If you are anything like me, I have often run across people in business that just like to hear themselves talk. And to really impress others, they use big words because they feel it makes them seem particularly intellectual. I am not usually impressed. Instead, I generally tune them out because they are just a blowhard.
I often get the impression that business acquaintances look at me in a similar fashion when I mention the term “Corporate Identity”. “Oh, you mean a logo. Why didn’t you just say so?”
Although a logo is an integral component of a Corporate Identity, there is much more to the identity of an organization than a “little icon that is next to the company name on a business card”.
A corporate Identity is the immediate impression that one gets when they first come in contact with your organization. Is that impression favorable? Ar e they reaching a conclusion about your company that you want them to have or is it completely different? That impression, to a large degree, can me manipulated so that they conclude what you want them to conclude.
Here is an example, you take any guy. Put him in worn overalls, give him chewing tobacco, a flannel shirt, a John Deere tractor hat and he speaks with a bit of a draw...what do you have? A redneck. Now take that same guy, put him in a nice business suit, a briefcase in his hand, nice haircut, well groomed. Now what do you have? A business man. The exact same person with slightly different appearance causes us to reach a different conclusion about him.
Customers, prospects, employees, loan officers and the general public as a whole look at a few outward characteristics of your company and draw conclusions. Is it the one that you want?
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