It is difficult to imagine a person without a name, personality, or distinctive behavior. Human nature drives us to associate certain identifying traits with a person or a thing and define its identity. Therefore, every human being has their own identity, whether unique or not. The same applies to companies as well—this is where the importance of creating a corporate visual identity comes from.
What Is the Importance of Creating a Visual Identity for Companies?
Companies are given names and personalities, and are often humanized to help the target audience recognize them, connect with them, and distinguish them in the market. This unique identity of a company is known as corporate identity.
What Is Visual Identity?
Corporate identity is how a company presents itself to the public (including both internal and external audiences). It is how the company looks, behaves, and communicates.
It helps the company be recognized and differentiated in the market and among internal stakeholders (including employees, investors, and partners) and external stakeholders (including customers, consumers, and media).
Elements of Corporate Visual Identity
There are several essential components that make up a company’s visual identity and cannot be overlooked. The most important elements include:
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Company communication
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Corporate design
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Corporate behavior
Company Communication
This refers to how the company interacts and delivers information to both internal and external audiences to develop a favorable perception and a unified corporate image across all channels.
Simply put, this is what the company communicates.
It includes:
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Internal communication: Policies and procedures, team communications, internal newsletters, and all forms of communication with internal audiences.
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Paid communication: Messages delivered through paid media such as advertising, sponsorships, and events.
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Media relations: All earned communication such as public relations and news coverage fall under media relations.
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Investor relations: All messages communicated to company investors.
Corporate Design
Corporate design represents the visual identity of the company. It includes all visual assets such as the company name, logo, brand colors, brand imagery, and slogans that visually distinguish the company from others.
The main components of corporate design include:
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Logos: The primary symbol that represents the company or its products. It serves as instant recognition for the company.
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Colors: Brand colors include an official color palette that represents the brand and is consistently used across all brand assets.
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Typography: Companies usually define approved fonts used in all communication materials.
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Website: The website represents how the company presents itself in the digital world. It acts as a brand outlet in the online space.
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Interior design: Office interior design is also part of corporate identity. It reveals a lot about the company, such as how the organization operates and its work culture.
Corporate Behavior
In its true sense, corporate behavior refers to how the company behaves. It includes the code of ethics and corporate social responsibility, which reflect the company’s core values and philosophy.
Technically, corporate behavior describes how a company operates as a unified entity in various situations influenced by political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors.
In many cases, corporate behavior is driven by social media responsibility.
Importance of Creating a Corporate Visual Identity
A strong corporate identity plays a crucial role in shaping positive perceptions and opinions about a company.
Here are some key points highlighting the importance of corporate identity:
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Helps differentiation: A well-planned corporate strategy allows a company to stand out in its market.
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Creates awareness: Corporate identity communicates the company’s promise to both internal and external audiences.
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Strengthens market presence: A strong corporate identity enhances credibility, reinforcing the company’s position in the market.
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Builds reputation: Consistent corporate identity combined with good service increases customer trust, leading to a strong reputation over time.
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Builds customer loyalty: Maintaining a consistent corporate identity aligned with company values, principles, and goals helps customers connect with the brand and develop loyalty.
Corporate Identity vs. Brand Identity
Contrary to common belief, corporate identity and brand identity are not the same.
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Brand identity focuses on the quality, ethics, and positioning of a specific product, leading to the formation of a brand image.
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Corporate identity reflects the company’s ethics, values, and focus that led to the creation of the product, forming the overall image of the parent company.
Examples of Corporate Identity
Apple
Apple’s logo is a bitten black apple on a white background. Apple’s uniqueness is the core element of its corporate identity. The slogan “Think Different” reinforces this philosophy and ensures the same message is communicated across all offerings.
This allows Apple to stand out from competitors in the market.
Additionally, Apple contributes to society by providing educational programs to more than 3.6 million suppliers since 2008, among other initiatives. This supports Apple’s strong corporate identity through the effective use of its identity elements.
Starbucks
Starbucks’ green logo emphasizes the importance of corporate visual identity. Starbucks is known worldwide for its high-quality, premium coffee—but that’s not the only reason for its success. The consistent atmosphere in its stores, the reliable brand promise, and the unified visual design all enhance trust and reputation.
Starbucks also takes corporate social responsibility seriously, supporting farmers and providing job opportunities for refugees, among other initiatives.
As a result, Starbucks has become one of the most recognizable coffee chains in the world.
Conclusion
We have reviewed the importance of creating a visual identity for companies. At Smart Media, we provide this service through our specialized team, delivering unique corporate visual identities with competitive pricing and high quality.
