What Is Corporate Identity & How TO Build Yours | FULL GUIDE

Stick your Business into your customer’s head by Building the Right Corporate brand identity:

When building your brand, you will hear some terms like corporate identity, brand identity, and brand image. They are often used interchangeably, but they have totally different meanings. If you want to mark yourself as an expert, you must know the difference.

• Corporate Identity: Any internal activity that shapes your company’s culture and perception
• Brand Identity: It is the way you want your company to appear to the world
• Brand Image: It is the external beliefs that your customers hold regarding your brand

Positioning in marketing

Ever wondered how to establish a powerful name for yourself in an industry full of experts and leaders? – If yes, you should start thinking about your positioning! So, what is Positioning exactly? – Follow our lead, carve a position for your brand to shine, and stand out among your competitors. Positioning is the marketing strategy you implement to establish a solid brand identity or image that sticks into your customers’ minds. This can be achieved through the use of the famous 4Ps; price, place, promotion, and product.

Before you create an efficient positioning plan, you must:

• Identify your target audience
• Study your target market
• Create a powerful positioning statement
• Create high-quality content that presents your brand

If you’re struggling with creating a valuable positioning statement, ask yourself these questions. The answers will definitely help you!

• Does it address your target audience?
• Does it share your brand’s mission and proposition?
• Is it consistent across all the aspects of your business?
• Is it easy for anyone to understand, especially those who aren’t clear about your business?
• Does your business promise something realistic?

Also, don’t forget to create a tagline, a shorter version of your positioning statement. This catchy burst represents your business and gives an overview of your services, sticking into people’s minds even more. Here are examples of taglines of some famous brands:

• Nike: Just do it
• L’Oréal: Because you’re worth it
• Southwest Airlines: The short-haul, no-frills, and low-priced airline.

Why is corporate identity important for your brand?

Corporate Identity encompasses all the visual aspects and design elements, representing the internal and external brand image. It is the significant mix of colors, typography, and graphics that match your company’s personality, look, and feel. All these elements should be consistent across all your social media channels, following specific guidelines.

When you think of corporate identity, your mind immediately gathers images of logos. However, it goes way far beyond this to social media presence, website, stationery, billboard advertisements, print brochures, email, and magazines. That’s not it; representing the bigger picture, it includes display advertising, including product design, packaging, vehicle graphics, staff uniforms, and company signage. Basically, it is the answer to this question; who are we?

So, how can you achieve the perfect corporate identity?

• Corporate design

How do you want to appear in front of your customers?

Your corporate design must be unique, achieving a distinctive image to stand out among your competitors. Your creative corporate design is identified upon the logo, name, slogan, guide, color palette, business cards, and more. Your employees should follow the same guideline manual to maintaining a consistent corporate design.

• Corporate behavior

How do you want to present your brand to the community?

Of course, you want to build solid relationships with your customer, establishing a closed circle that trusts your business. To achieve this, you need to introduce yourself and your business. It is important to communicate your mission, vision, core values, and philosophy to your customers, investors, and employees.

• Corporate communication

How do you communicate your brand message to your employees, investors, customers, and external stakeholders?

Corporate communication includes all communication efforts such as public relations, reputation management, and internal communication.

Building a powerful corporate identity will:

1. Make sure you’re consistent across all your social media platforms
2. Help your brand be instantly distinguished and recognized by your audience on their News Feed
3. Make your brand easily remembered through communication, design, and action
4. Build brand credibility and project your business as trustworthy
5. Engage easily with your customers, employees, and investors
6. Stand out in the business world
7. Control your overall brand image
8. Make an impression on the crowds
9. Communicate your manners, voice tone, feel, and look
10. Interpret the personality of your business and working practices

Building a brand identity or corporate identity have many aspects:

First, you need to have a clear brand Strategy

1- Answer the reason behind the presence of your brand

2- Point your eye on your competitors

3- Know who you are providing the services and products to (your target audience and buyer persona)

But, what does corporate identity include?

Definitely, you have a brand name, but, if not, you can use a brand name generator.

When starting a new business, the first step is to think about a creative, relevant, and catchy company name. If you think coming up with a good company name is a piece of cake, you’re totally wrong. This process can be a bit overwhelming, but, brand name generators can help you get a powerful one.

Want to come up with a cool brand name?

• Brainstorming

Your attention-grabber brand name won’t just magically appear! Here comes the importance of brainstorming! List any relevant words that come into your mind when thinking about your industry.

• Shortlisting

The second step is to filter these names and gather all the shortlisted ones. Now, you’ve got a list of all the possible names. Exclude any difficult name that can’t be memorized or spelled easily. Your company name must be memorable, brandable, and easy to pronounce.

Ask yourself:

1. Is the name easy to remember?
2. Is the name easy to say aloud?
3. Does the name communicate your services, mission, and values?
4. Is the name different from your industry competitors?
5. Is the name a bit cliché?
6. Does the name represent your company?

• Getting a feedback

Now, you have about 2 or 3 good names! You must seek advice from your prospects or industry leaders. Avoid your close circle; they will probably praise all your ideas no matter what. Ask them if it is catchy enough and what the first thing is that pops into their minds on hearing the name!

• Checking its availability

Congratulations, you settled on your cool company name! Just make sure that it’s not already taken before moving to the next step.

If you can’t decide on a brand name, check one of the following brand name generators to help you;

• Shopify’s name generator
• Namelix
• Dot-o-mator
• NameStation
• Domain Hole
• Bustaname
• Impossibility!
• Domainr
• Wordoid

A second step after choosing a brand name is to have an attractive slogan for your brand

Do you know the main three key components of brand identity? – Creative logo, a catchy slogan, and unique brand name!

Creating a catchy slogan is the best way to highlight your brand image, leaving an imprint on people’s minds. Used in marketing for ages, slogans count as one of the effective ways to draw attention to your business and establish brand recognition. Make sure to create a memorable one, taking into consideration your company’s tone and feel, dominating a prominent position in the market. Your slogan must give a glimpse of your products and services, stating their quality and making them desirable to prospects.

1. Brand Logo

Do you want to keep your brand in people’s minds? – A catchy logo is the way to make a strong first impression without question!  If you hear a voice, whispering “You don’t need a logo,” NEVER listen. It is a top priority for the success of any business, being the foundation of your brand identity. Adding to your credibility, a good logo establishes your business as professional and trustworthy.  Whether it is on billboards or stationery, your logo must look great in all cases, black & white or in color. A feature-rich logo reflects your image and foster brand loyalty like no other. Take your time before you conduct your logo and ensure it interprets the message of your business, avoiding any possible conflict.  With colors, tone, and fonts, you’ve got a story to tell. Make sure you tell it RIGHT!

So, what are the different types of logos?

• Monogram logos
• Wordmarks
• Logo symbols
• Abstract logo marks
• Mascots
• The combination mark
• Emblem logo

2. The brand Color Palette

What do you think when you see blue color? What pops into your mind when hearing the word “love”? Yes, a certain emotion! Every color triggers a specific emotion and evokes a certain response, depending on the personality. For example, the red color gives an indication of danger while the brown reminds you of dirt and so on. Believe it or not; your brand’s colors can affect your performance and sales even more than your services.

As a thriving business, you want to build a strong emotional connection with your audience. While you can’t tell your brand’s story in a logo, but the brand color palette goes straight into your customers’ hearts. How people feel about your business is way more important than how they see it. Choose your color palette widely or simply use Canva’s color palette generator to inspire you. Remember that your chosen colors must work in harmony. Once you’ve created your color palette, be consistent across all your marketing aspects. Your brand colors appear in:

• Logo
• Website
• Email
• Social Media
• Advertising
• Staff uniform
• Events
• Business cards

When choosing your color palettes, make sure to:

1. Dig more into colors’ theory and understand the meaning of each color
2. Choose relevant colors
3. Take a look at your competitors, so you don’t look the same
4. Test the final look of your color palette
5. Be consistent across all your platforms
6. Choose your fonts and typography

Is your business modern or vintage? – Typography is the style of your context in any marketing material that best represents your personality. As colors represent the feel of your business, the font and typography communicate your values. And, the font must look good on websites as well as billboards and staff uniforms. Do you want a handwritten font, elegant, or stylish calligraphy?

How can typography affect your branding?

• Create interest
• Communicate your real personality
• Showcases uniqueness
• Conveys creativity in silence
• Improves communication
• Attract people’s attention
• Interpret the message of your brand

If you’re a typography beginner, here are some tips to guide you:

• Don’t use fancy fonts if you don’t know how to incorporate them in practice.
• It is totally okay to use default fonts as they are easy to read. If you want to be different and special, set the typeface in a different way.
• Mix contrasting fonts but choose the right font length and size
• You can use two font families but not more than two
• Of course, you will need to emphasize or shed some light on some text, but don’t use the all-caps style.

3. Set up your Illustration

If you’re thinking about a powerful corporate identity, you must establish a strong brand illustration system to represent your visual identity. Narrate a story or express emotions through visual communications. Be consistent across your online illustrations, use vectors and bold images, strengthen your brand, and communicate your messages through these illustrations. Adding human figures offers a more light-hearted vibe than common illustrations.  Icons must be simple and modern, yet quirky, in addition to its stylish look when used on small sizes.

As we live in a multimedia world, you need to choose your visual language to stand out. Here are some tips to consider when you start your brand design:

• Geometric shapes are preferred
• Standard background colors
• Icons face front
• Icons must align to the pixel grid and align with the content
• The padding is determined according to the icons’ shape

5. Your photography and images

Do you know that the human brain can process images 60,000 faster than any text?

Brand imagery is an important part of your corporate identity, building trust, and visually communicating with your audience. From print ads to billboards, your imagery must be distinguished, simple, and representative of your values, goals, and mission.  Use your image and high-quality photographs to shape your brand image and build a prominent reputation for yourself. Although illustrations leave an iconic touch, photographs create some sense of authenticity.  Avoid using stock images as they are easily recognized, being used over and over by different businesses. It is preferable to use your own photos for more credibility and a great benefit to SEO.

Examples of successful corporate identity

• Winter Milk

Want to enjoy some ice cream with your family? – A day visit to Winter Milk will definitely lift your mood like nothing else. Winter Milk is a Mexican café designed to give a nostalgic feeling with its 60s style and distinguished colors. The corporate identity of Winter Milk combines a dazzling mix of orange and blue, reflected on the café’s interior, as well as product packaging and staff uniforms. With neat typography and stylish font, the logo reflects the serene environment, with the brand name placed in an orange rhombus.

• Apple

Apple’s corporate identity is a charming package of elegance that forges a strong relationship with the audience. Its main idea is “Our products make you special” and it is clearly shown in all their advertising campaigns. Apple always makes sure to focus on its quality in a creative way, incorporating sophistication, inspiration, and luxury. It delivers its message in the form of vibrant graphics, metallic fine lines, and stylish colors.

• Autistic Art

Autistic Art is a fund-raising organization that supports children with autism, giving them painting classes, and selling their paintings. The corporate identity of this organization reflects emotions and art, with an open window that shows the contrast between the outer world and children’s inner mind. The logo is a dynamic embodiment in the shape of light rays that showcase the different paintings. A creative idea that looks absolutely stunning on anything, including coffee cups and notebooks.

Use your Corporate identity in your Brand Marketing; online or offline

List of platforms to use your brand identity designs through:

1) Your website

It is important to use your corporate identity and color layout on the business website to achieve consistency. Also, you need to craft any brochures or newsletters using the same identity. With so many competitors in the market, your brand identity will make you significant and easily recognized among the crowded market. You need to understand the color schemes, along with the moods they convey to elevate your brand. Regarding images, choose the ones that set the required atmosphere. Large images look professional while illustrations and icons are fun. Do you want to welcome your guests or spotlight your products? – Simply put, the combination of colors, imagery, and fonts will affect the user experience once they click on the website. The corporate style can create a strong business or skew the overall brand!

2)  Social media platforms

In order to maintain expansion, you must choose the social media platforms where your business appears. After you establish the brand’s pages on different platforms, your goal is to be recognized. Your audience must connect your color or logo to your brand as soon as they spot it. Being systematic is key! All your posts must have the same feel so, don’t seek different fonts or templates. For example, when you see red color, don’t you automatically connect it to Coca-Cola?

3)  Your offline activities |External corporate communication

3.1) Events

Is your business planning its next event? – Big deal! There are many aspects to consider when planning an exceptionally-successful event. Your main aim is to wow the attendees, sponsors, and partners. Whether you’re hosting your event or making a presence in someone’s event, you must be distinctive, offering a fully immersive experience. Combine your sense of creativity and voice tone to achieve the perfect package of on-site branding. So, how can you build a solid visual identity for your event?

Magic happens in events! Consider this event as an opportunity to shape your business and how others recall it, aiming for ultimate growth. An event’s brand should appear in the logo, roll-up banners, exhibition stands, social walls, set and stage design, and goodie-bags.

3.2) If you have stuff you can make them sparkle with your brand identity “uniform”

Showing authenticity, branding has proven its effectiveness in building a rapport between a brand and its customers. A staff uniform reflects the color and feel of a brand, improving customer satisfaction. And, it isn’t just about brand awareness. The staff uniform achieves consistency and evokes company pride.

3.3) Your Working place “office”

A great way to incorporate your brand identity in your office is the way to include your logo and color palette. Also, you can take care of the tiny details, catching attention through the carpet color, nameplates, furniture, artwork, and the overall decor. Creating a cohesive brand identity in any workspace maintains a great culture and communicates a sense of pride, which strengthens any business.

3.4) It’s important to your corporate identity in your Packaging and merchandise

Packaging design is an important component that reflects a brand’s identity and image. Whether it’s a restaurant or makeup brand, the packaging has a positive impact on the overall branding. The high-quality printing and memorable design, along with stylish materials help your business stand out amongst the crowded market. It also has an iconic influence on building solid relationships between the brand and the end-user.  Simply put, a strong design will take your brand to the next level and make it even more memorable, boosting your sales.

So, what is a Brand Image

The brand image is the combination of ideas, beliefs, and impression, reflecting the brand story in the customers’ mind. This perception is built over time based on their interactions and experience with the brand. Any company must take their time to build their brand image depending on how they want to look and be remembered in their customers’ minds. It is important to achieve a strong brand image to fulfill your business goals. The difference between brand identity and brand image can be summed up in this; brand identity is how the company portrays itself and presents its services while the brand image is how the customers perceive this identity.

A strong brand image has the following advantages:

• Building relationships with new customers, boosting sales and profits
• Retaining existing customers
• Increasing company credibility
• Making it easier to market other products under the same business name

What makes Digital Experts different in making a corporate identity?

If you’re starting a new business, the first thing to do is have a catchy brand identity. You want to stick into minds and be easily recognized whenever someone comes across your logo, right? – The corporate identity is the way to do this! At Digital Experts, we know the importance of establishing a strong corporate identity for your business. And, it is not only about a creative logo! There is a wide range of aspects that accompany the logo design to complete the perfect brand image.  Are you ready for a new, creative corporate identity?!