3. Corporate identity design process

To set a brand development or brand refreshment program off on the right footing, I usually work with the following steps:

3.1 RESEARCH / ANALYSIS

a Research
I study all brand-, corporate culture- and business strategy-related materials the client provides me with.

b Competitor analysis
I study and analyse all relevant competitors and their brands, based on the clients selection and input.

c Moodboard
I create an interactive so-called “moodboard” for the client, which the client then works with and makes a number of visual and image-related choices that the design work will be based on. A demo of this interactive moodboard can be found here: http://jay.sojdelius.com/moodboard
   
3.2 CONCEPTUALIZATION / POSITIONING

a Analysis
I compile the information given by the client under 1 above in a brief analysis, where the a suitable, available position on the market is narrowed down which defines the brand in contrast to the main competitors.

b Concept
I author a description of which rational and emotional communicative features are the most crucial for the client’s position and brand, and then recommend a communicative concept that expresses this.

c Style
I describe verbally a suitable style, i e a visual expression, that suits the concept.

3.3 NAME (FOR NAMING CLIENTS ONLY)

a Verbal parameters
I assemble a number of words and/or expressions that I believe would be positively associative to the client’s business and that could be used as verbal “building blocks” to create a name. Most commmonly, this would be a unique “nonsense word” that the client can charge over time with a certain meaning, but it could also be a variation on an already existing term or phrase that has preexisting associations built-in.

b Name suggestions
I create a number of suggested names based on the parameters above, that the client can evaluate and select a shortlist of suitable names.

c Name research
I research the availability of trademarks and domain names of the names in the shortlist.

d Name selection
I help the client select the name that works the best and is also available.

e Domain name registration
I assist the client in registering the relevant domain name(s).

3.4 DESIGN

a Typeface, colors
I initiate the design process by choosing a number of suitable typefaces and color combinations and seek the client’s approval on these.

b Outline 
I develop a number of design outlines and logo suggestions.

c Design
Based on the client’s input and choice, I select and develop one visual alternative.

d Development
This preferred alternative is developed and refined in dialogue with the client, until a finalized result is arrived at.

3.5 PRODUCTION

a Logotype
I produce a final digital design (usually in vector format) and develop different size- and color versions for various purposes and channels (print, screen etc).

b Print files
I produce printable logo files for the units requested by the client (business cards, letterheads, envelopes, stickers, signs etc).

c Print
I request printing quotes for the units chosen and, if requested, manage the printing process on behalf of the client.

3.6 IMPLEMENTATION

a Corporate ID styleguide
I compile a simple, brief guide to how  the logotype, colors and typefaces are to be used.

b Template documents
I produce template documents in for example MS Word, MS PowerPoint or e-mail, that the client requires.

c Training
If so required, I assist the client in implementing the brand by training key staff members on how to work with the corporate ID.

2.5 Brand value matters for all sizes of businesses
 
The most common objection to the argument for intrinsic brand value is, that brand-building requires marketing leverage that only big companies can afford. This is true to a certain degree, but it doesn’t rule out brand value as an important factor even for small businesses.

Brands are not necessarily about factual reality – brands are about perception. A company branded as “the best value in town” does not need to actually be the best value in town. It only needs to maintain that appearance.

All companies, in all sizes, have clients or customers that form their purchasing decisions on both tangible and intangible factors. Companies are therefore to some degree dependent on how they interact with their target audiences, in order to manage and improve the intangible aspects of their brand. Consumers see a particular brand name as a contract. A brand’s name may reduce a consumers’ sense of uncertainty, instilling a modicum of trust and thereby enhancing a sense of value.

Brand value is communicated by using consistent imagery and uniform messages, which enables the consumer to distinguish between different brands and their attributes. A customer weighs the tangible product features together with intangible aspects such as brand value (and price), to narrow down their selection to a smaller number of alternatives which they will consider for purchase. This means that a brand’s value can affect the outcome of the purchasing decision and it thereby has a value, regardless of the size and marketing resources of the company behind the brand. And this value keeps improving, if the brand is managed right.

Next: Part 5. “Corporate identity design process”

2.3 How to choose the right agency
 Realistically, smaller organizations or startup companies are best served looking for an in-between solution. Try to find an agency that is experienced in creating brands for smaller businesses; one that understands your need for swift and inexpensive results. Ask about their branding practices and examine their portfolio. Make sure they can adapt to different styles and aesthetic demands.

2.4 How to know if you’re getting your money’s worth
It is not uncommon for established design agencies to charge anywhere from $20,000 and up for a name and logo. You should demand great results from a agency in this range.

But is this worth the investment? How does one know?

Well, there actually are formulas for calculating brand value. An established formula goes like this: 

Value of brand name ={(V/S)b-(V/S)g }* Sales

(V/S)b = Value of Firm/Sales ratio of the firm with the benefit of the brand name 

(V/S)g = Value of Firm/Sales ratio of the firm with the generic product

Acknowledging that the value of any company is tied to its sales, by comparing an established brand with a generic one using this formula, it can be established that as much as 67-70% of the value of the company can be traced to brand name value.

In the specific case of Coca Cola, one of the most recognizable brands on the planet, the value of the brand name has actually (pre-recession) been estimated at $102 billion, or 88,69% of the total value of the company. Post-recession, the value was estimated to be $68 billion. Comparing the value of the Coca Cola brand to a generic cola, it has been established that the value of the Coca Cola brand is 6,1 times the value of sales. 

To put this in terms of profitability, it can be expressed like this: 

• Water is free. Water + Brand costs $1.50 per 16 oz bottle.
• A pound of coffee costs roughly $4/lb . That same amount of coffee, plus the Starbucks brand, costs $9.95.
• A can of generic cola costs 25 cents. A can of cola plus brand costs $1.00.

Clearly, if one is serious about building value in ones company, branding is a great way of doing it!

Next: Part 2.5. Brand value matters for all sizes of businesses

2. Buying corporate identity services

Very few clients are experienced when it comes to hiring consultants and designers to work on their brand and their corporate identity. It is simply not work that is commonplace in very many businesses, and therefore there are often a great many misconceptions surrounding this type of work.

2.1 The importance of the brand
One major misconception is that the corporate identity of an organization – be it big or small – is not very important. This is simply not true – a brand is a very valuable commodity. Building and enhancing the brand is a core business activity and a fundamental principle of strategic marketing. Investing in the brand is an investment in the future marketing success of your company. A weak or inconsistent brand will be a liability in any marketing campaign and may even sabotage the ROI of your marketing budgets.

2.2 Costs vs results
So, how much you can expect to pay for the creation of your brand? The answer is that it doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive, but it certainly can be, depending on who you decide to do business with. It can cost you in terms of actual money, or it can cost you in terms of the inadequacy of the results.

In developing a brand, you usually get what you pay for. You may know a talented amateur working out of a basement who can create a name and shape it into a logo for $500. Or you can choose to pay an established identity and branding agency $100,000. Ideally, you would think that $100,000 should get you a higher quality design and quite a lot of brand theory and marketing analysis to back it up. But whether the result was actually worth the money depends on your requirements, and what kind of results you’re expecting.

Next: Part 2.3. “How to choose the right agency”

1. About corporate identity

All businesses, organizations and brands have a visual identity; an identity that is associated with their name.

This identity is a product of the owner’s collected visual representation in-  and communication with the surrounding world. Everyone that comes into contact with this identity is affected by it in some way or other, and forms an opinion of the owner – consciously or subconsciously – based on it.

To ensure that a client, and the client’s products and services, are perceived as reliable, professional and serious, the visual identity must be managed and controlled. This is accomplished by the development of a so-called corporate identity program: a set of visual rules and graphic standards that are to govern the design of all material through which the company is represented.

The corporate identity program must be applied consistently and cohesively in order for the image of the client to be clear and convincing, instill confidence and communicate the core values that permeates the organization and are considered fundamental for its existence.

For startup companies, the development of a corporate identity is something of a brand related R&D process, which requires a lot of soul-searching and market-related analysis and input.

For existing companies, the corporate identity is more of a brand commodity that can benefit the company or weigh the company down, depending on whether it is in or out of step with the company’s evolutionary curve. It therefore needs to be revised and refreshed intermittently.

Over the course of the next week, I will outline my views on branding and corporate identity design processes.

Next: Part 2. “Buying corporate identity services”

Worried that your resumé might not be up to the task? Well then, here’s some inspiration: even the legendary Leonardo Da Vinci had to put together a convincing resumé, to ensure his employability. At the tender age of 30, in the year 1482, he supposedly wrote this in a letter to the Duke of Milan, Ludovico il Moro:

“Most illustrious Lord, having now sufficiently seen and considered the proofs of all those who count themselves master and inventors of instruments of war, and finding that their invention and use of the said instruments does not differ in any respect from those in common practice, I am emboldened without prejudice to anyone else to put myself in communication with your Excellency, in order to acquaint you with my secrets, thereafter offering myself at your pleasure effectually to demonstrate at any convenient time all those matters which are in part briefly recorded below,

1. I have plans for bridges, very light and strong and suitable for carrying very easily(…)

2. When a place is besieged I know how to cut off water from the trenches, and how to construct an infinite number of (…) scaling ladders and other instruments(…)

3. If because of the height of the embankment, and the strength of the place of its site, it should be impossible to reduce it by bombardment, I know methods of destroying any citadel or fortress, even if it is built on rock.

4. I have plans for making a cannon, very convenient and easy of transport, with which to hurl small stones in the manner almost of hail (…)

5. And should it happen that the engagement is at sea, I have plans for construction many engines most suitable for attack or defense, and ships which can resist the fire of all the heaviest cannon, and powder and smoke.

6. Also I have ways of arriving at a certain fixed spot by caverns and secret winding passages made without any noise even though it may be necessary to pass underneath (…) a river.

7. Also I can make covered carts, safe and unassailable, which will enter the serried ranks of the enemy with artillery, and there is no company of men at arms so great as not to be broken by it. And behind these the infantry will be able to follow quite unharmed and without any opposition.

8. Also, if need shall arise, I can make cannons, mortars and light ordnance, of very beautiful and useful shapes, quite different from those in common use.

9. Where it is not possible to employ a cannon, I can supply catapults, mangonels, traps and other engines of wonderful efficacy not in general issue. In short, as the variety of circumstances shall necessitate, I can supply an infinite number of different engines of attack and defense.

10. In times of peace I believe that I can give you complete satisfaction and to the equal of any other in architecture and the construction of buildings both public and private, and in conducting water from one place to another.

11. Also, I can execute sculptures in marble, bronze, or clay and also I can do in painting whatever may be done, as well as any other, be he who he may.

12. Moreover, I would undertake the work of the bronze horse, which shall endure with immortal glory and eternal honor the auspicious memory of the Prince of your father and of the illustrious house of Sforza.

And if any of the above-named things seem to anyone to be impossible or not feasible, I am most ready to make the experiment in your park, or in whatever place may please your Excellency – to whom I comment myself with the utmost humility, etc.

Mind you, this was years before the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper or the Vitruvian Man. He apparently yet needed to prove himself…

Involvement

Key condition: interaction

Without a pre-existing interest or commitment, it is difficult to reach out to a target audience and actually influence it. The Internet today is a mass medium and becomes an increasingly mundane and omnipresent phenomenon, where multitudes of messages struggle to make themselves heard.

To permanently change people’s perceptions of issues that may be complex or perhaps even of lesser interest to the target audience, a sender must be able to continuously penetrate the attention of the target audience and successively make the message more urgent to them.

Therefore, iteration through continuous interaction is a key condition. To ensure continuous engagement on the Internet, and attract a target audience to make repeat visits, you as a sender must make yourself accessible for interaction with the target audience. One-way-communication is simply not sufficient.

Forms of communication that allow for a high degree of repetitive interaction are found in games and social media. Games in the sense that they create stickiness, i e an experience that the recipient constantly wants more of. Social media because it provides a platform for the recipient where he or she can make themselves heard, which in turn results in long-term engagement.

Understanding

Key condition: Time

I often work with demanding, complex brands, products and issues characterized by many interwoven layers of information that may essentially be impossible to do justice in a shorter, more condensed format, such as for instance a banner campaign or a microsite. These issues pose great demands on both sender and recipient in order to establish successful communication.

It is therefore critical to first and foremost phrase the message and its associated issues and problems in a distinct and comprehensive way, but it is equally important to ensure that the presentation of the complex issue in question is given the time it requires to sink in.

I therefore consider time to be a key condition.

If the recipient is to attain a clear and strong understanding of complex issues, and really understand in what way they are relevant to him or her, you simply must create a communicative framework in which the recipient is motivated enough to spend more time with the message than what is normally the case in traditional marketing.

An excellent way of accomplishing this is to create a strong dramaturgical framework to support the subject in question, where a coherent story can help pull the recipient through the whole message from start to finish, and thus keep the recipient stimulated over a longer period of time.

Tomorrow: Part 3. Involvement

Motivation

Key condition: Identification

Motivation is a key issue for all forms of communication. Lack of interest creates a gap between sender and recipient, which means that concrete communicative results can be difficult to achieve.

Therefore, a sender must pay special attention to how to make their message more appealing and urgent to the recipient, so that the gap between sender and recipient may be bridged.

A critical condition to achieve this is that the recipient be given some form of possibility to identify with the message. This is something that is often overlooked in modern communication, especially on the Internet. There are many forms of useful information and functionality, but a human presence and genuine understanding forthe recipient’s situation is often lacking. This of course makes it more difficult for the recipient to assimilate the information.

It has been my experience that great results can be achieved in getting a recipient to take in a message by enabling identification, i e to work towards using people or characters as bearers of complex messages, and thus allow the recipient to get in a relevant, constructive mindset.

Only when the message reaches the recipient on a personal level can the recipient make the information their own.

Tomorrow: Part 2. Understanding

One-on-one customer interaction must be considered critical for all types of businesses, in order to engage with the customer, create new opportunities, and capitalize on them.

 

Interactive communication is a very suitable tool for this purpose, in that it creates a dialogue between sender and recipient, which in turn closes the gap between communication and actual transaction, and creates clear ROI on marketing investments. Interactivity also paves the way for increased brand awareness and customer loyalty, and lays a foundation for strong, sustainable long-term customer relations. This way, interactivity helps marketing in achieving concrete sales effects that are clearly visible on the bottom line.

My work with interactive communication circles around three key issues; issues that I consider paramount to all successful communication on the Internet. 

1. Motivation 
2. Understanding 
3. Participation 

I will expand on the reasoning behind these key issues over the next few days, and also try to identify key conditions that must be met to in order to successfully reach a targeted audience.

Tomorrow: Part 1. Motivation