Corporate Identity: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
by Kathy Keenan
I am probably making myself popular with no one by stating that managing a corporate identity is walking the fine line between protecting the integrity of that identity and being anal retentive.
Corporate identity is an intangible value that is earned by being consistent, over time becomes familiar and eventually evolves into shorthand for a company’s entire brand recognition. In the split second that it takes us to recognize the Coca-Cola mark, a hundred and fifty years of hard work and consistency is communicated. A strong corporate identity is literally priceless: you cannot quantify the value of the Coca-Cola identity.
However, I have worked with firms whose corporate identity is so hedged about with teutonic rigidity that no creativity is possible. If your corporate identity program is phrased in terms such as, “The logo will appear at exactly 6 billion microns from the top left of the sheet,” you may be verging on the fussy side.
I once worked for a company that had on staff a very talented illustrator who was able to work the company logo into a myriad of wonderful applications. Every manager who had to make a presentation internally or externally tried to get Lindsey to illustrate the slides with dancing logos, or logos making a deal, or logos talking on the telephone. His cartoons were funny and refreshing, and they reinforced employee loyalty to the company, for which the logo was a symbol. If the corporate identity program had been enforced to the fullest extent of the law (I have seen this done at other firms), all this would have been lost.
So if the management of the corporate identity rests in your hands, by all means, record the official version for everything you can think of: letterhead, packaging, slides, brochures, signage, company trucks, fax cover sheets, and skywriting. But in the administration of the program, let people exercise a little creativity and ingenuity. As long as all the stodgy stuff (letterhead) is handled in a highly consistent manner, it won’t hurt to give people a little leeway with the rest.
On the other hand, it won’t do to let the corporate identity be diluted by permitting casual and inconsistent treatment when it appears in a formal context. When new divisions form, their natural inclination is to want to emphasize the division, not the parent company. This is a time to exercise ruthless discipline in enforcing the identity program. The value of the corporate identity is too great to permit it being frittered away by special interest groups within the organization.