The Halla Group announced a new brand system in celebration of its 59th anniversary on October 1, 2021. Before the announcement, the brand identity build-up program called STRIDE campaign was launched in all global locations simultaneously, and the new brand system was introduced in the 59th anniversary event.

The fresh brand system comprised of brand identity, core values, visions and missions embodies the Halla Group’s current concerns and its future perspectives. Today, we met the Brand Strategy Team who was responsible for this project and heard their story.

 

https://halla-dhub.tistory.com/194

▲What does STRIDE mean to you? The Halla Group’s new identity launching campaign

Q1. We are familiar with the terms mission and vision, but brand system is quite new to us. Can you briefly explain what it is?

Team leader Jisoo Jung: Many people may think, “The Halla Group doesn’t have many B2C products like home appliances or food. Why is brand important for them?” People often separate the idea of a brand and a company, but a company’s mission/vision must correspond to the mission/vision that the brand pursues.

People see the Apple,IT company, as a brand itself. Likewise, all brands and companies in the world must have a single identity. So, instead of thinking that we have invented something new, it’d be better to think that we have upgraded the existing mission and vision in line with the times and made them more approachable.

Q2. What was the background to the development of the new brand system?

Team leader Jisoo Jung: The importance of the intangible asset, brand, is growing daily and ESG (environment/society/governance) is fast emerging as an essential management task. Next year is the Halla Group’s 60th anniversary. We needed to preserve our strengths while supplementing areas we were falling behind, including customer’s low level of awareness on our brand and the conservative image we had.

From a slightly different perspective, we needed to build a corporate culture that boldly rises to challenges for the Halla Group to grow continuously. To do that, we thought we needed to establish our identity in advance.

Q3. The new brand identity, STRIDE, has become a familiar word to Halla employees after the campaign. Why is it that brand identity is so important?

Manager Young-ho Lee: Like I said before, brand identity is a corporate’s identity. It is the core essence condensed into a word that represents the very purpose of the company’s existence, it’s goals, differentiated values, and the mode of their behavior. It sets the standards for external activities such as sales, planning, PR, and marketing, as well as all operational/management activities of the organization.

To give you an example of another company, Nike defines “achievement” as its brand identity. They don’t say it out loud, but they are performing their business activities with a goal of deriving a sense of achievement from all Nike customers under the slogan, “Just do it.”

Q4. What was the decisive reason for choosing STRIDE as the brand identity?

Manager Young-ho Lee: We looked through various documents such as the Group’s three-year business strategy and internal and external communications to find the right word for the Halla Group’s identity. Above all, we listened to the voice of our employees about what our goals should be, and how we’d be able to achieve them.

In the end, the keyword that Halla employees emphasized and valued the most was “growth” and “frontier”. So, we contemplated on the word that can incorporate these two values and matches well with Halla employees. In the process, we found with the word, STRIDE, meaning “to walk quickly with long steps.”

We thought the word STRIDE would represent our goals and the means to reach that goal in a word.. It also went well with the Halla Group’s corporate philosophy of continuous growth and facing new challenges.

Q5. Did it bring any change in the core values (Jeong-do management/Frontier/Working together)?

Manager Young-ho Lee: The core values are the mindset and the code of conduct that employees must have and follow to accomplish the mission and the vision. Jeong-do management and the frontier spirit are still timeless core values for the Halla Group as it moves forward to become a future-oriented, upright, and a sustainable company.

As for Working together, the Korean word has not changed, but we revised the English from “Work Together” to “Together.” Whereas we stressed working together in how we should work, we expanded the scope to include not just how we work, but also working together with various stakeholders in the society.

Q6. What is the difference between mission and vision?

Professional Min Huh: The biggest difference between mission and vision is the time frame. Vision is a corporate’s mid to long-term goals, while mission is the ultimate reason for a corporate’s existence that does not change over time.

For instance, let’s say there is a person who thought her reason for existence is to make other people happy and has pursued a dream of becoming a TV personality. Here, her mission is “to make other people happy” and her vision is “to become a TV personality.”

Q7. The new vision slogan is very straightforward. Is there anything that you’d like to add on this?

Professional Min Huh: The vision slogan also puts emphasis on frontier and growth. This has not deviated much from the “towards Halla” system. The innovator who innovates beyond the familiar carries the intent similar to “properly” that we have stressed so far, while the pioneer who challenges the unknown contains the meaning, “towards the future.”

Q8. Can you explain what the mission statement implies?

Professional Min Huh: The mission statement is the reason for the Halla Group’s existence. We wanted to to express the social values that the Halla Group pursues and the expertise of our affiliates. “Taking bold strides to enrich the world” is the social value that we seek to achieve and something that we must pursue as a company.

We used verbs like “live” and “move” to highlight the Halla Group’s role in construction and mobility industries, while the word “imagine” was used to convey the philosophy of the Honorary Chairman, “Dream it, Believe it, and Just Do it” who had emphasized dreams.

Q9. What’s next?

Team leader Jisoo Jung: The most important part is to internalize the new brand system.The recent STRIDE photo/video contest and Work Together event can be seen as our process of incorporating the new brand system. What’s important is to naturally establish a corporate culture where people think about whether a decision would really bring about a bold stride forward. To that end, we’ll continue to communicate internally and externally.

Q10. Any last words to the Halla Group employees and stakeholders?

Team leader Jisoo Jung: Tokyo Olympics was held while we were undertaking the project. Remember how Sang-hyeok Woo jumped in the men’s high jump? I had said to my team members that enjoying setting high goals, facing challenges, and not succumbing to failures would probably be the most ideal qualities of STRIDE that we had thought about. As such, I hope the Halla Group would create a culture where all members are not afraid of failures, but enjoy the process, accept challenges, and stride forward.