Corporate identity

The corporate identity is typically visualized by branding and with the use of trademarks,[1] but it can also include things like product design, advertising, public relations etc.

Consonance, in the context of marketing, is a unified message offered to consumers from all fronts of the organization (Laurie & Mortimer, 2011)[failed verification].

IMC is a collective of concepts and communications processes that seek to establish clarity and consistency in the positioning of a brand in the mind of consumers.

The stake holders concerned at this stage are consumers, local communities, media and interest groups (Duncan and Moriarty, 1998 as cited in Laurie & Mortimer, 2011).

Moving forward, the last stage of Duncan and Moriarty's Communication Based Model (as cited in Laurie and Mortimer, 2011) is stage three where message sources are at the corporate level of the organization; these message sources include administration, manufacturing operations, marketing, finance, human resources and legal departments.

The stakeholders at this level of IMC integration are employees, investors, financial community, government and regulators (Duncan and Moriarty, 1998 as cited in Laurie & Mortimer, 2011).

By unifying all fronts of the marketing firm, communications are synchronized to achieve consistency, consonance and ultimately strong corporate identity.

Religions created some of the most recognized identity marks: the Christian cross, the Judaic Star of David, and the Islamic crescent moon.

In addition, Kings and nobles in medieval times had clothing, armor, flags, shields, tableware, entryways, and manuscript bindings that all bore coats of arms and royal seals.

The symbols depicted a lord's lineage, aspirations, familial virtues, as well as memoirs to cavalry, infantry, and mercenaries of who they were fighting for on the battlefields.

Simple graphics such as the caduceus carried so much socio-economic and political weight by the 16th century, that government offices were established throughout Europe to register and protect the growing collection of trademarks used by numerous craft guilds.

Global television networks and the rise of business news have caused the public representation of organizations to critically influence the construction and deconstruction of certain organizational identities more than ever before.

Many companies pro-actively choose to create media attention and use it as a tool for identity construction and strengthening, and also to reinvent their images under the pressure of new technology.

The media also has the power to produce and diffuse meanings a corporation holds, therefore giving stakeholders a negotiation of the organizational identity.