The Impact, Importance, and Elements of Corporate Identity

Corporate Identity

Corporate identity is a conglomerate of all the elements and characteristics of a company. It is much like the fingerprint of the company which makes it individual and different from the competition. Corporate identity is similar to the personality of a company; it is how it communicates and represents itself.

Creative Brand Identity

Creative brand identity would comprise corporate design, culture, behaviour, and communication. All of these different aspects fall under the net of brand strategy, or creative brand identity because this is where the corporate identity translates into the brand; becoming the life force that customers, employees and partners acknowledge and appreciate.

The Corporate Side

Purpose

Corporate purpose is the basis for why a company exists; it is what they are here to produce.

Vision

The corporate vision is the “dream.” It is the big picture that would include the long-term goals the company plans to achieve. This vision is not only what the company plans large scale but is what the employees work towards.

Mission

The mission is a concise statement that emulates what makes the brand stand out as its own entity while expressing its intent to customers and partners.

The Brand Side

Values

Authenticity is key when focusing on brand values. These are the intrinsic values that define what a brand stands for when it comes to its products and services. In the eyes of the consumer, this is what the brand represents and influences them towards it over other brands.

Positioning

Brand positioning is knowing the place that the brand fits into the market based on the target consumer. It can be in an almost literal sense where the brand stands when it comes to who they are trying to reach and what they represent and how and why they appeal to the target consumer for that reason. This is strategic when it comes to accurately assessing where the brand falls into the market in a more specific sense.

Architecture

When a company has multiple brands, brand architecture creates the structure to differentiate between the brands. This assists when showing the relationship between brands and with acquisitions that would be meaningful in the future with growth.

Family Brand

A family brand is a strategy where the products that are within the brand coincide with what the brand already represents. Think about how Colgate covers all oral care needs.

Umbrella Brand

When a company offers a wide array of products, this method lets the brand stand out on its own from the core competencies of the company, allowing for the brand to better represent the target group it applies to. Apple Inc. is known for their cell phones, laptops, and tablets; within these products, they carry different grades of products within the net. For example, their laptops have two lines: the MacBook and the PowerBook which stand out differently to consumers. The MacBook is considered for the everyday consumer for everyday use, whereas the PowerBook is known for having higher performance and is what people think of when it comes to producing music and video editing.

House of Brands vs. Branded House

A house of brands exists for a company that holds different brands with different products and allows for them to function independently as such. Target is a company that is known for being a store where consumers can find almost any brand they are looking for, however, Target owns a very long list of brands within their store that most people may not even realize are owned by Target. From clothing for men and women to food products and housewares, Target has different brands within each in order to reach the audience to which it would best appeal.

With a branded house it is one brand name that blankets over all of the different products and services within the company. A prime example of this would be Google and everything associated with them from Google Docs to Google Maps, Gmail and Google Drive.

Name

The name is the first identifier of a brand. It has the ability to set a precedent for what a brand is trying to personify before the consumer may even know anything about it. Balance is of the essence because a name needs to be different and memorable while binding associations with the business model of what the brand is supposed to represent.

Claim

Making a claim is a brief way to deliver a promise from the brand. BMW uses “the ultimate driving machine” where Ford says “built Ford tough.” These are two car companies who have clearly created two entirely different images through the wording of their claim based on appealing to who they want to represent as a consumer.

Key Takeaways

Each element in corporate identity is an entirely important task on its own. Having a corporate identity design firm is one of the most logical and responsible routes to take in order to gain professional clarity in the flooded market of branding.

Knowing the categorical breakdown of corporate identity displays how in-depth the process is and how there can be no one component that is of lower quality than another. There is no room for a weak link when it comes to carrying out the representation of a company and their brand or brands. With the assurance of a large-scale knowledge base of the individual components of the process means that the correct research and efforts will be put in the appropriate places so there are steadfast results based on the representation and image the company is seeking to achieve.

Having a team that can handle branding guidelines is another integral stepping stone in the process. It assures that standards of practice will be followed properly and efficiently. Efficiency is another purpose for a corporate identity design firm. Any time that can be saved by a group of professionals means less time to get to market and less time wasted in creating the consumer base for a new launch. Logically, having a team to cultivate corporate identity is essential to have a smooth operation with the greatest benefit.