Corporate Identity of Startups

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.

1
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
S

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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

18
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

19
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

32
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

33
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”.

34
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.

36
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.

37
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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