It’s hard to picture someone who has no name, personality, or habits that set them apart. It’s in our nature to give a person or thing certain traits that help us recognize them and call those traits their “identity.” So, every thing that people make, whether it is unique or not, has its own Identity.
Corporations are in the same place. Corporations are given names, personalities, and even traits that make them seem more human so that their target audience can recognize them, relate to them, and tell them apart in the market. The corporate identity is what makes a company stand out. But what is corporate identity? What are its parts? Why is it so important for a business?
What Does the Term Corporate Identity Mean?
Corporate identity is how a company decides to show itself to its customers, both inside and outside the company, and to the rest of the world. So, the company acts, looks, and talks in ways that match its Identity.
With this unique Identity, businesses can show themselves in their own way and make it easy for people to recognize them. Corporate identity also helps a business stand out from its competitors and make it easier to tell them apart. A company’s identity needs to be well thought out and used in a strategic way.
Elements that make up a company’s identity
A corporate identity is usually made up of three main parts. Here, we’ll look at each of them in more depth, which will help us understand the idea better.
- Business communication, business design, and business behavior
- Communication within a company
Corporate communications are how a company talks to and shares information with both internal and external audiences in order to create a positive view of the organization and a consistent picture of it across all channels.
Simply put, it is the message that the company sends.
It has the following in it:
- It includes rules and procedures, team communications, internal newsletters, and anything else that has to do with talking to people inside the company.
- It includes messages sent through paid media like commercials, sponsorships, events, and so on.
- It includes all kinds of earned media communication, like public relations, news, etc.
- Investor relations: This is the place where all signals will be sent to the company’s investors.
Business Design
The corporate design shows the visual identity of the company. It includes the name, logo, brand colors, brand graphics, slogan, and other visual elements that help define the organization.
Important parts of corporate design are the following:
- Logos are the unique symbols that stand for a company or its products. It helps people recognize a company right away.
- Colors: The brand colors include a set of official colors that represent the company. Most of the time, these are the only colors that are used in brand assets.
- Fonts: A company usually keeps a list of the fonts that are allowed to be used in its communications.
- Website: In the digital world, a company advertises itself through its website. It’s like a store for a certain brand, but on the internet.
- Internal Design: The office’s interior design is part of the company’s brand. It shows a lot about the company, like how the organization works, how people treat each other at work, and so on.
How a company acts
In the most direct sense, corporate behavior is how the company acts. It has the company’s ethical code of conduct and its corporate social responsibility, which show what the company’s core values and beliefs are.
Technically, corporate behavior is how a business acts as a single unit in different political, economic, social, technical, legal, and environmental situations.
A company’s social media responsibility often drives how it acts. Starbucks, for instance, planned to hire 10,000 refugees from around the world by the end of 2023 as part of its social responsibility.
Brand identity vs. corporate identity
The main difference between brand identification and corporate identity is that brand identity is used to make a product or service stand out from the rest of the market. Corporate Identity, on the other hand, is concerned with how the whole organization is seen, not just the product.
Despite what most people think, Corporate Identity and brand identity are not the same thing. How to do it:
Brand identity shows how a product is made, what it stands for, and what it’s about. It builds a brand image around a certain product or service.
Corporate Identity shows what the company that made the product stands for and how it wants to be known. It gives the parent company a certain image.
Dove is one of the brands owned by the company Unilever. Dove’s identity is its brand identity, while Unilever’s identity is its corporate identity.
- A brand identity gives a product a personality and face value, which makes it stick in the minds of customers and makes them want to buy that product.
- The main reason why a company’s brand identity is so important is that it helps customers remember the company. The logo is a very important part of how the company is known.
- Corporate Identity does corporate identity exercises, such as putting more emphasis on logos, marketing materials, and store design, to improve how customers feel about the quality and services.
- Brand identity, in short, is how people think about a certain product that a company sells in order to get the most customers interested. In a consumerist culture, the main goal of creating a brand identity is to make it easy to tell one product apart from similar ones. At the same time, your company’s corporate identity is how it presents itself to the outside world.
Why Corporate Identity is Important
A strong identity is important if the company wants people to think and feel positively about it.
Here are some reasons why it’s important to have a corporate identity:
- Helps a Company Stand Out: A well-planned corporate strategy helps a company stand out in its market.
- Create Awareness: A corporate identity raises awareness by letting both internal and external audiences know what the company stands for.
- Increases Market Presence: A strong corporate brand makes an organization seem more trustworthy, which increases its market presence.
- Build Your Reputation: Customers will trust an organization more over time if it has a consistent brand identity and provides excellent service.
- Built with the customer in mind: Keeping a consistent corporate identity based on the company’s beliefs, values, and goals helps customers connect with the organization and become loyal to it.
The Best Examples of Company Branding
Corporate Identity is more than just a logo, tagline, corporate colors, and typefaces. Its main goal is to create a clear image of the organization in the minds of customers. During this process, everything that has to do with the brand, from branded packaging to communication with customers, becomes important. Let’s look at the best examples of corporate identity below to learn more about the idea:
Apple
Apple’s business brand is built on the idea that its products are unique. Apple’s slogan, “Think Different,” emphasizes this formula. It makes sure that all of its products and services send the same message about the company. This makes it different from other market players.
Aside from that, Apple has given back to society by giving educational programs to more than 3.6 million suppliers since 2008. Apple’s strong corporate brand is also helped by the way the company uses its corporate identity.
Starbucks
The high-quality, expensive, and tasty coffee at Starbucks is known all over the world. But that’s not the only reason why the brand is well-known. Its more trustworthy and respected reputation comes from the consistent atmosphere it creates in its stores, the consistent corporate promise, and the consistent brand design.
Starbucks also cares about doing good in the world. It has, among other things, helped farmers and given jobs to refugees. Because of this, Starbucks has become one of the most important coffee shops in the world.
Winter Milk
The main idea behind the Mexican café chain with artisan ice cream is to use natural ingredients. The Identity is made to look like something from the 1960s. People feel nostalgic when they think about trips to the ice cream shop with their families, high-quality products, and a light and carefree attitude.
This is how the café looks on the inside, too. Orange, which is typical of the Netherlands, which is known for the quality of its dairy products, and blue, which is associated with being cool, are used as a company’s colors. Round lines and clean, simple fonts are from the 1960s. The logo is also made the same way. The brand name is in the shape of a rhombus with rounded corners.
Bottom-Line
In today’s industry, which is always changing, it is important to have a clear and strong business brand. It helps people stand out and makes an impression that lasts. Before entering the market, it’s clear that you should think about creating a brand for your business.
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