Study on Service Identity and Identity Framework

Abstract

Objective: Service industry has become the most important industry among various economic activities, as the percentage of service related industry in advanced nations is over 60% of their GDP and the percentage of service industry in South Korea, a traditional manufacturing nation, now takes up over 60% of the entire economy. Background: Such industry paradigm shift has changed consumers from those that simply purchased products into groups of people that evaluate the companies that manufacture products, thereby further intensifying competition among companies and increasing the importance of integrated communication between companies and consumers. However, the excessive existence of sub-identities that have been developed for integrated management of the existing corporate identities, as well as the undifferentiated general management strategies by companies are creating confusion not only for consumers but also for various corporate interest parties. In addition, service identity strategy has become the most important strategy than any other sub-identity strategies in forming corporate identity at the increased importance of corporate service in the era of service industry. However, the current domestic circumstance is that the concept of service identity has not been well established through specific related studies. Method: Accordingly, the existing academic and field studies on the corporate identity(CI), brand identity(BI) and product identity(PI) used for the communication with consumers were reviewed in this study to establish and summarize the concept of service identity(SI) that appeared at the service economization. Results: The purpose is to examine the kind of change that could be brought about by SI for the corporate integrated identity strategy developed through the existing corporate, brand & product image in order to present a new direct in corporate identity strategy according to the industry paradigm shift through a SI centered new corporate identity framework. Conclusion: For preparing the new era of service industry, the corporate integrated identity strategy must be integrate with concept of service identity and which is essential to differential from other companies. Application: The proposed concept and framework of service identity on this paper will help to understand and clearly define why service identity is important factor of the new idea of corporate identities.