City of Paris

Depending on whom you talk to, corporate identity can be very exciting, as it is often to an entrepreneur who is creating a new company, very restrictive (to someone who doesn’t like to follow rules but who happens to work in a big corporation) or a strategic component within an overall communication program, which to me is a pragmatic way of looking at it. And what I mean by pragmatism is that we need to look at corporate identity in light of the role it plays in helping a company accomplish its business goals and not how it provides an outlet for a company stakeholder’s creativity or self-expression. With this perspective, then, the process of building and maintaining a corporate identity becomes more objective and rational. The emotions that we are concerned about are those of our audience, not of internal stakeholders involved in the process. Suddenly, it’s easier to make decisions, because making choices based on well-defined, business-focused criteria is far simpler than figuring out who likes what or reconciling personal preferences. With this in mind, I would like to offer some basic rules I’ve learned to follow.

Consistency trumps creativity. I often counsel clients that the discipline and consistency with which a corporate identity system is implemented are far more important than how unique, original or visually distinctive it is. Standing out from the crowd is not bad, but consistently communicating the identity that a business has carefully crafted will ultimately create the desired image—one that builds value for the business.

Keep it simple. Sometimes the corporate identity “policy” goes overboard with complex rules that indeed are restrictive but, even worse, difficult to follow. For those of us who are in a position to write style guides, we need to remember that corporate identity is implemented at many levels, from the specialists in marketing and communications departments to the many business disciplines that communicate with customers, prospective employees and corporate partners on a day-to-day basis. You’ll find more followers when the rules are easy to understand.

Beyond the visual identity. I always like to quote Clive Chajet, who speaks of the brand as the sum total of a corporation’s conversation with society. Corporate identity goes beyond logos, typography, colors, grids and all those graphic parameters, to the way your receptionist (or computer voice) answers the telephone, office décor, attire, business practices, interaction with the community, etc.

If you’re interested in reading more about corporate identity and related topics, here are two of my favorites: Marketing Aesthetics by Alex Simonson and Bernd H. Schmitt and Image by Design: From Corporate Vision to Business Reality by Clive Chajet.

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