Corporate identity development

To be successful a company should be recognizable. It is a fact. It's quite another matter, how the company achieves this recognizability The largest companies in the world invest millions of dollars in corporate identity development and creation of recognizable brands. And what are the main constituents of a successful brand? You are right – its is a euphonic and easy-to-memorize name, a good slogan, a well-thought-out advertising strategy, and, of course, corporate identity of the company.

What is corporate identity?

Wise men say: “Clothes count for first impressions”. Corporate identity is the clothes of a company in the world of business. Speaking a more official language, corporate identity is a set of graphic images and principles of organization of visual communication that is designed for identification of the company among the rest of similar companies and creation of a recognizable image in the eyes of the consumers.

You have certainly noticed that a person wearing a red or green T-shirt with a characteristic letter “M” embroidered on the pocket and a cap with the same letter “M” is in a fraction of second recognized as the employee of a well-known fast food restaurant chain. And when you see a truck with a chicken portrayed on its side you can easily determine that it is owned by the company that sells chicken meat. Why does it happen so? You are right – these are the manifestations of the corporate identity.

And in the general case the main elements of the corporate identity include:

• audio image of the company helps to make the company noticeable among the competitors due to a certain sound or a set of sounds; it is used in the advertising on the radio or on television;
• graphical trademark is an image registered in accordance with the established procedure as a trademark in the name of the particular owner (or a collective);
• verbal trademark: this term usually refers to the name of the company or other verbal construction that is registered in accordance with the established procedure;
• slogan is an advertising phrase, the motto of the company or a certain product;
• company logo is in many respects similar to the trademark, sometimes even coincides with it; the goal of the logo is to improve the recognizability of the company and make it easy-to-memorize;
• mascot is a certain personage (a funny animal, a person, a fantastic creature) or an image that symbolizes the company; a mascot is most often used during advertising campaigns;
• corporate font is a certain font (or a set of fonts) chosen for the design of the corporate printed matter (business cards, booklets, flyers, catalogs etc);
• color gamma is a certain set of colors used to identify the company;

Practically any object used in the everyday life of the company may act as a corporate identity media. The most well-known examples of such objects are: document cases, envelopes of different sizes, employees' passes, corporate and personal business cards, CD (DVD) discs and their covers, various letterheads, even the clothes of the employees. Besides, attributes of presentations and exhibitions can also act as corporate identity media. They are: advertising booklets and promotional materials, calendars, posters, souvenirs, bags, balloons etc. Outdoor advertising, advertising in the mass media, transport, sign boards also are excellent corporate identity media. Even the office of the company designed in accordance with the corporate colors and symbols can be a splendid corporate identity media.

What does corporate identity development include?

To develop corporate identity you should first of all determine the goals and tasks it is going to perform and to determine how it is going to look. Corporate identity may be reserved or bright, business-like or joyful.

Then the elements of the corporate identity are developed. When you have the elements, you can proceed to development of the corporate identity media. Corporate colors and company logo are the first to be chosen. It is evident that, for example, the corporate identity of a company that produces toys may include bright, rich colors, cartoon heroes. The main things for a financial establishment are stability and credibility, that is why it is better to choose subdued colors and strict style. The company that manufactures technical equipment may prefer urban motives in corporate identity design, as they will emphasize the up-to-dateness of the company itself and the goods it produces.

It happens so that the company logo has already been historically established. In this case it is thoroughly tested for conformance to the modern tendencies. It's efficiency is also assessed. Then there are two options: either to make a start from the already existing logo or to develop a new company logo from scratch. Then corporate fonts, mascot, and other elements of the corporate identity are developed.

The above-described elements are the basis for further development of corporate identity media. As soon as they have been approved, you can get to development of design layouts for the corporate identity media (business cards, letterheads, document cases, souvenirs etc). Sometimes the main elements of the corporate identity may be improved due to the amendments that emerged during the development of the corporate identity media.

Usually the result of company media development is a brand book that contains instructions referring to proper use of the corporate identity. A brand book describes in detail how to use the logo, produce printed matter, use the corporate colors etc.

To sum everything up we would like to single out the tasks of the corporate identity once more:

• to help the consumer to identify the company among the rest of similar companies;
• to reinforce the consumer's confidence in the company;
• to improve the efficiency of advertising campaigns due to the fact that all corporate identity media are advertising themselves.

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corporate identity development, corporate identity creation, corporate identity, logo development, mascot