The corporate identity and corporate image of KLM: A Gap Analysis

It is vital for an organization to brand itself in the best way since the reputation of an organization will determine its success to a great extent. A case study towards KLM is conducted to reveal the corporate identity and corporate image: the possible gaps are determined with the gap analysis framework of Van der Grinten (2010). To determine the corporate identity the management (desired identity) and the employees (actual identity) of KLM were interviewed. Also KLM’s website and Facebook (online identity) were analyzed. To determine the corporate image customers (online image) of KLM were interviewed. The identity is revealed with an analysis design of Van der Grinten (2010) which contains a mixed method approach. This research shows that the offline oriented analysis design is easily adaptable to an online field. Outcome: the identity amongst the management and the employees match to a high extent. However a few gaps are revealed between the identity that the management desires and the identity that is displayed on the website and Facebook. Another gap is revealed between the desired identity of the management and the online image among KLM’s Facebook audience.