Quick guide to developing your corporate identity

For every business a corporate identity is a vital component for success and it is far more than just creating a pretty looking logo. There needs to be brand and positioning strategy based on business values before the creative process even begins.

Define your business values first

Your corporate identity needs to reflect your business ethos, values and mission so all of these elements need to have been clearly defined and developed as the first part of creating the identity.

Identify who your customers are

It’s important that you have identified who your key customers are and how you want to position your product strategically, before you look at design work. In that way, when you come to create your identity you will know exactly who you need it to resonate with.

The corporate identity is ultimately what draws people to buy from you and what makes your brand stand out from you competitors so it’s important to get it right, and for the visual work to make the right impact.

Use your audience insights

Your strategic work will have given you some insight into what your audience will relate to, for example, if your products are aimed at 16 – 24 year old men then the brand and look and feel will be very different from a product whose main customer is 50 – 60 year old women, for example.

It needs to be very clear who your corporate identity is aiming to attract, otherwise your customers will become confused and your business name and reputation will become muddied and unclear for anyone thinking of buying from you.

Design the corporate identity visuals

Once you have your strategic brand positioning in place, then you can look to engage an agency like us at LCM to design and create the corporate identity you need to take your business forward.

A creative team will take all of the positioning elements and then use the most appropriate colours, fonts and styles to develop a visual corporate identity. The overall identity you’re your business will then include the logo, style, key messaging, straplines and also a corporate brand guideline document.

That way you can protect your corporate identity and ensure that your new design elements are always used the right way, no matter who is using them and no matter what kind of marketing materials are being created.

The corporate identity needs to work across multiple levels, both digitally and in print, so whether the logo and designs are used on the website, in advertising or on a large poster, they are all correct and consistent.

Getting your corporate identity right is vital for getting your business noticed by the right customers who are interested in buying your products or using your services. If you get it wrong you will just blend into the background so it’s one area where employing the services of a professional marketing agency could be the difference between success and failure.

Telephone 01489 891870 or email info@lcm.co.uk