It’s hard to find anything more fundamental than visual identity in corporate communication. Indeed, the corporate visual identity will allow a customer to identify and recognize your company. The graphic identity of a company thus acts as a trademark, and conveys values which will implicitly reason in the mind of a customer. Today, Stripeland offers you the keys to understand and master the corporate visual identity.
What is visual identity
Let’s start by providing a definition of visual identity. A company’s visual identity is quite simply the image it conveys to its customers and prospects through all of its communication tools. The visual identity is defined by thoughtful graphic codes, and it helps to give consistency and meaning to all corporate documents.
The visual identity of a company is defined by its logo, its name, its slogan, its colors, its shapes. Everything is recorded in a graphic charter, which offers a real graphic identity to any self-respecting company. The elements of the visual identity will be found on flyers, letterheads, envelopes, but also on a company’s products.
The benefits and interest of visual identity
If, at first glance, the visual identity of a company may seem incidental, it is not to be taken lightly. Because what the definition of visual identity does not say is the impact it has on the customer.
The implementation of a graphic charter by a communication professional will have multiple impacts on the activity of a company:
Offer an identity to the company
If this benefit may seem obvious, it is worth remembering. As the name suggests, the visual identity will provide an identity to your business. This means that your company can be known and recognized, and above all differentiate itself from the competition thanks to a strong image and established codes.
Transmit company values
By defining a graphic identity for your company, you will be able to convey your values, and mark the minds of your customers and prospects. Indeed, through your color code, your slogan, your symbols, you also transmit your values to the customer, who will have less trouble identifying with you and trusting you.
Create the brand image of a company
Impossible to establish yourself permanently in a sector of activity without benefiting from a visual identity. Indeed, focusing on your visual identity will help improve your notoriety and anchor your brand image in a sector. If you don’t make it easy for you to identify with your targets, you’ll simply never be able to make a name for yourself!
Allow belonging to the company
Another benefit of visual identity is the creation of a sense of belonging. Impossible for anyone to attach themselves to a company or a brand without concrete elements to cling to: a history, values, visual identity, etc. Your graphic identity, disseminated through your communication and your communication objects , will allow your customers and prospects to become attached to your brand. That’s not all ! Even your team will strengthen their sense of belonging to the company thanks to your symbols.
Sustain the image of your company
Relying on a cleverly thought out graphic charter will also be the key to optimizing your communication over the long term. Guided by a visual identity that clearly defines your business, you will be able to send consistent and understandable messages over the years to forge a lasting identity. In the event of a change of personnel or for the arrival of a new employee, transmitting the visual identity will allow you to quickly assimilate the image of your company, its history and its values.
Save money on your graphic designs
Finally, the last significant benefit of a well-defined visual identity: savings! By hanging on to your graphic charter and your identity, you will be able to create your communication media much more easily, without having to waste either time or money with each new graphic design.
The importance of defining visual identity
You should have understood that creating a visual identity for your business takes careful thought. Indeed, the visual identity of a company will give it both a face, a personality, values, a history. Creating a company’s visual identity comes down to personifying it, and giving it an image that will unite your customers, prospects and employees.
The twofold interest of a good definition of visual identity is therefore to create a graphic identity that is both attractive and lasting. Attractive because your visual identity must directly touch your target, inspire them with confidence and allow them to identify with your company. Long-lasting because your visual identity must not suffer the test of time and reach customers over the years. Indeed, a change of visual identity can destabilize customers and harm the notoriety that you will have established over the years.
For these two reasons, it makes more sense to contact a professional graphic designer to put together a graphic identity. Indeed, only a communication professional can understand the challenges of visual identity and work with you to define the identity that best suits your business.
Where to display the visual identity of your company?
The visual identity of a brand or a company gives off implicit and explicit values. To be fully acquired by customers and prospects, a company’s visual identity must be reflected EVERYWHERE. The more you use the elements of your graphic charter in your communication, the more you will succeed in establishing your identity in the minds of customers.
Here are a few examples, among many others, where to display your visual identity:
- Company website
- Company social networks
- Mailings and e-mailings
- Press Releases
- Trade fair stands
- Letterhead and envelope
- Folded shirts
- Business cards
- Flyers and posters
- Stickers (to put in particular in your offices)
- Communication objects (pen, magnets, bookmark, T-shirts …) etc.
Note that it will be futile to launch communication campaigns without having previously established your visual identity. Indeed, it is totally useless to try to be seen by new prospects if you cannot be recognized by these same prospects!