Graphic Design

Branding and corporate identity

What is Corporate Identity? One of the most ordinarily misunderstood phrases in business is corporate identity. Many people confuse the term with logos or wrongly think it only applies to specific sectors. Nevertheless, corporate identity is crucial to all brands’ success, despite size or industry.

What is Branding?

If the description of branding were simple, there would not be so much vagueness and inconsistency regarding the concept. However, branding is such a broad notion that a correct definition that indeed incorporates everything that it represents would not bring too much transparency to the question just by itself. In a nutshell, branding is the continuous process of identifying, creating, and managing the acquired assets and actions that shape the opinion of a brand in stakeholders’ minds.

In truth, basing your knowledge about branding on a definition that reduces it to only one element being visual identity, makes every other branding-related theory fall short when trying to connect the dots.

Any communication or information you can see when you interact with a brand is a component of its corporate identity.

Although logo design falls under corporate identity, the term reaches far beyond this visual icon to incorporate fonts, illustrations, colours, photography, and animations.

Every day you see examples of corporate identity on everything from social media posts to billboards ads, and the list goes on. 

When a company’s visual elements are implemented accurately and consistently, they work mutually to build a corporate brand identity that is immediately recognisable and unforgettable. 

Brand consistency gives you more authority over your brand image, which, although made up of singular interactions with your company, can be influenced or at least impacted by a solid corporate identity.

How Do You Create Corporate Identity?

A corporate identity can only be built once your in-house team has aligned on your brand’s positioning, purpose, values, messaging, and character. With this solid foundation in place, a corporate identity design company can assist you in building a visual language that reflects your brand. These visual brand tags should be as strategic as they are inventive. Rather than rigidly fixed brand components, your design elements should also be flexible, keeping your business relevant during changing markets and consumer landscapes.

Why is it Important?

Branding is imperative to any business because of the overall impression it makes on your business. Branding can alter how people see your brand; it can drive new business and increase brand value, but it can also do the reverse if done incorrectly or not at all.

Constant, strategic branding leads to substantial brand equity, which means the added value delivered to your company’s offering allows you to charge more for your brand than what identical, unbranded products demand. 

The most famous example of this is Coke vs a generic soda. Because Coca-Cola has built substantial brand equity, it can charge more for its product, and consumers will pay that higher rate.

The added value essential to brand equity often comes in the form of perceived quality or emotional attachment. For example, Nike affiliates its products with star athletes in hopes customers will transfer their emotional attachment from the athlete to their product. For Nike, it is not just the shoe’s features that sell the shoe; it’s the emotion behind the purchase as well. 

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Exploring your brand is like a journey of business self-discovery. It can be difficult, tedious and uncomfortable. But, design inspiration aside, these acclaimed corporate identity examples demonstrate the importance of consistency in branding. So if you want to refresh or completely rebrand your company identity, we have got you covered.