Corporate Communication: Usage of Arts & Culture To Create Visible Corporate Identity
By Deniz Can
It's an undeniable fact that the transformation of the traditional function and the definition of culture and arts required more than a decade. Perhaps it is necessary to conduct further discussion to clarify the previous statement. We can suggest that many years have passed for business cycles and economic markets to become particularly interested and involved in arts and culture in addition to their daily working schedules. For a business to be prestigious and referred as a top firm, it has to not only maximize its profit and own a large market share but also has to invest in art. In other words, a firm has to create positive social value to obtain esteemed status. Prior to the transformation of the meaning of culture and arts, these concepts were approached to be concerning the society rather than a tool to create the desired image that reflects a corporation's identity and vision. Many corporate communication experts have been using the field of art and culture in order to reveal their corporate identity for many years now and everyday numerous corporations all over the world are getting involved in culture and arts as well. In corporate sector the new promotional and communication skills to eventually sell a product, improve/shift/transform corporate image, ensure consumers of the corporation about the ethical standards and values of the firm definitely require an interest in arts and culture. The new trend of conducting corporate communication via granting sponsorship to a gallery, corporate collections or sponsorship to particular exhibitions is not a hundred percent effective depending on the capabilities of the corporate consultant and the standards of the CEO. For an effective corporate communication to be established through art, the selected collection items, sponsored art events and consultants should be monitored and decided upon carefully to fit the corporate vision. For instance, a traditional firm with strong ties to conservative approach to social and ethical values is not expected to accumulate a controversial and sexually explicit art collection. Similarly, a young and innovative firm to sponsor a traditional and conservative exhibition or an art gallery may confuse the target group of the firm and may even damage the corporate image instead of strengthening its place among the sector’s finest. Also, for a nationally accepted and appreciated art gallery or a cultural event to be sponsored by a highly controversial firm would create negative reactions in the population and its reputation would face the threat of eroding.
As previously stated, corporate communication through the usage of arts and culture leads to a perception of the corporate identity.
Just take the case of ‘profiling’ people boarding airplanes. What is the ‘real’ information to base a ‘real’ assessment? What facts can be gleaned from a face, a name, and a passport? ...Knowledge is information of which a person, organization or other entity is aware and is gained either by experience, learning and reasoning, but also through perception, which can often be based on miss representation and miss recognition.
Claims Maia Damianovic in her article "Monologues of Fear" in Kontrol’s first issue The Pornography of Fabricating Fear. Even if the corporate communication that is constructed by arts and culture does not provide ‘real’ information on the firm, it definitely provides solid grounds to create perception. Often, the perception or the feeling of the firm is far more important to the society than what really happens in a business. A firm can benefit from the asymmetric information so far; eventually the firms that manage to overlap the ‘real’ information with the perception would succeed in terms of corporate communication.
I did it myself the other day, referring in a Guardian article to the controversy surrounding BP's sponsorship of the National Portrait Gallery's portrait prize. It's always seemed strange to me that BP's name was so prominently associated with an artistically conservative prize, as if big business were imposing its own aesthetic on the arts – British oil for British oil painting.
A critical view towards inappropriate match of traditional British oil painting and BP brand is just one example of poor corporate communication, which is highlighted by Jonathan Jones in his much supportive article “Tate Is Right To Take BP's Money” of Tate Modern in light of government funding cuts. In this case, the art institution does not lose its support while the sponsoring firm is found to be an inappropriate sponsor by the British society and therefore harshly criticized. In his article, Jonathan Jones continues:
So if BP doesn't get pro-oil, pro-business propaganda for its money, what does it get? Good PR, presumably ... but as I confessed above, I wasn't even aware of its Tate sponsorship – until now. If supporting Tate is meant to associate BP with cool art, it is a failure. I must have seen the BP logo a thousand times on press releases and it never lodged in my mind. I have never thought Tate=BP, let alone Tate=BP=oil is good.
The corporate communication failure of a firm with such great market share in oil industry attracts strong criticism not only from newspapers and media but also from the public, which would have been eliminated if the communication and transparency in firm operations, vision and art sponsorship was handled more professionally. Indeed, if it was done so, the firm would benefit from its funding to arts and culture rather than be hurt because of it.
The Guardian's Jonathan Jones recently wrote that if the British museums "can get money from Satan himself, they should take it." But even a pragmatist like Jones might blanch at the prospect of museums transforming themselves into branding opportunities for corporations — though lord knows this happens in the United States already.
Says Andrew M. Goldstein in his newspaper article “Merrill Lynch to UK Arts: What's in It for Us?” Goldstein is well aware of the corporate communication aspect of art and culture events and the prospects they present to both corporations and art institutions.
The choices made by corporate communication experts in using arts and culture are perceived as not mere choices but a necessity for institutionalization of art by Metin Eker in his paper on “Strategic Requirements of Artistic Production Concerning Consumption Impedances”. Eker continues his belief by pointing out political, economic and cultural institutionalization must be supported by education. He then adds, among the well-known museology and gallery ownership, the roles and services of curatorship and sponsorship in our country and the enhancement of these roles is not quite established and therefore, there may be lagging in diminishing resistances in artistic production. To contradict with Eker’s claim to a certain degree, the top firms in Turkey have been concerned with arts and culture as a branch of their corporate communication for a while now. Especially, the private banks and top firms deal with arts and culture to make a statement of their own in cultural context. Borusan, Akbank, YapıKredi and Garanti are just a few examples of the corporations that make successful decisions in cultural field to conduct efficient communication with the society.
Another statement of Eker on the other hand, is hard to contradict where he quotes Uğur 2002 p.49 about mass culture domination. He declares that every society while realizing actions to maintain and enhance its own cultural dynamics needs corporate support rooted by ‘mass culture domination’. These socio-cultural institutions can be specified as including political, educational or cultural context. Eker continues this thought by stating that the most important function of these institutions is explained by their role to be influential and cohesive about the divisions in the cultural frame (Sözen 2001, p.53-64).
To select a case from Turkey in order to explain in a better way the corporate communication dynamics between the firm, society and culture is a significant part of this quest. One of the best-known corporations in Turkey that conducts strong and flourishing corporate communication via culture and arts is Borusan. To analyze the level of efficiency of Borusan’s corporate communications, the first step is to know and understand what they currently do in terms of artistic and cultural production or sponsorship. Defining facts is an essential part of the process such as, pointing out the cultural communication activities held by the Borusan corporate communication experts. The efficiency later on will be visible through certain methodological research and data collection by in-depth interviews.
To begin with the secondary data consisting of facts, Borusan owns an art gallery in one of the most vibrant locations of Istanbul alongside with many other art galleries owned by large-scale corporations and it also owns a Music House under its firm name and similarly, owns a Music Library. The firm donates a certain fragment of its profit to secure music scholarships to talented young artists. Borusan sponsors nationwide or international music and film festivals annually such as the International Antalya Piano Festival. It also sponsors a philharmonic orchestra with its own brand name Borusan Philharmonic Orchestra and a stringed instruments quartet named Borusan Strings Quartet. Without engaging in further research at this point, we can easily observe that Borusan as a large firm is interested and active in a wide range of cultural and artistic events. The most concentrated field of art that is invested by Borusan’s funds is music, which apparent from its support to music with Borusan Children’s Choir. Last remarks on Borusan’s contribution to music industry in Turkey can be its memberships to ISCM (International Society of Contemporary Music) and EMC (European Music Council) on behalf of Turkey and realizing Mediterranean Contemporary Music Festival. The contemporary art gallery is in second place in terms of receiving funds from Borusan. Aside from contributions to arts, Borusan also invests in social responsibility projects, in fields such as education, though its Borusan Kocabıyık Foundation.
Borusan Strings Quartet
Borusan Strings Quartet In light of these basic facts, we can further investigate Borusan’s corporate communications mission, strategies and actions, which are unique to their firm and their corporate identity. Rather than viewing solely the facts, to read the meanings behind these particular actions and strategies is important for a cultural management perspective to be formed on the issue. We should understand what it means for Borusan to support and fund an art gallery or a philharmonic orchestra and whether or not it would change anything if Borusan supported a Gypsy Band instead of the mentioned so-called “high” art forms. It’s apparent that the corporate communications specialists of the firm decide to support and provide funds to high art forms in order to transmit a particular message to its consumers and the whole public, which is quite the contrary of what a pop culture event would yield. Without a doubt, the specialists also focus on the kind of message that would consequently become a positive opinion of the firm on people’s minds. This message and the constructed positive opinion usually includes a reference to how much the firm gives importance to the cultural progress of the public and the empowerment of emerging artists in cultural field. This association between high-arts, cultural progress and Borusan is the result that the corporate communication specialists aim to achieve. Even an untrained eye through using plain logic, can foresee what this association would presumably provide for the company in return. The association of Borusan with high-art can mean an increase in consumption of Borusan’s products by an elite group, it can add new potential clients, repair the damages on its image caused by previous unfortunate incidences, or simply generate a positive feeling towards Borusan through association with something that is commonly perceived as “good” by the societies all around the world: culture.
To conclude with, corporate communication is the fundamental element in the process of creating a public opinion on where a firm stands among the leading firms in a country or even the world. One of the most important requirements of conducting corporate communication is to create an image in society’s minds, which is consistent with that company’s identity. The society must not feel that they are being fooled with an illusion, in contrary, they should observe and match the transmitted message with that firm’s corporate strategies.
Another point that needs to be acknowledged is the fact that corporate communication is a delicate and easily changeable equilibrium due to the fact that news spreads very quickly via the usage of internet and digital technology. Through the possibility of quick sharing in the internet, people’s opinions of a company can be reversed in a matter of seconds. This can both be a good and a bad circumstance for a firm’s reputation and it’s communication strategy. The authors of the article Digital Strategies for Powerful Corporate Communications, Paul A. Argenti and Courtney M. Barnes state;
What I have discovered in the last two years is that applying digital strategies to corporate communications changes the rules of the game in every part of the field. From the most obvious changes in how the media operates, to who is part of the media, to ways in which digital strategies are affecting investor relations, crisis communications and corporate social responsibility, everything we know about communications has been turned upside down in the last decade. Stakeholders control the means of production in communications today as never before. Giant companies can be brought to their knees by lonely bloggers operating in every part of the world.
This quote reveals how much a company’s corporate communications can be damaged by a single person’s personal opinions. If these opinions are positive, the firm is fortunate enough to protect or preserve their image while adding one more voluntary member to their communication staff. Whereas, if these opinions shared in the web are negative, a year long work of corporate communications decisions and strategies can go to waste with only one person’s viewpoint on a particular issue concerning that firm. Furthermore, the abstract of the article Managing Corporate Image and Corporate Reputation by Edmund R. Gray and John M.T. Balmer, summarizes the need for a solid image and the difference it makes to efficiently combine the elements that create an image of the firm;
The concepts of corporate reputation and corporate identity represent a relatively new and supplemental lens through which top management can address the strategic issues facing their firm. To help guide the thinking of senior executives in managing their organization’s reputation and image, the authors present a pragmatic operational model. The model shows that in addition to an understanding of corporate reputation and image, managers need to understand their firm’s corporate identity and corporate communications, and the interrelationships amongst these components. The authors argue that in today’s sensitive business milieu, a firm’s ultimate survival may well depend on developing and maintaining a recognizable image and favorable reputation.
Consequently, with a corporate communications model that manages to effectively combine the elements that are necessary to produce a corporate reputation and which does not contradict the identity of the firm while, including digital systems in the process can yield a desired and successful result for the company. A manager should not underestimate the importance of the fact that while it takes a long time to create an image of the firm in people’s minds, it is just as easy to damage and destroy that image with the usage of failed corporate communications models. A failure of firm in the corporate communications area can also affect the consumptions of the products of the firm, which is exactly the opposite of the firm’s primary goal: to maximize its profit by increasing consumption.
Reference:
Reference:
- Eker, Metin. "Sanatsal Üretimin Tüketimsel Dirençlere Yönelik Stratejik Gerekleri / Strategic Requirements of Artistic Production Concerning Consumption Impedances." Print.
- Çoban, Suzan. "Sponsorship and Internet Applications as a Tool To Constitute Corporate Image." Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi. 8.2 (2003): 213-229. Print.
- Gemlik, Nilay, and Ünsal Sığrı. "The Analysis of Corporate Image and Evaluations on a Municipality." İstanbul Ticaret Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi. 6.11 (2007): 267-282. Print.
- Damianovic, Maia. "Monologues of Fear." Kontrol : The Pornography of Fabricating Fear. Online Article.
- Jones, Jonathan. "Tate Is Right To Take BP's Money." Guardian UK 29 June (2010): n. pag. Web.
- Goldstein, Andrew M. "Merrill Lynch to UK Arts: What's in It for Us?." Artinfo (August 4, 2010): Web.
- Artinfo, . "Samsung Joins Ranks of New Corporate Medicis With Guggenheim Curator Post." Artinfo 16 November (2010): Web.
- Madra, Beral. "AKD Forum At The Ottoman Mint Factory." Relais Culture. (August 2005): Print.
- Gülsünler, Makbule E. "A Theoretic and Applicational Study on Corporate Identity Process and Operation." Selçuk Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Entitüsü. Print.
- Edmund R. Gray and John M.T. Balmer “Managing Corporate Image and Corporate Reputation.” Long Range Planning. Volume 31, Issue 5. (October 1998): pag. 695-702. Web.
- Paul A. Argenti and Courtney M. Barnes “Digital Strategies for Powerful Corporate Communications.” McGraw-Hill. (2009): pag. 9. Print.
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