Corporate Visual Identity of the Housing Company Karlskronahem: Evaluation and Possible Improvements

Abstract: Corporate visual identity (CVI) plays a significant role in the way an organization presents itself to both internal and external stakeholders as well as expresses the values and ambitions of an organization, its business, and its characteristics. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate five elements of CVI: color, typography, company name, logo and web site. Our research is of an exploratory nature as we were trying to investigate literature findings in a case study to broader our knowledge of the problem. It is also of a descriptive nature because it is necessary to have a clearer picture of the things you wish to collect data for. As a research approach both qualitative and quantitative research were used. The strategy we decided to be the most appropriate for our research is a case study. We adopted case study strategy, using Karlskronahem as a single case within which the elements of their CVI – the name, logo, typography, colors as well as web site were embedded cases. It helped us to broaden our knowledge of CVI. We also used different data collection techniques for each element, so therefore using embedded cases was a good idea. Methods used in our cases were Internet-mediated questionnaire and computer-assisted self-administered questionnaires. The primary reason for using questionnaires is that we were concerned about data quality. We were dealing with complicated questions, while at the same time we had to gather responds from huge amount of responders. Some of the positive sides of questionnaires are that the respondent is in control and may decide to pause, reread a question, or think about an answer; it gives him more time to understand the meaning of the question and retrieve and compose an answer, which improves the quality of answers. After receiving the data, data analysis had to be made. Data analysis used in this thesis relies on theoretical propositions; therefore we compared the collected information with presented literature, enabling us to draw the necessary conclusions. Data collection started with getting in touch with Karlskronahem. First we wanted to find out who exactly is their target audience. One of them is ‘students’. The reason why we decided to focus only on students as a target group is because they seemed very critical and later on – because they enabled us to gather the very first, neutral impressions about their CVI. Student's target group does not only include students who are located in Karlskrona and Sweden but also from different countries. The aspect that we were most interested in when having in mind CVI – »What are audience's responses on different elements of CVI when they are first exposed to them«? To gather first impressions was important because we wanted to concentrate on design part of Karlskronahem's CVI and not gather responds about CVI that is already colored with different information about the company etc. We found that Karlskronahem’s brand name works quite good in local market, some improvements should be made for international ones. There are also some recommendations made for logotype, especially concerning familiar meaning and effect of the logotype. To improve this, changes of elaborateness, harmony, naturalness and proportion are proposed. Company’s typography and colors hold a special place in visual identity, which is also visible in their pleasant and successful representation and usage. Results also showed that web site’s overall appeal is efficient and positive. Brand familiarity evaluation judged in favor of one company. Possible recommendation and improvements for CVI are discussed in detail in data analysis and conclusion.