Abstract:

Advertisers working with retailers often find it difficult to differentiate them from competitors. The retailing mixes close that the bases of differences shrink. Advertising and communication now receives the task of creating this difference, a singularity, an identity. But what is an identity ? How can it be analysed? What are the possible sources of communication differentiation? A model of identity analysis is presented: a retailer's identity has six distinct but inter-related facets, which can be used to differentiate it from its close competitors. This model, called identity prism, is used as a guide for maintaining singularity and coherence across all retailer's communication outputs. Today the message style has become the message itself: the identity prism is an attempt to control what was so far abandoned to the hazards of mere creativity.