The Power of Visual Identity in the Strategy of Corporate Communication of the Third Sector in Italy

The current investment of organizations in social media and digital communication strategies should not make us forget the role and the power of traditional communication tools, first of all the brand identification system. For long time the literature of brand identity has focused on the visual strategies of companies and for profit organizations, according to a concret attention of companies to restyling brands and logos. The aim of these investments was promotes a clear and coherent transmission of values, culture, history and identity. The public administration also payed attention to the restyling brands and logos. Instead in the Third Sector the attention to visual identity remain inadequate. Actually, there is a important growth of the Italian Third Sector and a widespread diffusion of civil associations, voluntary, non-governmental organisations. The competition for obtaining resources and for engage stakeholders are today important issue for non-profit organizations. Therefore, some of the main requirements of a good visual identity strategy (color codes, originality, attraction, graphic quality, off and on-line transposition) are fundamental also for the non-profit sector. What are the recurring characteristics of the visual identity strategies of the Italian Third Sector? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the visual identity strategy used by non-profit organizations? The contribution will answer the following questions starting from a quantitative and qualitative analysis on the visual communication strategies of the 81 networks adherent to the National Forum of the Third Sector, the main Italian network of non-profit organizations and associations.