Today, in the 2 1 century, it seems inappropriate for us to mention words. Even in a very prosperous period, it has not brought a few successful examples to China enterprises, but the more we are in a trough, we should look further.
American futurist John? Naisbitt emphasized that 2 1 century will return to the Dragon Century and China will become a world power. With the development of China's market economy, corporate image must be established through modern design, and CI is the representative with modern design characteristics.
The word CI (corporate image) is no stranger to designers or entrepreneurs in China. It became popular in the 90' s, but now it's depressed. With China's entry into WTO and China's enterprises striving for international brands, will CI "fail" or help enterprises?
Creating brand is the fundamental task of CI, so what mode will CI appear in China enterprises and accomplish this task?
CI was introduced to China in 1980s and helped some domestic enterprises take off in 1990s. People think it is mysterious. Here, let's see what CI is.
Japanese say CI is a method, while China says CI is a strategy. I said CI is a business strategy first. According to the three pillar theories of CI, namely, the individual image of the enterprise, the impression of the enterprise and the identification design of the enterprise, Professor Padland of the United States has made a famous division of the CI system. Represents MI, BI and VI respectively. For example, a country, like its constitution, determines the nature of the country; Bi is a national law, which stipulates the code of conduct of citizens, while VI is the national flag and national emblem. As far as personal image is concerned, a person's temperament and personality are all personal images; Behavior and accomplishment are individual impressions, while hairstyle and clothing are individual recognition. For commercial design, in addition to professional performance, the overall image and performance characteristics are BI design, professional ethics and public behavior are BI norms, and shape packaging is VI communication. In today's changeable packaging, people have higher requirements for the personal image and impression of stars? The second generation boss of IBM thinks that as an entrepreneur, he should position himself as: to have excellent business creed; Be able to keep your promise; At the same time, we must have the courage to change these beliefs at any time. This is his MI and BI design. Similarly, enterprises also need a business strategy: the nature and function of enterprises are MI, the code of conduct of enterprises is BI, and the visual communication systems such as signs and advertisements are VI. Now when it comes to CI, it is always associated with enterprises, because enterprises need business strategies more. It is not enough for enterprises to produce products, from raw materials to market, only to improve product quality. In today's society with surplus commodities, consumers have gradually shifted from pursuing the value of the material itself to attaching importance to the management strategy of improving information. Therefore, CI is also the product of business strategy and communication culture.
With the constant change of the world economic structure and the constant shift of the economic center of gravity, from the hegemony of the United States and the Soviet Union to the rise of Japan's economy, and then to the promotion of multi-polarization of world powers and global economic integration, the CI wave swept Europe and America, swept Japan and landed in China? The United States has its own words, Japanese has its own words, and China also has its own words. Every country's CI design has its own characteristics. In different periods, CI has experienced ups and downs in these countries, and enterprises in various countries also have different trends.
In Europe, it is the birthplace of words. AEG Electric Company in Germany was the first company, and then in 1930s, the British government invited Edward? Well-known designers such as Johnston designed the subway transportation system with a unified image, which deepened the public's impression.
It is the United States that really introduces CI into enterprises and determines its important position. In the 1950s and 1970s, after World War II, the European economy was in urgent need of recovery, while the United States ushered in an unprecedented good economic development environment. American sociologists put forward the concept of "post-industrial society" in the late 1950s, and the government has realized that the industrial society has been transformed into an information society in which knowledge is capital. American International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) has always been regarded as a model for the early successful introduction of CI. It inspired many advanced enterprises in the United States to introduce CI, such as Mobile Oil Company and Westinghouse Electric Company. 1970, after the Coca-Cola Company innovated the Coca-Cola logo on a global scale, famous 3M companies, major airlines, banks, chain stores, Chrysler and other famous automobile companies? Many enterprises have joined the ranks of introducing CI. It is worth noting that the United States knew at that time that in the information society, as far as the composition of wealth is concerned, knowledge will account for an increasing proportion of intangible assets. Take the world-famous Nike Company as an example. While many manufacturers are rushing to sell their products, it doesn't have a production factory. Manufacturers are all authorized by Nike to produce products of "Nike" brand by license. All the property of Nike company is Nike products.
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Brand and trademark, as well as marketing ability and design and development ability. Nike occupies a dominant position in the global sports shoes market by virtue of the intangible asset of brand. This tells us that the integrated symbol image created by CI can ensure the informationization of commodity brands; It can ensure that enterprises grasp the overall effect of information output in macro-control.
Japan began to introduce European and American technologies from the Meiji Restoration, and the defeated country that took off after World War II became the world's largest exporter of electrical appliances and automobiles. In 1950s and 1970s, when CI in the United States flourished, CI in Japan just started. Japanese companies such as TDK, Ito Tang Rong and Mazda have introduced CI. What they have done is to give their own enterprise logos standards and norms, so that it can follow a norm from high-rise buildings to business cards and envelopes, and play a role in unifying visual effects. In fact, this is just the design of visual identification system-VI design. At the same time, this comprehensive standardization operation has unexpectedly brought about the improvement of management efficiency and achieved high returns at low cost. Among them, Mazda and Rong Da Department Store are still considered as typical successful cases after landing in Japan. This is only the first phase of the fourth phase of Japanese CI design, and the fun is yet to come. Introducing the concept of CI into China shows that Japan has always been good at learning, absorbing and copying the successful experience of the West.
At that time, domestic political movements continued and there was no stable social environment centered on economic development. Under the planned economy system of "eating from the same pot", CI design was regarded as the product of capitalist countries and was ruthlessly shut out of the country.
Around the 1980s, or rather, at the end of the 1970s, the CI fever in the United States dropped sharply. At that time, the American economy was depressed, so design companies could not have a steady stream of jobs like Japanese design companies, and the demand for design in China was not still in short supply? This kind of "active" design company is even popular in the United States in designing, financing and selling. In theory, scholar Li Ai? Li Si put forward that CI theory is an "inside-out" way of thinking: from the perspective of enterprises, not from the perspective of consumers. This marketing concept from "sales concept" to "market concept" is inconsistent. "Words inevitably have the limitations of the times." The crisis of IBM in the United States began in the late 1980s, which can be said to be a precursor to the negative effects of CI strategy. When Americans realize that CI strategy needs to be sublimated and improved, Japanese business circles can no longer hear the phrase "Why CI". . As an effective combat readiness management method, CI has been understood and accepted by many enterprises, and it has been introduced in a positive attitude. The development of CI design in Japan has experienced three periods: "Ginza House", "Koiwai Dairy" and the well-known Jianwu "Jianwu" are the second successful period; In order to expand the scope of services and improve the comprehensive quality of enterprises, the third phase represented by Kirin Beer, Tokyo Insurance Company and Brixton Tire; In the second half of 1980s, successful examples of CI abound, prompting more and more Japanese enterprises to think about how to explore their own business resources by introducing CI. For example, INAX Ceramics Company replaced the old image with a brand-new name and design, and positioned its corporate philosophy as "creating environmental beauty". It is worth mentioning that Japanese enterprises are very keen on the characteristics of "post-industrial society" in the west, and their design style keeps up with the world trend and turns into "postmodernism" style. Modern designer Robert? Venturi describes the characteristics of post-modern design in this way: I like mixed-blood elements rather than pure, twisted rather than straightforward, ambiguous rather than clear, inclusive rather than exclusive. Moreover, while paying attention to the enterprise concept, Japan has strict requirements on the design and production methods of CI. "CI tree" is a proof that when designing for an enterprise, it is a "process tree" to design various CI trees with investigation as the root and enterprise planning department as the stem; The "extended tree" to express the design content is just like the CI tree (figure) developed by NTT, a Japanese telecom company, in the application design based on basic image. It can be seen that the Japanese work attitude is rigorous and serious. In addition, at that time, Japanese enterprises seized every opportunity to introduce CI, and the tactics changed endlessly, which is worth learning from China enterprises.
In 1980s, the spring breeze of reform and opening-up swept through China. The national leaders put forward the idea of "building Socialism with Chinese characteristics", taking economic construction as the center and material and spiritual civilization as the basic point, and the socialist market economic system was initially established. How much the political and economic policies introduced one after another have changed people's lives can be seen from the changes in Chinese values. Especially in coastal cities and special economic zones where the economy developed first, more and more people accept "foreign brands" and "foreign culture", and the times have long prohibited us from boycotting foreign goods. Japanese electrical appliances and American daily necessities have occupied a place in many families. Subsequently, CI design also had a hazy understanding in the hearts of China people. "Why is McDonald's logo so eye-catching?" "Why is the name Coca-Cola so beautiful?" But after all, China is a big country with a vast territory and a large population. At the beginning of the primary stage of the development of socialist market economy, there are still most people who are not rich. When developed capitalist countries entered the information society, China had not solved the problem of food and clothing. At this time, designers kept warning entrepreneurs whose minds were still in the stage of agricultural civilization and food and clothing, hoping that they would consider the problem of shaping corporate image and brand image as an input and output. In fact, at that time, China
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There are not many advertising design companies, and no professional companies can control CI.
In the 1990s, although CI has declined in the United States, other business strategies based on it have continuously enriched it. CI design in the United States pays attention to the spread of VI part. It does not pay attention to the cultivation of enterprise concept and the formulation of business strategy. As mentioned above, it lacks marketing concept. As a result, western developed countries have produced CS, that is, customer satisfaction strategy. From 65438 to 0986, under the guidance of CS theory, an American market research company published the ranking of customer satisfaction with automobiles for the first time. As a business strategy that conforms to the demand trend of the times, it makes up for the lack of CI's overemphasis on the image of the enterprise itself, and makes CI's strategy jump out of the enterprise-centered, move towards the consumer-centered and continue to play its functional effect.
Just as the CI in the United States was sublimated, Japan encountered problems again. Japanese CI emphasizes corporate culture as the leading factor, and emphasizes MI and CBI in CI. Because it involves a wide range and is difficult to implement, not many people can operate MI and BI together. In addition, many scholars pay attention to "CI pollution"-the negative impact of visual flooding caused by various advertisements on society. Others think that CI is the product of bubble economy. So, how can it improve itself?
Whether CI is the product of bubble economy or not, the upsurge of CI has swept the land of China. In the 1990s, with the deepening of reform and opening up, the socialist market economic system was further established, and the developed coastal areas promoted other development, and more and more people became rich. The living standards of some big cities have reached the level of moderately developed capitalist countries. As long as clothes can keep warm, food can be eaten, watches can keep time, and refrigerators can cool, isn't it good to be "cheap and good"? This kind of values without structure and spiritual connotation is difficult to be accepted by the market with the arrival of commodity diversification. The change of people's values once again indicates the arrival of the information age in China, and people's thirst for knowledge and culture has arrived.
This is the condition for the rise of CI design in China. Enterprises in China are beginning to realize that they should not only solve their own survival value, but also realize their social value. The pursuit of information value will enable enterprises to better solve their survival value. China's economic construction is market-oriented. As long as it is conducive to the development of the market, there is no need to investigate whether the surname is "Zi" or "She". Enterprises have tasted the ups and downs of news, and the media can destroy an enterprise overnight. So everyone pays attention to the packaging of enterprises. In the 1990s, Chinese mainland was directly influenced by the CI design of Taiwan Province Province, and the design style of Taiwan Province Province was influenced by Japan, but it did not follow the world trend and enter the post-modern style like Japan. It operates in Chinese mainland and designs for Binbin suits and Jialing motorcycles. China designers consciously or unconsciously accepted Japanese postmodernism, which can be seen from the design of corporate logo at that time. Such as Sun God, Hemisphere Electric Appliances, Single-husband high-grade shirts, Langqi, etc. At this time, CI in China was still in its infancy, and with the rapid economic development at that time, CI also spread all over the country. Many advertising companies and design companies are under the banner of CI design, and the planning fee of CI is very low. Some employees claim that they can do the overall planning business of CI without reading the CI manual at all. In this dazzling and swollen world, I decided, "Jiang Taigong is fishing, who wants to take the bait?" dolcn.com
Looking forward to the future, the way of self-design popular in the superpower of the United States is different from that of Japanese design companies and China design companies, which can at least have enough to eat, and it is incomparable for a long time.
The stumbling block of Japanese design circle has been gradually removed: designers headed by Kazuo Nakagawa added business ideas and economic planning to the original CI in the United States, and also fed back this theoretical system to the United States. In terms of MI, Japan's behavior is obvious to all. For example, in Guilin Smile Hall, Japanese leaders gather employees to shout slogans every morning to strengthen the spirit of enterprise. In terms of BI, it is necessary to formulate a mechanism to stimulate the vitality of enterprises, such as Honda, and put forward a plan to rationalize the construction of employees and replace them with awards. And establish a reward and punishment mechanism in hospitality attitude, sales and service. In VI, we advocate "personalized" design and attach importance to investigation first. For example, "Matsuya Department Store" came back to life after repositioning its unified image! Therefore, while improving quality of enterprise, making marketing strategy is the guarantee for the future development of Japanese CI.
There are basically no successful examples of CI design in China. Is China not suitable for CI at present? Why did China always talk about CI in the 1990s? CI design became the most fashionable thing in China at that time. It is said that just a symbol of "Sun God" in Guangzhou is worth hundreds of millions, so everyone wants to engage in CI. But is CI a "flash in the pan" in China enterprises? From a political point of view, China enterprises have just entered the market, and many enterprises have not straightened out the most basic' enterprise problems'. It's too early to talk about CI. Representative experts in China have also put forward this view. The requirement of China enterprises is survival and development. What needs to be solved urgently is not to introduce CI, but to establish a modern enterprise system, strengthen the construction of enterprise culture and improve the overall quality of enterprise employees. Economically, China's economy has developed rapidly, but due to its basic national conditions, it still can't keep up with western developed capitalism, and the market economy system needs to be improved.