How to Create a Corporate Identity

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parts

1Developing a Strategy to Pinpoint Your Corporate Identity

2Creating a Corporate Design

3Refining Your Corporation's Professional Conduct

4Forming a Communication Style

5Assessing Your Corporate Identity

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A corporate identity is important to any business or organization, regardless of size, mission or purpose. Your identity will define who you are and what you do for customers, partners and the public. It also sets you apart from your competition. An effective corporate identity will make you easily recognizable through your design, actions, and communications.

Steps

Part 1

Part 1 of 5:

Developing a Strategy to Pinpoint Your Corporate Identity

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   Review your company's history, mission and methods. Before you establish a corporate identity for the public, you need an internal consensus on who you are. Examine your business plan, mission statement, values statement, strategic plan and any other corporate documents that might define why you exist and how you are different.

   • Your mission statement should clearly identify what you do, how you do it, who you do it for, and the value you are bringing to the market.
   • While every mission statement will be different, you should try to be as clear and concise as possible. A vague mission statement might allow for flexibility but your customers and investors might have a hard time understanding what you do. Focus on what your company does for customers and keep your employees focused on your objectives.
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   Figure out what others think about your company. Conduct surveys, ask questions, set up interviews and have general discussions to gain an understanding of how stakeholders view your organization or company. Decide if you want to change that perception. If you feel like you are sending the wrong message (e.g., customers view your ads as sexist or investors see you as dishonest), your corporate identity can help change it.

   • For example, a company like Apple is constantly getting feedback from users to better understand what people like and what they don't like. In addition, they use that information to create new products and make old products better. It is one thing to receive feedback, it is another to incorporate it.
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   Research businesses and organizations that are similar to you. Check out their websites, read testimonials from their customers and visit their social networking pages. Decide what you like and do not like, and figure out how easy or difficult it is to grasp their corporate identities.

   • Spend some time looking at successful companies as well as companies that are not doing as well. Look for differences in their corporate structure, communications, and designs. Think about what might be making one company succeed while the other struggles.
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   Create a vision for the future. Your corporate identity should embrace your goals for the next 5 to 10 years as well as the present. Include employees, leaders and partners in your vision. Ask some of the people you first hired what they envision for your company's growth and talk to people in the company who reflect what staff and stakeholders think.

   • Try identifying how your business will create value over the next five years. Then, determine which ways of creating value that you can succeed at given the capabilities your company has. Finally, focus your resources to those areas you have identified. The entire purpose here is to find the value you can create and to pinpoint the audience you can create it for.
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Part 2

Part 2 of 5:

Creating a Corporate Design

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   Design a logo. Put together a team of designers and writers, or hire a consultant if you do not have that kind of creative talent on staff. Get everybody in a room and start thinking about a logo for your corporation. The logo should be designed so it can be immediately recognized. The logo should be clean and simple. Because your logo will only be one piece of your corporate design, a good one will not always have a lot of meaning until it is paired with other design aspects.

   • For example, the McDonald's golden arches mean very little until you pair them with the color scheme (red and gold); the font; and the products they represent. Today, if you see those golden arches you immediately think about McDonald's and their products.
   • Another example is the Apple logo. The apple itself means very little, but because of the brand surrounding that logo, you immediately think of Mac computers and iPhones when you see it.
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   Choose a captivating font. When you create a website, advertisements, or a product's packaging, you need to have a typography that is immediately recognizable and that conveys a certain feeling to people. Choose an appropriate font that is readable and unique.

   • A typeface should reflect your corporation's image and beliefs. If you company tends to be conservative, use something like Times New Roman.
   • Consider how your font will work in different mediums. For example, while a certain font may look good on a billboard, it may not translate well to your website. In particular, while creating your website, think about how the font will look on different web browsers. Some programs designed specifically for either Macs or PCs will portray your website's information differently depending on what type of computer is being used.
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   Consider different color combinations. The colors you choose will make a bold statement about your organization and how you run your business. Make sure they convey your corporate philosophy and strategy.

   • For example, if you are a corporation tasked with creating environmentally sustainable packaging for products, consider using green as one of your primary colors. Green is synonymous with the environmental movement and also conveys images of the outdoors.
   • In another example, if your organization is a nonprofit focused on restoring the water quality of our oceans and rivers, consider using blue as one of your primary colors. Blue will make people think about the ocean and water even before they know what you do.
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   Portray quality in your design. A company that offers quality products and services has the best chance to bring back clients and repeat business. Quality should be reflected throughout your corporate identity, which includes your design. Think about how consumers will react to the way your website or packaging will look.

   • For example, if you look at Apple's website, it is sleek, fast, and simple. This website is a direct representation of what their products are (i.e., sleek, fast, and simple). Even the silver color scheme makes you think of steel or metal, which most people will equate with strength and quality.
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   Bring a community together. The overall design of your company should work to bring a specific community together. If you can create a community for your services or products, they will be more likely to come back to your company. For example, Apple did the following in order to create a community around their company:

   • First, Apple created a quality product that targeted a specific audience.
   • Second, they encouraged their customers to meet and share.
   • Third, Apple focused their design strategy on one key element, which was a better user experience.
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Part 3

Part 3 of 5:

Refining Your Corporation's Professional Conduct

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   Act ethically. Your overall corporate behavior is one of the most important aspects of your corporate identity. Your actions must convey trust to your customers as well as your stakeholders. One of the easiest and most effective means of refining your corporate behavior is to act ethically, which means abiding by the law and conducting business morally.

   • One way to do this is to establish systems that govern your corporation to ensure you are both transparent and accountable. This may take the form of corporate guidelines or an employee handbook.
   • Another way to foster ethical behavior among those working with you is to not tolerate bribery, corruption, and insider trading. You can make it a policy that those taking part in such actions will be immediately terminated.
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   Protect your customers. Your corporate structure must include customer safeguards, which may take many forms. These safeguards need to be in place to ensure customers visiting your stores, your website, or your offices are safe and secure.

   • If you run an online shopping forum, you may need to create online security so your customers' personal information is not stolen.
   • If you have a brick and mortar store, you need to make sure you provide enough security so individuals feel comfortable while shopping.
   • If you have people visiting your office, make sure they are all vetted and checked out before you allow them to work on your premises.
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   Pursue customer satisfaction. Keep your customers in mind whenever you or your company makes a decision.

   • Handle customer issues in a fair and honest manner.
   • Deliver high quality products.
   • Ensure your products meet safety standards.
   • Invest time and money into creating improved products.
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   Build a healthy workplace. When starting your business, opening an office or a store, and hiring employees, make sure you have policies in place to help employees stay safe and healthy.

   • Adhere to laws about health and safety standards. Make sure you give an employee time off if they need it. Provide your employees with sanitary bathrooms and break rooms.
   • Act swiftly when you see or hear about any form of discrimination, abuse, or violence.
   • Foster a workplace where employees can find a happy medium between work and their personal life.
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   Foster diversity and teamwork. Your company will be most efficient when you have employees that work well together. When hiring, be sure you are looking for quality candidates based on their qualifications alone and not on their race, gender, or other irrelevant factors. You can also create diversity by hiring people that do not all think alike. Try and find people with different views on issues.

   • Create a culture that allows everyone to speak freely and contribute in their own way.
   • Give employees a way to take pride in their work and to be rewarded for their successes.
   • Provide educational opportunities so employees can develop their skills.
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   Initiate honest dialogue. Speak openly and honestly to your shareholders or stakeholders. These are the people that are buying your stocks and your products. They will only do so as long as they are kept in the loop. Give these people an honest picture of how your business is doing. You can also listen to these people and get their opinions about what you may want to do.

   • For example, if sales are dropping in a specific quarter, be honest about it when you report to your board. In addition, ask them if they have any ideas about bucking that trend and increasing sales moving forward.
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Part 4

Part 4 of 5:

Forming a Communication Style

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   Hire talented communications specialists. Choosing how you Communicate with your customers can dictate whether your company will succeed or fail. Even if you have the best product on the market, it doesn't mean anything if no one knows about it. In today's world, a lot of companies have employees, even executives, whose sole mission is to create an effective communications strategy. These people should have a deep knowledge of your company's products and processes. Hire someone who majored in corporate communication from a good school. You should even look for people with MBAs.

   • For example, Penn State University offers a major in corporate communication. This field of study prepares individuals to be highly-skilled planners, problem solvers, and persuaders. These graduates should know how to craft the right message, to the right audience, at the right time.
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   Trust the communications function. Listen to what your communications department tells you about your strategy. Quantifying communications issues can be difficult, but a bad strategy may lead to a failing company. If you do not allow your communications team to do their jobs, you may end up fixing communications problems instead of avoiding them altogether.
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   Allow your communications team to educate others. You should have various meetings throughout the year where your communications team discuss their plans and ideas with other employees. It is often easy to see why you need your engineering team (i.e., to create the product you sell), but it is more difficult to see the benefits of communications.

   • It is also important to get everyone together in order to create a streamline communications plan. For example, your communications team may want to run a certain social media advertisement, but your financial team might not think that is the best use of money and your web designers might not think it is possible. Sharing ideas and educating others can help create a cohesive corporate identity.
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   Let other employees play a role in communications. Allow your employees to sell and communicate for you. Do not take away their ability to get the word out about your company. Set up meetings where employees can ask questions about visions and goals and allow them to spread that word.

   • For example, let your employees use their social media presence to communicate with the public about your product. Tell Bob it is okay to get on Facebook and post a picture of the newly designed t-shirt.
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Part 5

Part 5 of 5:

Assessing Your Corporate Identity

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   Test your corporate identity. Once you have created what you believe to be a solid corporate identity, test it in your market. Talk with customers and use focus groups. Ask them how they feel about your logo and color scheme. Do they want to buy your product? Ask for specific feedback and take that back to your employees so they can see if anything needs to be changed. Do this as soon as possible after you create your corporate identity. Use this information to tweak your corporate identity before you introduce yourself to the world.

   • Take this feedback seriously and follow up. If you are hearing multiple negative reactions, talk with the individuals giving you that feedback and ask them to expand on their thoughts. Be sure you thank everyone for their time and let them know you value their help.
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   Assess your internal structures. Make sure your employees and your business are running smoothly. Revisit your ideas about professional conduct and talk with employees about how they feel. Use their feedback to create a better workplace. This may mean hiring new people, creating new employee guidelines, or even fixing your existing office space.

   • For example, hold quarterly or annual meetings where employees can speak freely about their corporate concerns. You can also use this time to gain positive feedback as well. Give people a chance to speak or submit their concerns anonymously.
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   Update when necessary. As time goes on and as your consumers change, you may need to update certain aspects of your corporate identity. Invest in constantly tweaking your identity in order to best serve the needs of your customers and shareholders. If you see something that needs changing, do it. A corporate identity is not static and you should not create one and then set it to the side. Your corporate identity will change as your business changes.

   • In general, you should try to avoid tweaking your corporate design. Your design is how customers identify you. If you are constantly changing the font and color of your logo, you run the risk of not having your company recognized. The longer you can sustain your corporate design, the more brand recognition you will have. However, there may come a time when your design needs to be updated. For example, if your logo is outdated compared to other logos in your industry, you might want to change it. If you know people identify with certain colors or shapes that they didn't identify with then you first created the logo, maybe it is time for a change.
   • Unlike your corporate design, your corporate conduct and communication could constantly fluctuate. For example, your advertising campaigns should undoubtedly change over time. If you are using print and television ads, maybe you want to consider moving into digital and social media to lower your costs and reach a broader audience.
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Tips

• Look for help if you do not have the financial resources or staff members to dedicate to corporate identity planning. If you are a nonprofit organization, groups such as the Taproot Foundation help you develop your identity and materials. You can also tap into the enthusiasm and expertise of college students and interns to help you with design work.
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