Abstract
This article outlines the nature, significance and legacy of Wally Olins (1930–2014) vis-a-vis corporate identity and brand management. Celebrated for his corporate identity/corporate brand consultancy work he is also known for his considerable published output relating to corporate identity and branding. In the writer’s estimation, Olins helped to inspire a generation of marketing scholars who, in turn, established corporate identity a distinct area of marketing thought. The author notes the significance of his binary definitions of corporate identity. Olins states that corporate identity is essentially design focused. He also states that it relates to an institution’s core traits and activities. As such, his reflections explain why, today, there are different approaches (both academic and practitioner) to the area. His explication of the corporate personality is also of note. It is argued that Olins was part of the English corporate-level marketing revolution where, along with academics and practitioners, the later including David Bernstein and Stephen King, he accorded importance not only to products and services in marketing contexts but, significantly, to corporations and other organisations too. For much of his career (1965–2000) he was a champion for corporate identity and the author herein offers two explanations why Olins distanced himself from the corporate identity construct post 2000 and focused on brands, and corporate brands.
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1took his PhD at Strathclyde University, Scotland in 1996 and within 3 years was elected Professor of Corporate Identity at Bradford University School of Management. He subsequently was conferred the title of Professor of Corporate Brand/Identity Management in the same university in recognition of his seminal scholarship on both territories. In a similar vein, in 2007, he was appointed Professor of Corporate Marketing at Brunel University, London. All three Professorial positions are understood to be the first appointments of their kind. Since the early 1990s, he has been a leading proponent of the strategic importance of corporate identity. He is credited with writing the first articles on corporate brands (1995) and corporate marketing (1998) and is known for his seminal works on these areas. In 2006 he co-developed the corporate brand heritage notion. He is the founder, chairman and conference organiser of the International Corporate Identity Group. He is known for his articles in these areas which have been published in leading journals such as the California Management Review, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of General Management, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, British Journal of Management, Long Range Planning, etc. He is Chairman of the Board of Senior Consulting Editors for the Journal of Brand Management.
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Balmer, J. Wally Olins (1930–2014), corporate identity ascendancy and corporate brand hegemony. Celebrating the life of Wally Olins: Leading corporate identity exponent and prominent brand proponent. J Brand Manag 21, 459–468 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2014.19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2014.19