Now is the time that the market of goods and services contains a huge number of offers. In order to gain the trust of future customers, it is very important to attract attention to your business correctly, as well as to be able to competently stand out among competitors. The corporate identity of the company is developed for this purpose.
Creating a company’s corporate identity can be one of the most daunting tasks to undertake in the world of business. It can also be one of the most important decisions you’ll make as the owner of a business.
A poorly designed identity can not only damage the reputation of your brand but can also damage your company financially. It is important to be aware of these risks.
The corporate identity includes such items as graphic images, various fonts, a palette of colors, individual slogans, and sometimes even sounds (and smells) that can be used that distinguish the brand from the general mass of others.
Here we will talk about how to create a corporate identity that is unique to your organization, one that represents the character and personality of your brand.
What is corporate identity?
The corporate identity of a company or firm is the basis and subject of the company’s communication with consumers (customers), who provide an aesthetic and semantic description of goods and services and all other information that comes from the company. Corporate identity ensures the unity of all products, goods, and services.
Corporate identity is one of the ways to form a brand and at the same time – the very elements of the brand. Corporate identity and its purpose can be compared with the concept of “image”. It is a means of forming the image of a firm or company, which indicates the elements of uniqueness and reliability of the business.
The main task of corporate identity is to create awareness for the goods and services that the company offers. The tasks also include increasing competitive advantages, creating your own advertising, and protecting goods from possible counterfeits.
What is included in the corporate identity of the company?
The corporate identity of the company includes a full-fledged complex of different elements for influencing the target audience (future customers). These include visual, psychological, sound, and some other effects. The elements of corporate identity include:
- Trademark;
- Logo;
- Corporate block;
- A corporate slogan (or slogan) is the original and frequently used motto of a company or firm;
- Brand colors;
- The developed complex of individual fonts;
- The face of the company (the image of the company).
Let’s look at some points in more detail
The face of the company (the image of the company).
The image of the company is a specific person, either a fictional character or a fictional hero who was chosen by the company as a means to communicate with customers.
Logo
A logo is an individual image or an abbreviation of the name of a firm (or company), a business, which is expressed in a competent selection of a color palette and an image. It is delivered to the public as an excellent and mandatory way of quality assurance. The presence of a logo increases the trust of the audience, and also helps to be remembered faster and begin to stand out among competitors.
Corporate block
The corporate block usually includes:
- trademark;
- postal and bank details;
- list of goods and services;
- advertising symbol;
- slogan.
The branded block is very convenient to use in many cases. This can include both the design of letterheads and the packaging of manufactured products.
Other branded communication tools also include:
- letterhead;
- corporate seal;
- availability of a personal business card;
- different types of envelopes;
- branded folder for papers;
- promotional products;
- availability of souvenirs.
In order for all the available components to become a corporate identity, you need to know an approximate creation algorithm.
How to create a corporate identity?
It is important to understand that the corporate identity of a company or firm is not created in five minutes. This is a lot of work, it does not only include determining the color of the company, logo, or font. Let’s take a closer look at what is needed to create a corporate and unique style.
Determine the strategy of the company or firm
The very first thing to start with is to decide what the company creates and for whom, as well as what it strives for in the end.
Define the company’s goals
It is very important to think over the goals – where the company is now (at what level) and where it wants to be in the future. It is very important to take these points into account when creating a corporate identity because if you immediately decide on plans for a long time, it will be easier to prepare in advance for possible changes.
A reference point for the audience
To better understand which corporate identity is suitable for a particular company, you need to calculate the target audience. It is important to answer the questions:
- target audience – who are these people?
- what gender are they?
- what is their lifestyle?
- who do they work for?
- how do they prefer to spend their free time?
The answers to these questions will help determine the elements of the corporate identity to be created.
Strategy development
A strategy is a company’s plan to achieve its goals. It is important to make it for both the short and long term.
It is also important to collect information about the company (to take as a basis those elements that the company successfully uses), to think through the history, as well as the mission and values of the business. A very important point is an analytics and the study of competitors.
Conclusion
So, based on all of the above, we can conclude that the corporate identity of the company must necessarily be individual in order to differ from competitors. He must be attractive in order to attract attention. It should be memorable – not necessarily too complicated. It should also be easy to use and integral – all elements of the developed corporate identity of the company or firm should be harmoniously combined with each other, without breaking out of a single concept.
