Corporate identity and its importance in building a strong brand

Corporate identity includes all the characteristics of a company that make it unique – distinguish it from its competitors. Some business owners make the mistake of thinking that corporate identity is just a beautiful company logo that reflects the idea and values of the structure they have created. In reality, it is a strategic asset that influences audience trust, brand perception, memorability and financial success. Properly formed style defines the personality of the company. It helps to recognise it even without representatives. Just as a person’s style depends on shoes, clothes, hairstyle, make-up, manner of behaviour, so corporate style forms all significant characteristics of the brand, directed inwards and outwards.

What is corporate identity

The corporate identity of a modern company is a unique image, conditioned by a harmonious appearance and manner of communication, aimed at forming an unambiguous perception of the brand among the target audience. Among all the elements that help in positioning a business or a trade mark, visual elements are considered key for the consumer. They are placed on products, packaging, advertising materials to communicate with customers. 

Important point: the terms “corporate identity” and “branding” are often used interchangeably. However, they are significantly different. Branding refers to the characteristics and focus of a specific product. Corporate identity is a more global concept. It reflects the characteristics and focus of the company that created the product.

Significance of corporate identity for a company

Identity is important both for start-ups and large corporations with a long and successful history. Work on a company’s corporate identity cannot be ignored. There is a popular expression among experts that explains the above. “Shape your identity, otherwise it will shape you”. This means that in the absence of directed actions on the part of company representatives to create a unique style, it will be built under the influence of external factors. The result in most cases turns out to be unsatisfactory, and the reputation of the business can suffer greatly, up to complete devaluation. 

The importance of a strong, positive corporate identity can hardly be overestimated. Corporate identity directly affects the success of a business by shaping the mindset, influencing the decisions of potential customers. A strong and positive corporate identity helps position a company as more trustworthy. This is a very important point for market presence. According to research conducted by Deloitte Digital and Twilio, among consumers who track their purchases, 68% of respondents spend more on products from trusted brands. Statistically, it is corporations that are trusted by their customers that receive more sales, loyalty, positive feedback and recommendations. 

Why you need a well-thought-out corporate identity for success

Corporate identity formation is important for:

• Strengthening brand reputation. Identity combined with excellent service increases customer trust and loyalty. Such companies rank high in the ratings of the target audience.
• Increased recognition. A corporate image clearly demonstrates a company’s promise and brand values. According to the Nielsen Global Survey, a result of a study of the automotive industry showed that up to 90% of consumers say that a corporation’s recognisability influences their decision to purchase its vehicle. At the same time, respondents expect consistency and a unified corporate voice across all channels and platforms. 
• Differentiation. With a great corporate identity-focused marketing strategy, companies can differentiate themselves from the competition. According to Foundry12, using a corporate colour increases brand recognition by around 80%. Consumers make an almost instant decision to interact with a company’s content if it is visually recognisable and consistent with the style. 
• Revenue growth. The consistency of the company and maintaining an excellent reputation has a positive impact on financial success. According to Lucidpress, this situation can lead to an increase in business revenue of up to 33%. 

Understanding what corporate identity is and how important it is opens up prospects for a company to become recognisable in the market, outperforming hundreds of competitors. The right actions in its formation allow to save resources, and unification of visual materials turns the brand in the minds of consumers into a vivid memorable image. 

Elements of corporate identity 

What is included in the corporate identity – a question that worries the head of the company, if he understands the importance of forming an identity. In fact, its elements are selected individually, taking into account the specifics of the business and the owner’s preferences. In a general sense, the image of the company is formed by four main areas: corporate culture, behaviour, communications and design. Each of them includes quite a few elements, but we will consider only the main ones:

• Title. A successful one should be memorable and easy to pronounce. Important are also the semantic load and reflection of the essence of the business. When choosing a name should avoid slang words, names (to promote the cafe “Irina” will require more money than for a similar, but with a signboard “Sushi paddle”). But the abbreviations are perfectly perceived by the target audience. Great if it turns out to come up with a name with humour, the main thing that it does not cause negative associations. 
• Slogan. Capacious, cute, catchy phrase increases recognisability. An important condition is the semantic load. Ideally, the slogan emphasises the advantages of the product, communicates the company’s philosophy or emphasises the benefits. 
• Logo. A unique graphic image, symbol or emblem necessary to identify a business, its products and services. The best logo is simple, memorable, and necessarily unique. Large corporations often put a deeper meaning into a logo, reflecting their philosophy. 
• Trademark. It is often confused with a logo. However, a trademark is a unique image, text, sound or word combination. It can be registered to become a legally protected piece of intellectual property. 
• Mascot. In corporate identity is a mascot character. Its tasks are to personify the brand and create an emotional connection with the audience. It can be a person, an animal or a fantastic creature. 
• Colour scheme. Its choice seems to be the simplest, but this opinion is wrong. In order for the brand colours to evoke positive emotions in consumers at an intuitive, deep level, it is necessary to know the preferences of the CA. In addition – take care of a pleasant compatibility of shades. 
• Fonts. When choosing them in the priority is not uniqueness, but simplicity. It determines the ease of reading, which is extremely important for a positive perception of the brand by potential customers.

Understanding what is included in the corporate identity does not oblige you to develop all the elements immediately after the registration of the trade mark. Each of them requires attention and a balanced approach. Keep in mind: changing familiar identity elements can be a complicated process. Visually different products may be perceived by consumers as fake, which can lead to a drop in sales. 

To avoid mistakes and unacceptable variants of using corporate identity elements, internal documents – brandbook and guideline – are provided. The first is an official instruction binding on employees, marketers and designers. The brandbook describes the concept of the brand and provides detailed guidance on the use of all its elements, including identity. Guideline is an official document containing a set of rules for the application of visual elements of the corporate tone. Its task is to ensure uniformity and integrity of brand perception across all media.

It may seem that these concepts – brandbook and guideline – are almost identical. However, they are not. A guideline is a technical guide to the use of corporate identity elements. A brandbook is a more extensive document. It includes, among other things, the guideline, but describes different aspects of the brand, including the mission, values, and strategy.

Creating a corporate identity: main priorities

The key objective of corporate tone is to make the brand unique, standing out among thousands of other companies. To achieve this goal, every element must be:

• original – completely different from other brands’ marks;
• recognisable – due to simple images and fonts, harmonious combination of colours;
• memorable – capacious and catchy;
• informative – containing valuable information about the company.

The professionals of the Art-Marks advertising agency know perfectly well how to create a corporate identity. We have dozens of successfully completed projects of different levels of complexity. Our priority is an individual approach and fulfilment of all tasks set by the customer. We will develop a corporate identity of the company, which will be an important factor for entering the top leaders of the segment. 

Literature used:

1. Corporate brand design: Developing and managing brand identity. [Electronic resource]./Mohammad Mahdi Foroudi, Pantea Foroudi// – Routledge-2021- p.115-121
2. Logo: (Corporate Identity Book, a guide to branding for designers and design students)./Michael Evami//-Lawrence King-2016- p.211-215