Thursday, November 1, 2007

Corporate Identity

A company’s corporate identity is the group of attributes and values a company has: its “personality”, its reason of being, its spirit and soul. The image reflected by the “company’s personality” will make the company identifiable and different from the rest and it will also determine its importance in the business world. Corporate identity is the group of pieces, aspects, ideas, methods and techniques that your brand needs to be identifiable.

A strong identity strengthens organizations brand, becoming recognizable to the target audience. It’s advisable to begin with the creation of a logo or company brand since the development of the identity will depend on them. The logo will be present in all the pieces that form the corporate identity system.

The corporate identity is a strategic way to make the image that the rest perceive fit in with the image the company wants to convey. Every company continuously conveys messages to its surroundings even if they do not communicate anything at all. The visual image is one of the most important means that businesses constantly use to convey and manifest their identity.

The corporate identity is a system of communication that is incorporated to the company’s global strategy and it is present in all its manifestations, productions, properties and activities.

The corporate communication goal is to increase the awareness of Organizations image and to establish empathy between the Organization and the target audience. The corporate communication must be dynamic, correct and planned, and it must show the target audience the Organizations global plans. Corporate communication means to transmit Organization’s identity, making it understandable and convenient and giving it a determined image. The corporate identity is the company’s being; it is its essence.

The corporate identity is the integration, in the mind of target audience, of all the messages conveyed by a company or organization.

Some aspects that must be taken into consideration when creating a corporate identity are: visual communication, the product design and launch, and the corporate architectural system. The strategic vision must be planned and studied, and sensorial stimuli that evoke this visual identity must be transmitted.

The corporate identity must symbolize the company’s ethic and attitudes, so that those who work for the company share the same spirit and communicate the identity to those related with it. The corporate identity must also remark the difference between the company and its product and services with the ones offered by the competition. Today the corporate identity is a first-rate strategic tool.