Analyzing identity change process through strategic corporate brand alignment: The case study of Cinecittà Studios

This article aims to examine Cinecittà Studios’ brand strategy under an identity-based perspective, using Balmer’s AC4ID test to analyze Cinecittà Studios' present change from a “cinema city” to a “media city”. Identity types and corporate brand alignment are analyzed using different quality-quantitative methods through data collection: market research (sample: 552 Roman citizens, structured questionnaires); customer satisfaction research (sample: 324 Romans, Italians and foreigners that went to the exhibition; semi-structured interviews); web survey (sample: 98 units, structured ques-tionnaires); 5 focus groups; documentary evidence. The results obtained whilst examining the interfaces between Cinecittà Studios' corporate brand identities revealed an attempt of alignment between the Ideal and the Actual corporate brand identities and provoked further misalignments. For this reason the AC4ID Test has been adapted into a new framework and shifted towards a new AC5ID Test.