22 FLIPPING THE HARP

Arthur Guinness started brewing in Dublin in 1759. Within ten years one particular product, Guinness Extra Strong Porter, was being exported to England, where it became known as Guinness Stout.

By 1862, Guinness decided it needed to further develop its brand identity and chose the O’Neill harp as its icon. Also known as the Gaelic harp, the Celtic harp or the Brian Boru harp, the O’Neill harp has a long history dating back at least 1,000 years. Brian Boru, the last High King of Ireland, is said to have been an accomplished player and surviving 12th Century annals refer to the Celtic harp being the only instrument played during the Crusades.

It was seen as a perfect symbol of tradition, Irish-ness and enjoyment. The icon was trademarked in 1876.

All was well until 1922, when Ireland was declared an independent state and the Irish Free State Government decided it needed an official national symbol.

And the symbol it wanted was the traditional O’Neill harp.

Guinness, which by then had spent over 150 years building a powerful communication equity, was now faced with a dilemma: to go against the newly formed government or to give up their harp.

In the end, the answer was staring it in the face, at least when it was looking in the mirror. A bright spark suggesting flipping the harp and the Government readily agreed on a reversal. (Was this the first instance of a U-turn by an Irish Government?)

So to this day the Guinness harp always appears with its straight edge, the sound board, to the left, and the Government harp is always shown with its straight edge to the right.

The official Government harp is to be found on the Presidential Seal, on passports, on the flag of Leinster (but not the national flag), on Irish Euro coins and as a logo for a number of prominent state-supported organizations (such as the National University of Ireland).

And Guinness’ harp remains as one of the three elements that make up the Guinness livery. The other two elements are the GUINNESS® word and Arthur Guinness’ famous signature.

And the moral is that creating and managing your identity is a key responsibility for any management team. Are all the key elements of your identity protected?