When it comes to corporate branding, it’s important to remember that people no longer want to buy from a business in the traditional sense. They want to buy from real people, a brand with humanity.
A strong corporate identity needs to showcase your business’s human side, including what you stand for, your mission, and connect with your target audience.
This is more than just a logo, corporate identity also includes:
- your visual identity
- brand voice
- messaging
This is something that many companies struggle with but getting it right is key. Presenting your brand consistently across all types of marketing platforms can increase revenue by up to 23%.
An effective method that helps to determine what your corporate brand stands for is the Corporate Brand Identity Matrix.
Corporate Brand Identity Matrix
This method is used to guide an executive team through structured questions about the business. Each question looks at one aspect of a business’s identity with nine elements in total. This exercise reveals any broken links within the company’s branding and helps businesses revamp their overall identity.
There are three layers to the matrix:
- Internal elements
- External elements
- Elements linking internal and external aspects
Let’s look at each one and how they help brands to retool their identities.
Internal elements
Internal elements form the foundation of a corporate brand identity. These elements include the business’s:
- mission and vision – used to engage and inspire its people
- culture – their work ethic and attitudes
- competences – its distinctive capabilities
These things are rooted in an organisation’s values and operational realities.
External elements
The external elements relate to how a business wants to be perceived outwardly, by customers, clients or stakeholders. External elements relate to a brand’s:
- value proposition
- outside relationships
- positioning.
Let’s take the brand Nike as an example. Their tagline “Just Do It” aims to motivate their customers to achieve their personal best.
Elements linking internal and external aspects
Elements that link both internal and external aspects are those at the core of the brand. This includes its personality, ways of communicating and values. This is at the centre of the matrix and is essentially brand identity and will shape the other eight elements.
To read more about the corporate brand matrix, visit brandorientation.com. Furnells of London have over forty years of experience in engraved corporate branding across London, the UK and even worldwide. Each and every bespoke award we engrave is done so to the highest level of craftsmanship whilst fulfilling your needs. From trophies and awards to an entire range of engraved corporate branding, Furnells are THE professionals. Get in touch for details today.