Creating an identity for your business.

Your Corporate Identity

There are a few questions that need to be answered.

• Do you already have a corporate identity?
• Do you need to develop a new corporate identity?
• Have you ever heard of a corporate identity?

If you already have an established online or offline business the chances are pretty good that you have a corporate identity. Your corporate identity includes business cards, letterheads, advertisements, web site, colors and other features that make your business recognizable. It doesn't matter what you sell or do. Your identity is how people recognize your company.

To create an identity you need to analyze your market and potential customers/clients.

Identify your industry

Your industry will influence a lot in the way you need to approach creating your identity. For instance the technology industry will need font types, colors, and technologies that will cater to the likes of the consumers of that industry.

Identify your market

Is your market small? Large? What is your target demographic? Retired people, teenagers, business owners. This will help you define where you will be advertising online and offline. This will also help with the tone of your ads and style of your identity.

Check out the competition

Look at competing companies, not just in your geographical area but worldwide. You will still have an advantage for local sales. If you are going to compete online you will need to start thinking globally.

After all this what have we learned? Lets take 2 examples. A technology company that markets a products to teenagers and a service company that markets to senior citizens.

Technology Company

• Logo and domain name need to be something cool, technical, simple.
• Consistent technical font for all documents, ads and online presence.
• Technical color selection : black,white ,gray and shades of blue are popular.
• Images on web site featuring teenagers using the product. Young, upbeat, hip images that promote the feeling that you will belong, be happy and have friends if you have this product.
• Use technology that will impress the younger crowd, color, translucent business cards (about $1 per card), flash animation on web site, techno or hip-hop music depending on the market.

Service Company

• Company name needs to inspire trust and comfort. Example : Meadowbrook Care
• Fonts should be more rounded, colors need to be softer, earth tones.
• Images need to include the target audience, older people enjoying life because of the is service, smiling, content people.
• No technology here. No flash or anything moving on web site. No music. Web site does have to include technology to make site usable by people with disabilities. You need to do some research at www.w3.org to prepare your site for the visually impaired.

Of course your content should be written up to match the needs of your customers. Tone and style are important, thats why there are professional writers creating the copy for major sites.

Before you get started you need to make sure your new business name and logo are not already registered. Otherwise, you could be spending a fortune on lawyers before you even make your first sale. You should at least do a few searches for the domain name you would like for your company. If it´s taken you might have to start all over.

Here you go. Ready to create your corporate identity. All you have to do is some market analysis, create a web site, business cards, print ads and digital ads.

If you have a few million dollars or you luck out with a product that everyone will want you don't care about any of this. You can call your business anything and have it look like crap if you can afford the marketing. People will come to your site if you have enough online, tv, radio and print advertising. If you are lucky you can start with nothing and sell sacks of beads (Beanie Babies) and make millions.

For the rest of you there is lots of work to be done. That is why other small businesses exist to take some of the effort out of starting and running your company. You can either spend your time or money. Just dont end up spending both. Hire reputable companies by checking references. So give us a call here at Desiant when you are ready!