3 features that form the corporate identity of a business
In this blog I will tackle 3 important questions when it comes to branding, creating a corporate identity and why SMBs do need it:
- What is branding?
- What are the aspects to consider when it comes to branding and creating a corporate identity?
- How to master the art of branding?
What is branding?
Many small companies know little to nothing about branding and don’t care too much about building a brand either. The rationale? They believe their hard work and actual products or services will speak for themselves.
While this seems like a noble belief; to trust in one’s labor, these businesses lose the opportunity to weave a story about their brand. The problem with not investing in building the brand is that any business selling a product or service, is selling them to humans and humans are emotive creatures.
People love stories. They love the concept of buying more than just a piece of chicken. A particular chicken thigh would seem much more tantalizing than any other, simply because it’s made from a 90-year-old secret recipe. The ingredients of this recipe are somewhat shrouded in mystery. And of course, mystery sells!
Branding beyond a logo is just marketing nonsense no one really cares about, right?
Wrong.
Big companies like Coca-Cola, Nike, and McDonald’s know that corporate identity and branding are more than that. These large and successful companies have remained this way because they link their branding with a story about their companies alongside attributing inherently important morals such as truth, beauty, utility, quality, familiarity, inclusivity, etc…
Corporate identity and branding, when enriched with the right and fitting attributes, start building a ‘brand value.’ And brand value becomes important in the race of differentiation and customer retention.
Every company essentially has the same or very similar products: It is the brand value that propels one to choose between Nike and Adidas. Brand values decide the customers of Mercedes vs. BMW or even differentiate between the fans of Michael Jackson and Prince. King of Pop or Prince of Funk, whichever nuance suits one’s sensibility.
Everyone has an almost irrational preference of one brand over another: The reason: Brand value.
This sense of loyalty because of a company’s brand values was either created by one’s experience, that of one’s parents’, or through word of mouth. Whichever way this connection was created, once established with a customer, it is difficult to sway the mind in another direction.
This right here is why branding and creating a positive and strong brand value is so important. It is also the reason why it’s much better to tell and own your story without allowing your customers to make up one all by themselves. Your brand story provides them with the building blocks to shape their positive experience. I cannot stress enough how important this is for your business.
A favorable corporate identity can therefore be designed and broken into 3 aspects:
Performance:
This refers to the scope of the services and products your company offers as much as a it’s overall capabilities. The latter is especially important if a company offers a product portfolio that consists of more than a single product or product line.
How to achieve branding through performance?
Firstly, decide what you want your company and products to stand for operationally:
Is it for high quality? Luxury? Best bang for the buck? Low price point? Social consciousness? Ecologically friendly? Once defined or claimed, the company has to use this as a measuring stick against which its customers will hold it accountable.
Design:
This consists of what we generally consider as branding. It’s the visual or acoustic design that one can see, hear, or sense in any way. It’s the smell of the Abercrombie stores, look of an Apple store, or the sound a car door makes when you close it.
How to form a corporate identity through design?
Branding is highly emotive and evocative. This is why it is important to try to find a look and feel that can encapsulate the operational identity of your company. This is why eco-friendly companies use light blues or greens. Aggressive colors such as black or bright red simply don’t say: Save the planet. The design of the logo should also be part of the story you want to tell. This story best points to the historic heritage of the company, the founders, or the region a company comes from. There are many opportunities and ways to create meaning, logo design is just the start.
Behavior:
This is the most complex of the criteria as it is linked to the activities of the company as well as to its representatives you interact with one way or the other. A CEO featured on the news is just as much a defining behavioral factor as is the service person the customers meet. So are the investments the company makes in social initiatives or the manner in which it deals with its staff, post-subpar performance. All of these play a role in piecing the overall ‘behavioral’ picture of a company.
How to form a corporate identity through behavior?
A company’s behavior plays a role in the story of its brand told on a daily basis. Any story could negatively influence it. A well defined code of conduct that can be followed both internally and externally to be experienced through customer touch-points are crucial to manifest this. Succinctly put, your company’s communication with its customers is a prominent part of its behavioral corporate identity factor.
As such, investing time and resources into creating a corporate identity is more than just deciding on a few colors and having a logo. All of the above becomes especially important once you engage in digital marketing and social media. These allow you to be constantly watched as you create stories on the go. This is why branding is probably the first and maybe the only way your potential customers experience you.
You cannot leave this to chance: SMBs do need branding. It’s that simple.
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