Corporate branding is a very broad term that encompasses all issues that have to do with the marketing of a company.
In this article, you will learn what corporate branding is and how to build your own brand to stand out and differentiate yourself from competitors in your industry.
What is branding?
Corporate branding is the way a company presents itself to the world.
Corporate branding is a practice of establishing a company in the market and promoting its values through various distribution channels and different marketing strategies, e.g. benchmarking, design or industrial packaging. In other words, branding shows the personality of the company and includes all the issues and measures taken to be successful and deliver a remarkable customer experience.
The brand identity reflects the mission and what the company stands for. In short, it is the brand image that comes to people’s minds. However, corporate identity is not just your logo. On the contrary, it is shown through:
- The visual identity
- The brand voice
- The message
How to build effective corporate branding
First of all, when developing a branding strategy, you need to define some fundamental concepts and answer the following questions:
- What is the brand about?
- What are the products or services you offer?
- What are your products and services for?
- Who is the target audience?
- Why should they prefer your brand?
- What promises and values does it offer?
- How can you build a brand identity that separates you from the competition?
To continue, you will need to consider the following steps:
Step 1: Outline your company’s mission, values and goals
Whether you are a small business or a large corporate entity, you need to be very clear about your objectives, mission and what you stand for, as this will be the first step in developing a coherent brand image.
Step 2: Define the target audience
This point refers to who the brand stands for. For this reason, knowing your potential customers is crucial to attract them and share their interests.
The more you know your target audience, the better you will be able to build loyalty.
Step 3: Study your competitors
See what makes the industry leaders different and analyse how consistent they are with their brand, what marketing channels they use and what customers are saying about them.
Step 4: Define the brand voice and message
Next, work on your company’s voice. This is an essential aspect of corporate branding, as it helps develop a strong brand image and makes the business memorable. It also helps to capture the attention of your target audience immediately.
Step 5: Crafting the visual identity
This is the most telling part of the corporate identity, so it will be necessary to invest time in the graphic design of the slogan, taking into account the colour scheme that identifies with the company’s personality, as well as the choice of the right typography.
Step 6: Establish brand guidelines
Once you have done all of the above, you need to make sure that all members of your team follow the same line set by the corporate identity. A simple way to achieve this is through the style guide, i.e. a manual that covers all aspects of corporate branding.
Types of branding
The type of branding plays a crucial role in helping companies decide what corporate branding materials they need and what corporate branding strategy to adopt to achieve their objectives.
The most popular types of corporate branding are as follows:
- Personal branding.
- Product branding.
- Geographic branding.
- Cultural branding: Refers to the promotion of a company based on a set of traits unique to a specific culture.
- Online branding: This is identified with the positioning of the company in digital extensions.
- Co-branding: Refers to partnerships with other companies to maximise corresponding market positions.
The objectives and benefits of corporate branding
Reinforcing the brand value of products or services is essential, as it can transfer the benefits and reputation of the company to new launches. This makes it easier to introduce new products, improve acceptance and conquer the market. But corporate branding also brings other benefits:
- Differentiating the company from the competition.
- Maintaining product quality.
- Increasing the company’s prestige.
- Building a reputation.
- Increasing brand loyalty.
- Establish market leadership.
Undoubtedly, corporate branding provides a clear strategy to achieve the objectives and achieve business success. At Infinitia, we have the best graphic design professionals to help you develop a personalised and effective corporate branding. Contact our Strategic Design team to improve the image of your brand.