Identity and Image: a different way to consider the brand

Abstract

The main objective of this thesis is to provide a complete and structured analysis of the brand through three fundamental aspects: identity, culture, and image. The thesis tries to find an answer to the question: how can I understand a brand and make it competitive in the reference market? Starting from the first chapter, an in-depth analysis of identity is presented based on the main philosophical and sociological theories. It is presented the concept of identity and the difference between individual identity and corporate identity. Subsequently, it is introduced the concept of corporate culture and corporate image. The objective is to present a tripartite structure that shows the relationship between identity, culture, and image and the importance of applying it in the analysis of a company. Going on with the second chapter, it is analyzed the concept of the brand, its nature, and its components. The objective is to show the main models that have studied the concept of the brand: some of them have shown the pros and cons to allowing the reader a better understanding of our analysis approach. At this point, the third chapter presents a new model that we have structured to better analyze the brand identity and image. The model tries to overcome the limits present in the previous models and to give a wider vision to better support the brand analysis. Finally, in the last chapter, a practical example of the proposed model is presented to make it clearer and comprehensible.