Supplier Showcase | The Virtual Tradeshow Live

Brand identity. What is it and who needs it?

Appeared in UK RECRUITER

A few years ago mention of brand identity would conjure up images of cornflakes and confectionery bars. Not any more. The success of such brands in the consumer goods market has meant that the practice of brand identity management has become part and parcel of every recruitment company executive – and not just those in the marketing department.

What does it involve?
On the holistic level a brand identity includes just about every point of customer contact a company has. Companies are very different to products, because they are made up of people not ingredients. So people are one of the best brand ambassadors any company can have. How your people behave, how they react, answer the phone, deliver advice will affect how candidates, customers and partners perceive your company. Likewise your offices – their look and feel and even location can affect how you’ll be viewed by the people you wish to influence.

The language you use is a critical part of the way people will view you. How you describe your company, and also how you present yourself ‘on paper’. Do you use all the latest buzzwords to demonstrate you are aware of the latest trends or simple, lay terms that anyone can understand?

Corporate packaging
But there is another aspect to brand identity. Just as consumer goods are presented in packaging that acts as a ‘silent sales force’, so are companies – we call it their visual identity. It influences those people who may well never encounter a company’s people or visit its offices. Think of how many visitors have been to your website and have not come back or bothered to find out how you answer the phone!

Your visual identity is made up of a number of elements: name, colour, symbol, name style and strap line. They come together in a unique way to create a highly visible, emotional link with their key audiences. No wonder companies like Shell describe it as its ‘most important intangible asset’.

The first step is to ensure that your identity is an appropriate portrait of your organisation. Are you warm and cuddly or cool and efficient; trendy or timeless? Then check that you are presenting yourselves consistently. This is where many companies are not up-to-the-mark. The shop front and letterhead are in place, looking good, but a look at other communications channels and it can look rather sad.

Check the ads in the window and in the local press. Your PowerPoint presentations, the CVs you send out, your website, pull-up banners for seminars and exhibitions, brochures, newsletter, posters and T-Shirts used at events. It is partly about the visual identity looking the same but it is also important to check it has been interpreted in the same way, in the same spirit. So if different colours have been used, are they from the same pallet?

It is not surprisingly that inconsistencies can emerge, especially with fast growing companies, too intent on the next, immediate deal to worry about the future marketing further down the track. Pause and take stock because your visual identity is an asset that needs appropriate management.

What’s the value?
Your pay back comes in lots of ways. A consistent and coherent identity gives you better marketing value because every pound spent is supporting the same image, building on what has gone before. There is no confused or disparate message, no waste of valuable marketing resource. In short you achieve a quicker return on investment.

In a crowded market place, it’s hard to get impact unless you are distinctive and easily recognised.  Become recognised and you come become familiar. Familiarity breeds respect, not contempt and so people will choose you. Choice is not easy when there is so much on the shelves. Becoming distinctly branded is a way of making that choice simpler. And that’s not all – the good news is that people pay a premium for things they like.

A coherent and consistently presented brand identity builds up trust and confidence. People like to know what to expect. Just like good navigation on a website, its reassuring to find things in the same place, so with the same look.

For new companies with no established track record – no smart offices to make an impact or large team of consultants to act as brand ambassadors – a coherent visual identity is a must-have. The perfect chance to set out their stall as they see fit: trendy, new-kid-on-the-block or long-in-the-tooth and well established?

One of our favourite sayings is a designer can create an identity but a company can make it. No amount of packaging will persuade you to buy a lousy candy bar again. The same is true of a visual identity. Ask yourself, are you as good as your company’s packaging? Perhaps a more realistic question is: Why are we so much better than our packaging suggests?