Linnaeus University was created January first, 2010 and set step in to a market where the competition between universities is increasing. It’s in fact increasing to a degree where universities might be forced to shut down as a result of the competition. As the competition is growing, schools marketing efforts is getting more professional. Many universities now have a well thought out strategy for attracting students and to get a competitive advantage. In order to accomplish this it’s essential for organizations to acquire and retain some uniqueness that cannot be imitated by competitors and in the last two decades there has been an increasing attention paid to corporate identity management as a source of competitive advantage. Most researchers perceive corporate identity as an organization´s presentation of itself to its various stakeholders and the way it distinguishes itself from similar and/or competitive organizations.Using a qualitative research method we studied the case of Linnaeus University. The purpose of this research was to study how Linnaeus University is using their corporate identity in their communication against students and employers. After analyzing the results of our empirical study and reflecting on the theoretical framework we concluded that Linnaeus University places great emphasis in their identity, that it is of great importance to them and that they have put a lot of effort in their corporate identity and how they mediate it in their communication. They have a clear picture of they see the university and how they want to communicate the identity, the basis for this is clarity and a strong internal communication strategy. In accordance with the theoretical framework Linnaeus University has a good corporate identity management and the university is so far a success.We believe that there is further research that should be carried out in the field of corporate identity and image in the world of academics. More qualitative as well as quantitative empirical research would be interesting, especially to use a comparative research design investigating both several universities and potential students.

Thesis (doctoral)--Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 171-183).

In my diploma thesis I'm dealing with questions of visual communication and corporate identity in connection with company's management. At first I briefly characterize termins connected with this topic such as communication, visual communication, corporate identity. In the second part of my thesis I made a set of advices and recommendations for management of small companies, which should help them to orient in the problematics of corporate identity and visual style. These recommendations are supported by practical example of graphical manual I made for that.

This is an unconventional study, which addresses the thematic field and the esoteric nature and essence of Corporate Identity. The thesis concentrates in the understanding of Corporate Identity aiming towards an holistic explanation of the concept appropriate for practical multidisciplinary use. It proposes a systematic methodology and establishes a design practitioner perspective, which aims at reliable co-ordination and control of Corporate Identity operations. The methodology to structure the literature A Strategic methodology of questions was developed to operate as a research methodology, which explored Corporate Identity, by revealing the “Form” of its concepts, its connections and its anomalies, as they occur extensively in the published and public domain. The review of published literature was carried out through a discussion process of published material subjected to diagnostic questions; through which the Terminology, Functional concepts, Methodologies are reported to influence Corporate Identity; contributing to the understanding of Corporate Identity’s Form and to further clarifying research issues. Literature review, was subjected to discussion, provisional observations and conclusions and is presented into 8 chapters. The Strategic Enquiry continued and extended on discussing Corporate Identity Field Examples, to interrogate real life experience material, to reveal an extended understanding of overt and covert issues of Corporate Identity’s Form, and to focus research planning accordingly. This process contributed into bringing together clusters of relevant information, gleaned from a rather fragmented published literature, thus forming a more holistic and broader understanding of the concept. However, from this holistic picture it was observed that certain essential texts are missing. Hence a further information literature search, was carried out which reported on texts which are not sufficiently or at all covered in specialised Corporate Identity literature but were regognised by this researcher as essential for a meaningful development of this thesis. The most important information brought into the context of Corporate Identity, at this stage, was a well established tool applicable to complex design projects, which was considered to be useful towards a more effective and holistic Corporate Identity control. The Field work This systematic approach and treatment of the published material contributed to an holistic understanding of the nature, scope, importance, complexity and topicality, of the subject; and lead to a diagnostic understanding of important problems that continually challenge the field. This was achieved through the research design of the thesis, which incorporated the inferences and observations of the Strategic Enquiry and the tried and tested systems design model for the organisation of complex design projects was used as a reference datum to inform the compilation of the questions of a semistructured interview. The Field study explored how Corporate Identity processes were holistically carried out in a Big UK financial institution specifically looking for practice discontinuities and deviations in the procedures. A diagnostic tool appropriate to investigate Corporate Identity operations was created as a result. The interview material was also subjected to content analysis to explore whether the thesis’ inferences and deductions could d also be grounded in practice. The thesis was then evaluated by relating the thesis material, to the thesis objectives, highlighting the outcomes and limitations employing SWOT analysis. As an epilogue to this thesis, within resources available this study appears to have contributed a substantial insight to the Form and operations of Corporate Identity. It also identified the opportunity for more valuable research, to be carried out.