West University (NWU) was established in 2004 as the result of a merger between the former Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education and the University of the North-West. The North-West University consists of four business units, viz. the Institutional Office, the Mafikeng Campus, the Potchefstroom Campus and the Vaal Triangle Campus. Because of the diversity of the erstwhile institutions, there were several serious implications for the North-West University. One of these was the development and the subsequent suitable management model, given the distance between campuses, and the other would the design and establishment of a corporate brand for the institution, given the culture and background of the former institutions. The result has been the use of a hybrid model with regard to the over-arching corporate brand of the North-West University to the extent that each campus has developed its own separate corporate brand. Although various studies have been done in the field about corporate brands, to date no study has been undertaken about the situation at the North-West University. Against this background it was possible to formulate the following general research question. What are staff members’ perceptions of, respectively, the corporate brand and corporate brand management of the North-West University and the Potchefstroom Campus? For the purposes of this study semi-structured interviews were conducted with management of the Institutional Office and the Potchefstroom Campus directly involved in the application of the corporate brand. A quantitative electronic questionnaire was also sent to all academic, administrative and support staff members of the Potchefstroom Campus. The study indicates that the management of the Institutional Office and of the Potchefstroom Campus in some instances hold differing views about the corporate brand of the North-West University and the Potchefstroom Campus. In contrast to this the study indicated that the staff members of the Potchefstroom Campus gave recognition to the fact that the Potchefstroom Campus had their own corporate brand, but that it is regarded as part of the over-arching corporate brand of the North-West University. The study also indicated that the North-West University and the Potchefstroom Campus corporate brands consisted of different components and that the management of corporate brand depended on the leadership of senior management, but that each staff member played a role in living and establishing the different corporate brands. / MA (Communication Studies), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Although every organisation disposes of a corporate identity, it is not a given that the organisation will also have a corporate brand. Corporate brands refer not only to the visual corporate identity elements such as the name, the logo and the corporate colours but also reflect the associations that the internal and external interest groups attach to the organisation. The staff members of the organisation are regarded as the ambassadors of an organisation’s corporate brand which they should live and express in their work and actions. For that reason it is important that the corporate brand should be well established within the organisation itself. The North-West University (NWU) was established in 2004 as the result of a merger between the former Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education and the University of the North-West. The North-West University consists of four business units, viz. the Institutional Office, the Mafikeng Campus, the Potchefstroom Campus and the Vaal Triangle Campus. Because of the diversity of the erstwhile institutions, there were several serious implications for the North-West University. One of these was the development and the subsequent suitable management model, given the distance between campuses, and the other would the design and establishment of a corporate brand for the institution, given the culture and background of the former institutions. The result has been the use of a hybrid model with regard to the over-arching corporate brand of the North-West University to the extent that each campus has developed its own separate corporate brand. Although various studies have been done in the field about corporate brands, to date no study has been undertaken about the situation at the North-West University. Against this background it was possible to formulate the following general research question. What are staff members’ perceptions of, respectively, the corporate brand and corporate brand management of the North-West University and the Potchefstroom Campus? For the purposes of this study semi-structured interviews were conducted with management of the Institutional Office and the Potchefstroom Campus directly involved in the application of the corporate brand. A quantitative electronic questionnaire was also sent to all academic, administrative and support staff members of the Potchefstroom Campus. The study indicates that the management of the Institutional Office and of the Potchefstroom Campus in some instances hold differing views about the corporate brand of the North-West University and the Potchefstroom Campus. In contrast to this the study indicated that the staff members of the Potchefstroom Campus gave recognition to the fact that the Potchefstroom Campus had their own corporate brand, but that it is regarded as part of the over-arching corporate brand of the North-West University. The study also indicated that the North-West University and the Potchefstroom Campus corporate brands consisted of different components and that the management of corporate brand depended on the leadership of senior management, but that each staff member played a role in living and establishing the different corporate brands. / MA (Communication Studies), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

<p>C-uppsats vars huvudsyfte var att undersöka hur stor igenkänning människor har av företagsmärken utan att logotypen finns med. Genom att arbeta med både en kvalitativ och kvantitativ metod har vi fått fram våra resultat, detta genom att våra respondenter besvarade en enkät. Våra teoretiska perspektiv kommer från en blandning av olika ämnesområden, så som psykologi och informationsdesign med fördjupningar i bland annat perception, objektsigenkänning, symbolik och färgers betydelse. Genom våra undersökningar kom vi fram till att det inte finns något enkelt svar på huruvida märken känns igen eller inte. Bland våra utvalda märken var könsbundenheten låg, och ålder har viss betydelse för igenkänningen. Detta genom att äldre respondenter hade en högre igenkänning än de yngre.</p> / <p>Bachelor theses with the main purpose to investigate how well people recognize corporate brands without the logotype being present. We have achieved our results by using a mixture of both qualitative and quantitative methodology, and all of our collected data has been gathered through a survey. Our theoretical perspectives come from a variety of disciplines, such as psychology and information design, including perception, object recognition, symbolism and the importance of colours. After analysing our gathered data, we feel quite confident in claiming that there are no simple answers when it comes to our abilities to recognize corporate brands. We noticed that the gender of our respondents had none or very little impact when it comes to recognition, but age on the other hand was quite a large factor. We came to the conclusion that our older respondents recognized far more corporate brands than our younger respondents.</p>

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att skapa förståelse för hur ledningen i tjänsteföretag praktiskt arbetar med att internt kommunicera företagets kärnvärden, vision och företagskultur med hela organisationen. Metod: Empirisk data har samlats in genom intervjuer och studien omfattas därför av kvalitativ ansats. Semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts med respondenter på fyra olika fastighetsmäklarföretag. Datainsamlingen har sedan analyserats genom en abduktiv analysmetod med inspiration från A well grounded theory. Resultat &amp; slutsats: Resultaten i denna studie visar att det främst handlar om att få alla i organisationen att leva företagets identitet i vardagen. För att lyckas med det använder sig företagen av olika kommunikationskanaler, utbildningar och inspiration, så som föreläsningar och tävlingar. Viktigt är också att ledningen uppträder föredömligt och att budskapen i varumärket genomsyras i alla företagets aktiviteter. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Vi föreslår att framtida studier kan riktas mot tjänsteföretags uppföljning av dess interna varumärkesarbete. Ytterligare ett förslag är att studera effekterna av det interna varumärkesarbetet utifrån de anställdas perspektiv då tidigare forskning tyder på att de anställda kan uppfatta varumärket på olika sätt. Uppsatsens bidrag: Då det saknas empiriska studier rörande internt varumärkesarbete anser vi att vårt bidrag med denna studie är at vi har skapat förståelse för hur ledningen i tjänsteföretag kommunicerar företagsidentiteten internt inom organisationen. Vi har heller inte funnit någon tidigare studie som inriktat sig på det interna varumärkesarbetet enbart inom fastighetsmäklarföretag och anser därför att vi har bidragit med kunskap till denna bransch. / Aim: The purpose of this study is to create an understanding of how management in service companies work practically with the internal communication of the company's core values, vision and culture of the entire organization. Method: Empirical data were collected through interviews and therefore subject to the qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted on four different real estate brokerage firms. The collected data is then analyzed by an abductive method of analysis inspired by A well grounded theory. Result &amp; Conclusions: The results from this study shows that it’s mainly about getting the organization to live the corporate identity in the everyday life. In order to succeed with this, companies is using different communication channels, training programs and inspirational activities, thus lectures and competitions. It is also important that the management appears admirably, and that the message of the brand is imbued in all corporate activities. Suggestions for future research: We suggest that future studies can be dedicated to how corporate brands monitoring its internal branding. Another proposal is to study the effects of internal brand building based on employees' perspective, as previous research indicates that employees may perceive the brand in different ways.Contribution of the thesis: Since there is no empirical studies related to internal branding, we believe that our contribution of this study is that we have created an understanding of how management in service companies communicates corporate identity internally within the organization. We have neither found any previous study that focused on the internal branding work exclusively in the real estate brokerage firm, and therefore believe that we have contributed knowledge to this industry.

C-uppsats vars huvudsyfte var att undersöka hur stor igenkänning människor har av företagsmärken utan att logotypen finns med. Genom att arbeta med både en kvalitativ och kvantitativ metod har vi fått fram våra resultat, detta genom att våra respondenter besvarade en enkät. Våra teoretiska perspektiv kommer från en blandning av olika ämnesområden, så som psykologi och informationsdesign med fördjupningar i bland annat perception, objektsigenkänning, symbolik och färgers betydelse. Genom våra undersökningar kom vi fram till att det inte finns något enkelt svar på huruvida märken känns igen eller inte. Bland våra utvalda märken var könsbundenheten låg, och ålder har viss betydelse för igenkänningen. Detta genom att äldre respondenter hade en högre igenkänning än de yngre. / Bachelor theses with the main purpose to investigate how well people recognize corporate brands without the logotype being present. We have achieved our results by using a mixture of both qualitative and quantitative methodology, and all of our collected data has been gathered through a survey. Our theoretical perspectives come from a variety of disciplines, such as psychology and information design, including perception, object recognition, symbolism and the importance of colours. After analysing our gathered data, we feel quite confident in claiming that there are no simple answers when it comes to our abilities to recognize corporate brands. We noticed that the gender of our respondents had none or very little impact when it comes to recognition, but age on the other hand was quite a large factor. We came to the conclusion that our older respondents recognized far more corporate brands than our younger respondents.

La thèse vise principalement à démontrer la pertinence du marketing d'entreprises aux consommateurs. A travers deux articles, nous explorons le concept de marketing de l'entreprise dans les domaines qui constituent un intérêt considérable dans la communauté académique telle que les émotions et les relations des consommateurs avec l'entreprise. Le premier article traite des implications des marques d'entreprises vis-à-vis des expériences émotionnelles de consommateurs. L'étude démontre que les différences au niveau conceptuel entre des marques d'entreprises et des marques de produits donnent lieu à des différences significatives et importantes sur les réactions émotionnelles et comportementales des clients. Dans le second article, nous nous concentrons sur la relation de l'identification du consommateur avec les entreprises (ICE). Cette recherche élabore les mécanismes d'engagement basés sur l'identité et leur effet sur les réponses des consommateurs à de nouvelles initiatives de la société.Le troisième article aborde d'une autre question de recherche. Etant donné que les études empiriques faisant l'objet des deux premiers articles font appel à des étudiants comme participants, notre troisième article se concentre sur le fait d'utiliser un échantillon d'étudiants dans les recherches en marketing. / The thesis primarily aims to demonstrate the relevance of corporate marketing framework to consumers. Therefore, across two different articles we explore the concept of corporate marketing in areas which hold considerable interest among academicians i.e. consumer emotions and consumer relationships. The first article, deals with the implications of corporate brands on consumer's emotional experiences. The study demonstrates that conceptual differences between corporate and product brands have important and meaningful differences on consumer's emotional and behavioral reactions. In the second article, we focus on consumer's identification relationship with companies. This research elaborates the mechanisms of identity-based commitment and its effect on consumer responses to new company initiatives. The proposed two-tiered, identification-based commitment model explains both positive and negative consumer reactions, an insight missing from prior studies.Finally, the thesis includes a 3rd article which discusses a rather different issue. As the empirical studies in the first two articles use “students” as participants therefore, our third article focuses on the usage of student sample in marketing research. This article explores the underlying argument on the usage of student sample; problems associated with such studies, and identify best practices in French marketing research.

Submitted by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2013-10-22T13:48:48Z No. of bitstreams: 1 strobel.pdf: 3300904 bytes, checksum: e984c0dd48918a8a5b1febb5c4221230 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2013-10-22T13:49:29Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 strobel.pdf: 3300904 bytes, checksum: e984c0dd48918a8a5b1febb5c4221230 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2013-10-22T13:49:37Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 strobel.pdf: 3300904 bytes, checksum: e984c0dd48918a8a5b1febb5c4221230 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-10-22T13:50:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 strobel.pdf: 3300904 bytes, checksum: e984c0dd48918a8a5b1febb5c4221230 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Considerando o crescente número de empresas brasileiras que tem investido em unidades operacionais no exterior e a necessidade de criar a identidade de uma corporação transnacional, esta pesquisa objetivou explorar a existência e a influência de um processo estruturado de construção de marca corporativa global por parte de empresas transnacionais brasileiras do segmento business to business. Um estudo múltiplo de casos foi realizado entre cinco empresas significativas listadas no ranking de transnacionalidade. Ao final desta pesquisa, foi possível verificar que embora todas as empresas estudadas afirmarem possuir um processo de construção de marca corporativa global, tal fato não se confirmou. Também verificou-se que o nível de maturidade do processo entre as empresas é diverso, bem como a sua importância no sucesso da internacionalização, diante das características distintas das corporações estudadas. Uma série de dificuldades neste processo, bem como as soluções adotadas e propostas são indicadas. A relevância dos diversos stakeholders no Brasil e no exterior no processo de internacionalização foi analisada, e entre as empresas estudadas não houve uma forte distinção destes no Brasil e no exterior. Verificou-se haver aderência entre os processos espontâneos de construção de marca corporativa das empresas e as linhas de pensamento dos pesquisadores estudados, existindo peculiaridades na maneira em como o processo se estabelece e em como a identidade corporativa se expressa. / Considering the increasing number of Brazilian companies that have invested in operational units overseas and need to establish the identity of a transnational corporation, this research aimed to explore the existence and the influence of a structured process of building a global corporate brand by Brazilian TNCs from the business to business segment. A multiple case study was conducted between five major companies listed in the ranking of transnationality. At the end of this study, we observed that although all the studied companies claimed to have a process of building the corporate brand globally, that fact was not confirmed. It was observed that the maturity level of the process and its importance in the success of the internationalization is diverse among companies, given the distinct characteristics of the corporations studied. A number of difficulties in this process and the solutions adopted and proposals are indicated. The relevance of the various stakeholders in Brazil and abroad in the internationalization process was analyzed, and among the studied companies there were not solid differences in Brazil and abroad. It was found to have adhesion between the spontaneous processes of building the corporate brand and the lines of thought of the researchers studied, even though there are peculiarities in the way as the process is established and how the corporate identity is expressed. KEYWORDS: