The company logo, its application, and its relationship to the brand positioning statement and strategy are very important facets of the overall brand effort. Even among audiences that profess to be unaware of design fundamentals and symbolism, good design evokes a subliminal, positive response. ("I may not know art, but I know what I like.") Perceptions of a company and its branded products can be enhanced or damaged by its corporate identity.
For that reason, once you have developed a company's brand positioning and strategy, your agency should conduct a corporate identity audit. This means every facet of the company's corporate identity must be examined and measured against the new brand effort.
Select an audit team. This would ideally be the same team — the company and agency brand advocates — who conducted and compiled the discovery research, and played a leading role in developing the positioning and strategy. They are already heavily vested in the brand-building process. Or, blend in some new advocates to freshen the existing team.
Their job will be to draw up a list of measurements for whether the corporate identity elements are in keeping with and offer strong support for the new company brand. The audit should assess whether each element establishes and supports the company's brand promise, how well it does so, whether it needs revision or should be completely recreated, and whether the present identity carries established historical value or equity that should be incorporated into or serve as the basis for a new identity.
Identify and review each element of the company's corporate identity. Measure the existing logo, digital and print stationery, business cards, signage, social media profiles, website, and all other customer-facing materials against the new brand positioning. Use a rating system to note which elements support the brand well, which need revision or the addition of the positioning statement, and which should be redesigned.
Present a report to management with recommendations for changes and suggestions for redesign.
Once you have determined what design effort will be needed to align the corporate identity with the brand, write a new creative brief. This brief will detail requirements for the redesign, or creation of an entirely new corporate identity package. Provide all pertinent input, with emphasis on the brand and its objectives. Detail all the items of the corporate identity package to which the new brand must be applied. Then assign a creative team to develop the new identity.
While they are reworking the identity package, the audit team can begin reviewing all the other elements of the company's marketing communications. They should examine everything from the website and social presence to the design of their office space, from digital recruiting ads to company merchandise. Provide a checklist to get them started. To ensure you don't miss anything, share the checklist with company employees and ask them to submit ideas for anything not on the list that they feel ought to be there.
To further vest the entire organization in ongoing brand development, hold periodic update meetings. They don't need to be lengthy. Fifteen or twenty minutes to review progress and take suggestions and comments. If you involve the entire organization at some level during this stage, the inward marketing effort you will undertake when the new brand identity is launched will flow more easily.
