The collage Arts & Corporate Branding Research streams, examples and springboard for further research Carsten Baumgarth Contact details: Prof. Dr. Carsten Baumgarth Berlin School of Economics and Law Badensche Str. 52 10825 Berlin, Germany E-Mail: cb@cbaumgarth.net Internet: www.cbaumgarth.net Accepted for 19 th ICIG Symposium 2016 University of Essex (13 th -15 th June 2016)
- 2- The collage Arts & Corporate Branding Research streams, examples and springboard for further research Motivation At a first glance, arts and business are two separate worlds with different goals, rules and mechanism. But a closer look to the history and the present (e.g, Baumgarth 2014a, b) shows a great potential of arts for business in general and branding as well as corporate branding in particular. Companies like Würth, BMW, dm, Louis Vuitton or Vitra among others use intensively arts in their corporate brand management. The goal of this paper is to present an overview of different relationships between arts and corporate brands, identify the main research streams and mention practical examples. The paper uses the idea of a collage, which is a technique of art production, where the artwork is made from an assemblage of existing elements, thus creating a new arts piece and meaning. This collage Arts & Corporate Branding should stimulate further research on the interface of arts and (corporate) branding. Due to the page limits, the collage is not included in this abstract and the abstract only mentions real examples without further explanations or references. Sections this chapter. The collage (see figure 1) is based on six overlapping sections, which are sketched in
- 3- Fig. 1: Collage Arts & Corporate Branding
- 4- (1) Arts as metaphors Arts is often a metaphor to describe, to analyze and to sharpen corporate organizations and leadership. For example, orchestra and jazz music are often used metaphors for the description of organizations (e.g. Dennis/Macaulay 2010; DePree 1992; Drucker 1998; Hatch 1998; Hatch/Weick 1998). A further research stream use arts and artist s careers as inspiration and blueprints for leadership (e.g. Anderson et al. 2010). (2) Arts as valuable information One important characteristic of arts is the debate about society, ecology and political topics. Hence, companies can benefit from the collaboration with contemporary arts and artists (e.g., street arts; Baumgarth 2015) in order to identify weak signals (e.g., ZEVS & Lavazza). For example, the German corporate brand Dornbracht cooperated with artists in order to understand the meaning of the bath room in the future. Also, the use of arts techniques like collages or sculptures can help to gain important stakeholder insights. The literature discusses this topic by the term arts-based research (e.g. Baumgarth/Yildiz 2016; Barone/Eisner 2012; Leavy 2009; McNiff 1998). (3) Arts as part and shaper of corporate culture One important facet of a corporate brand is the close relation to the corporate culture as the internal basis or driver of corporate identity. Arts is firstly an important part of the symbolic level of the corporate culture and its visual identity. Furthermore, an active management of the corporate brand is often connected with a change of corporate culture. The literature on organizational aesthetics and arts-based learning (e.g. Berthoin Antal/Strauß 2013; Carr/Hancock 2003; Darsø 2004; Linstead/Höpfl 2000; Richards 1995; Strati 1999; Schiuma 2011) offers a lot of frameworks, concepts and tools for effective arts-related change management. Finally, an arts engagement of companies can increase the employee s satisfaction and their commitment. Companies like Detecon, Allianz and Wiltmann are as best practices elements of this section of the collage. (4) Arts as CSR Several companies use arts and sponsorship of arts and cultural institutions and events as a type of CSR activities. The motives are legitimation, reputation and philanthropy. Typical variations are corporate collections (e.g. Conzen/Salié 2012; Jacobson 1993; Kottasz et al. 2000, 2008), arts sponsorship (e.g. Mermiri 2010, O Hagan/Harvey 2000, Schwaiger et al. 2010) and arts awards. Examples, which are presented in the collage, are the corporate
- 5- collection by Würth, the sponsorship of the dance festival Colours by Mercedes-Benz Bank and the Max Mara Art Price for Women. (5) Arts as differentiator Similar to section four, corporate brands integrate arts in their external communication with several stakeholder groups in order to increase brand awareness and to create a differentiated corporate image. A strong and robust theoretical and empirical mechanism of this section is the so-called arts-infusion hypothesis (e.g., Hagvedt/Patrick 2008, 2011; Huettl/Gierl 2012; Lee et al. 2015). Real examples, which are displayed in the collage, are the arts car by BMW, the corporate collection by Ritter Sport, the arts museum and other activities by Louis Vuitton as well as the corporate architecture by Vitra. (6) Arts as a tool of employer branding The last section of the collage visualizes the use of arts for employer branding. The idea of employer branding is to win and to oblige the best employees. Practical examples for this section of the collage is the corporate theater approach Abenteuer Kultur (adventure culture) by dm and the employer advertising campaign Denken ist Handeln (Thinking is acting) by BCG. Summary and outlook This short guided tour of the collage Arts & Corporate Branding underpins the potential of arts for corporate branding. However, this collage is so far a patchwork of different ideas, research streams and practical case examples. Therefore, the next step is to combine these sections with robust corporate brand frameworks. Furthermore, research should conduct empirical, qualitative and quantitative, research in order to analyze the impact of arts on the corporate brand in all six sections of the collage. In addition to that, the sections 2 6 are often based on collaborations between companies and artists. Hence, a fruitful and important research field is a deeper understanding of the barriers, drivers and management of so-called arts-brandcollaborations (e.g., Baumgarth/Sandberg 2016).
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