Don’t spend too much money and time developing psychological profiles and conducting research of competitors, or allowing inside executives to invent colors that would make them feel good about the company. It’s more important to connect your identity to your customers and what you can do for them. Therefore, your design style, look and feel, photography, and all other visual design elements that represent your company’s identity should start with your customer. Does your company’s visual identity make a meaningful and relevant connection with your customers? Does the style or font and color treatment reflect the industry or style of business and products and services you offer – including perhaps how they might be used by your customers?
Let’s say you run a business that specializes in artist supplies and tools. You might agree that to make a good connection with customers, your business identity should have a logotype style that appeals to and resembles artistic styles that are familiar to that audience. A creative, colorful, and artsy image would seem most appropriate. But imagine that your artist supply store had something like the big blue striped “IBM” symbol on it. The IBM logo is so well known, and its association with the computer industry so strong, that even if you added the words “Art Supply Store” in big bold type next to this logo your customers will be very confused. Most likely, you’ll not attract too many artists to your store. The style and color of the IBM logo is well suited to the big company corporate image that it represents.
Now let’s imagine what the IBM logo might look like if we were to intentionally adapt it for the purpose of promoting an artist supply store. What if the stripes in the IBM logo were each a different bright color representing all the colors in the rainbow? And what if the “M” was stylized and also served as an artist’s cup holding a few paint brushes, each with a dab of brightly colored paint sticking up out of the cup? Would this version of the IBM logo on an artist supply store be more appropriate and appear more relevant to customers who are artists? Even if the name was “IBM”, the image and color scheme and use of creative elements that match the customers’ purpose would make this a far more appropriate and attractive store front. The use of color is a very powerful tool for communicating and establishing a direct connection with your customers.
This example also illustrates that your brand identity and the connection that it can establish with your customers can transcend business customers into the consumer realm. Further, if your brand identity is strong enough, you may even be able to extend the values of your brand from business products or services to consumer products. In the computer services industry, IBM is one example of a band that has recognition far beyond the large business customers that it primarily serves.
How about an example from the heavy equipment industry that can translate directly into a consumer porduct? Almost every major construction project begins with earth moving, and perhaps one of the most recognizable images on-site during that phase is some big yellow piece of machinery with the word “CAT”, for Caterpillar, painted boldly in black on it’s side. For many people, the name “Caterpillar” is almost synonymous with “bulldozer”, and the big yellow machines are their icon. Imagine if Caterpillar decided, as some of the automobile manufacturers have done, to put their brand name on a mountain bike.
Can you imagine what a Caterpillar branded mountain bike would look like, and what characteristics it might have? The frame is most likely painted bright yellow with a wide cross-bar on which is printed “CAT” in big black letters. The frame might be made of light weight alloys to keep the bike light and easy to handle, but the tubular framing might be oversized and deliberately solid and large in appearance. You also probably imagine this to be a very heavy duty, rugged, mountain-traversing, machine. You could easily trust that this bike will perform as you would expect a rugged mountain bike to perform, especially one carrying the “CAT” name. People would buy this bike feeling that they can conquer the mountains that they aim to ride over, with the confidence that their heavy duty “CAT” will get them there. The connection to your brand can be extended into new products and new markets as long as you stay true to your brand promise and reputation.
When designing an identity, care should be taken to examine all the ways in which that identity will be communicated to your customers and the market place in general. This includes sales and marketing collateral, promotional materials, advertising, business stationery, web sites, product designs and packaging, trade show displays, software user interfaces, business cards, and so on. A consistent design style should be applied and adapted to each one of these areas so that not only will the name and logo be recognizable, but the customer will become familiar with the look and feel of each of these elements and they will recognize them as part of the same company. In essence, the customer experience across all of the visible touch points and interfaces with your company should have a consistent style and familiarity that enhances the instant recognition of your business and simplifies the customer’s relationship with you.
Don’t make the mistake of designing very complex looking marketing collateral and web site designs that feature your products in great detail, including screen shots of software, detailed technical descriptions, design look and feel elements that are derived from your own internal business – labs, production, factory floor or executive offices. You would be missing the point of creating all of this communication in the first place: to effectively establish long term relationships with customers.
In the industry for your products and services, there may be many existing elements like symbols, colors, or other visual images that are very familiar to the people who buy and use the appropriate products and services. Every community has such elements that connect the people in that community together. Your mission is to find those elements, adopt them within your identity, and become an integral part of the community you to intend to serve. Your customers will not only want to include you in everything they do, they will have a hard time thinking of themselves without you when you competitors come knocking.
