Analysis of corporate identity and image of České dráhy, a. s

The diploma thesis focused on the issue of corporate identity and image; its goal was to verify whether (and how) the corporate identity and the built image of České dráhy, a. s. (Czech Railways Plc.) correspond to its image in the eyes of customers. In order to answer the main research question „How does the image of České dráhy, a. s., coincide with its corporate identity?“, first an analysis of the corporate identity of ČD was carried out, followed by a questionnaire survey with a statistical evaluation of the data. The main finding is that the image of ČD does not, in a dominant way, match with its corporate identity and thus the image which the company strives for. In all monitored categories (competitiveness and brand recognition, modernity, fulfillment of customers´ needs, reliability/trustworthiness and quality/loyalty) derived from the main pillar of ČD, i. e. pro-customer orientation, significant contradictions were noted in how (positively) ČD tries to act externally and how it really (negatively) affects the surveyed customers. Agreement was found only in evaluation of ČD employees, who, in accordance with ČD´s profiling, were rated very positively also by the interviewees. Train delay was identified as the main obstacle to ČD´s image (of which even the company itself is aware).