Brand identity-image congruence framework for business-to-business banks within South Africa

Abstract

Brand and branding are concepts that are often used interchangeably even though their theoretical descriptions are nuanced. The former is aimed at instilling a specific image or position about a firm in consumers’ minds. The latter is a practice to build and communicate what a firm’s brand is and what it stands for. Therefore, brands are built through the process of branding. This study is located within brand management and explored brand identity-brand image congruence in business-to-business (B2B) banks in South Africa. Brand identity management is a topical subject which has attracted attention from numerous academics, yet research on B2B banks’ brand identity is scant. Moreover, extant brand identity frameworks are largely conceptual and have not been empirically tested for applicability or validity, particularly in the B2B bank sector, hence their robustness is debatable. To this extent, this study explored the applicability of a prominent brand identity framework, namely Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism within the South African B2B banking sector. This framework approaches brand building from a dual standpoint based on identity (internalisation/picture of the sender) and image (externalisation/picture of the receiver), hence it was adopted for the current study. Moreover, the study investigated whether brand identity was congruent with brand image in South African B2B bank brands. To gain insights into brand identity, extant literature was reviewed, whereafter a research gap was identified. An interpretive and exploratory qualitative research design was deemed best-suited to address the research gap. Thus, this study triangulated a qualitative data collection method (depth interviews) and a qualitative data analysis technique (content analysis). The findings revealed that brand identity was incongruent with brand image within the South African B2B banking sector. Moreover, Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism was found to be applicable in this sector except for the Reflection and Self-Image dimensions. To date, there is no universally accepted framework to build coherent brand identities in the B2B bank sectors, consequently, as a key contribution this study proposes a Brand Identity-Image Congruence (BI-IC) framework for B2B bank brands. The BI-IC framework, which is empirically informed and theoretically robust, may prove of value to fragmented B2B bank brands. Aligning a brand’s identity to its image is vital, particularly in services sectors such as B2B banks, where a firm’s actual character may be the only source of differentiation. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this investigation is the first of its kind. This study therefore makes a unique contribution to the body of literature on strategic brand identity management and can guide academic investigations into the topic as well as practitioners’ application.