Marketing Essay

Identity is a group of characteristics, data or information that belongs exactly to one person or a group of people and that make it possible to establish differences between them. The consciousness that people have about themselves is part of their identity as well as what makes them unique. According to psychologists, identity is a consistent definition of one’s self as a unique individual, in terms of role, attitudes, beliefs and aspirations. Identity tries to define who people are, what they are, where they go or what they want to be or to do. Identity could depend on self-knowledge, self-esteem, or the ability of individuals to achieve their goals. Through self-analysis people can define who they are and who the people around them

Identity. What is identity? One will say that it is the distinct personality of an individual. Others will say that identity is the behavior of a person in response to their surrounding environment. At certain points of time, some people search for their identity in order to understand their existence in life. In regards, identity is shaped into an individual through the social trials of life that involve family and peers, the religious beliefs by the practice of certain faiths, and cultural awareness through family history and traditions. These are what shape the identity of an individual.

Apple is a global company represented in many parts of the world, but born in the United States by computer wizards by the names of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak who founded the company back in 1976 (Capon, 2008). The organization deals with the design and sale of computer hardware, software and offers tech support to its customers. Examples of the hardware the company manufactures and sells include mobile phones, personal computers, iPads, tablets and iTunes with associated brands, like the MacBook and iPhones that represent Apple’s driving force towards its success. It is recognized as a brand leader in consumer electronics by the world in terms of quality and customer satisfaction and despite the wide product range, Apple manages each product in a distinct way that is a single business unit (Mittan, 2010).

The concept of identity is usually described as self-image the person we thing we are and self-esteem or self worth, which is concerned with the worth we attach to that

Identity is a complicated and unclear concept that has no one definition. Nonetheless, identity plays a key role in the formation of our “true” selves. Identity is free formed, ever-changing and wildly different to diverse people. Making sense of oneself- who one is, was and may become, is the basic component of identity. When defining one 's identity there is no singular place to start. Identities are wide varieties of traits, characteristics, social roles and relationships that define who we are. It orients us and provides us with tools that will in turn shape and mold ourselves for as long as we live.

As one of the most well-known and respected companies in the world, Apple Inc. was one of the few companies to emerge from the recession stronger than ever. Started in 1976 as a computer business, most of Apple’s success has been attributed to its music- and video-related products and the iPhone. Quickly became known then as a company that made innovative consumer electronic products instead of just a company that made computers, it changed its name in 2007 from “Apple Computer” to “Apple Inc.”. As Steve Jobs, Apple’s former CEO and co-founder said, “The Mac, iPod, Apple TV and iPhone. Only one of those is a computer. So we’re changing the name.”

Identity “Roses by any other name would smell as sweet. ”-Shakespeare. Identity is an important part of who we are and who we will become. One way one's identity is created is by being prideful in who they are.

Defining the identity includes the businesses mission statement, philosophy, and how it wants to be seen by other companies and consumers. In order to find the information of a company to define it and create its mission statement, the information needed is already established by how the company does business. For example, a company who cares about the environment will recycle, use renewable energies, handle their waste properly, etc. The information provided about ToolsCorp is not actually enough information to provide the identity and mission statement.

Identity refers to the way people see themselves--the groups they feel a part of, the significant aspects of themselves that they use to describe themselves to others. Some theorists distinguish between collective identity, social identity, and personal identity. However, they are

The visual identity of a brand is what Jean-Jacques Urvoy and Sophie Sanchez describe as the “genetic code of the company‟‟ (2008 p 11) According to them it “ draw the speech of the company, what it wants to say and the meaning it wants to give to its actions” (2008,p13) Here the visual identity is seen as an important framework that holds the brand visually and fundamentally as one. Jean-Marie Floch gives a more technical definition of the visual identity: “combining writing, photography, and graphics giving meaning and value to a brand-name” (2000,p9) This last definition by Floch presents the elements which constitute a visual identity. Here the visual framework relies on words, image and graphics. The visual identity encompasses all the graphic elements which refer to a brand when you see it. Floch talks about words, images and graphics : 3

Based on the society of interdisciplinary business research, corporate identity has eight different determinants that are corporate design, corporate culture, corporate vision, corporate, industry identities and auditory. The term of CI design was first put forward by American in the 1960s，which means the enterprise management concept and spirit culture, using the whole communication system, especially the visual communication system, convey to the enterprise internal and public, and make it produce a consistent identity or values of the enterprise, so as to form a good corporate image and sales promotion product design system. CI includes mind identity, behavior identity and visual identity. Firstly, MI is a specification of mind, do is thought, how to walk one, must have a set of enterprise culture philosophy. It is the enterprise management macro and micro political instructor, playing contradiction adjustment role in the enterprise. Secondly，BI is corporate leadership and the worker's behavior norms because it is nonsense if there is only

1. Identity is people's concepts of who they are, of what sort of people they are, and how

Article 10: Corporate marketing myopia and the inexorable rise of a corporate marketing logic: Perspectives from identity-based views of the firm

The company's best-known hardware products are Macintosh computers, the iPod and the iPhone. Apple software have the Mac OS X operating system, the iTunes media browser, the iLife suite of multimedia and editing software, the iWork suite of productivity software, and Final Cut Studio, a suite of professional visual and movie-industry software products. Apple Inc. operates more than 250 retail stores in nine countries and an online store where hardware and software products are sold. Apple established in Cupertino, California on April 1, 1976 and incorporated January 3, 1977, the company was called "Apple Computer, Inc." for its first 30 years, but dropped the word "Computer" on January 9, 2007 to reflect the company's ongoing expansion into the consumer electronics market in addition to its traditional focus on personal computers.

As mentioned before it is essential that the company has a good understanding of itself. The traits described above should be used to portray the brand identity – ‘A unique set of associations that the brand strategist aspires to create or maintain. These associations represent what the brand should stand for and imply a potential promise to customers’ (All About Branding) - of the company. However, the message a company wishes to deliver and how it is perceived by the consumer (brand image) may be very different. Rekom et al. discuss the importance of the essence of the brand and how consumer’s ‘naïve theories’ may impact on the brand. According to Reckom et al.(2006) naïve theories are the associations consumers have to organise and ‘casually link the different characteristics of the brand.’ It is these casual links that form the corporate brand personality in the mind of the consumer. Based of feedback the company receives from consumers, through market research, it can see if its brand identity is inline with consumer perception. If it is not, then the company will have to augment its marketing communications strategy to suit its consumers. This is a very delicate area as diversifying too far from the brand identity may result in rejection from the consumer. This is