Mission slogans in stigmatized industries

Abstract

This paper analyzes the communication of corporate identity and value proposition through mission slogans in negatively perceived industries. The mission slogan or corporate tag line is a short phrase or group of words which accompanies a company name or brand and its logo. In a previous study (Verboven, 2011), we developed a tool for the analysis of mission slogans for the chemical industry. This "functionality grid" offers the tools to analyze mission slogans as lenses through which to analyze corporate image strategies. We found that the chemical companies tried to transmit a value proposition through the mission slogan and used understatements or euphemisms for their industry.

Using the Forbes 2012 list of the 2000 biggest companies as a representative global dataset we analyze in this paper mission slogans of three industries that are facing image problems due to the social or environmental impact of their products and services, i.e. the specialized chemicals industry, the diversified metals and mining industry and natural gas utilities. Many companies in these industries use the mission slogan as a tool to improve perception about their activities. Within our sample we found evidence for recurrent defensive strategies. However, reference to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions framework (1980, 2005) did not show proof of the relevance of cultural differences.