CORPORATE IDENTITY – OUR STRATEGY
Corporate Identity – In times of change the attitude of an organization is more important than ever. In the past the focus was on topics such as takeovers, growth or internationalization; today it is on matters such as sustainability, value orientation, diversity and inclusion. Each of these major changes requires an adjustment of one’s own attitude.
The most successful instrument for adjusting the company stance is a holistic corporate identity strategy.
If there is no consistent corporate identity mirroring the corporate personality and the market, every change creates a battle for attention.
Employees and the market have to reorient themselves. If a clear stance is not recognized, there is no orientation. There is no motivation to change.
Since our foundation, we have understood corporate identity as a holistic approach to expressing one’s own corporate identity. The corporate identity shapes the organization not only through visual identity (appearance, corporate design), but also through the performance (product or service) and behavior (culture, values, character).
DO YOU NEED TO DETERMINE YOUR POSITION?
We developed a fitness check for your corporate identity. Thus you can easily take an initial look at the state of your corporate identity.
Put your corporate identity to the test with our CI check and then take advantage of 3 recommended actions.
The answer to those four questions is the foundation of a clear corporate identity:
- Why do we do what we do?
- How do we do what we do?
- What are we doing exactly?
- Who are we?
In order for you to answer these questions efficiently, we have developed our well-known workshops.
Click here to find out more about the individual workshops
Why are you active in the market with your company? What moves and inspires you? What do you want to change? What would you like to give society with your company? What is your purpose? In our one-day vision workshop, we work out the famous “why” with you. And at the end of the Vision workshop, you will have worked out your vision with our support.
A build-up workshop, 1 day, on site.
SUSTAINABILITY CREATES NEW DYNAMICS FOR YOUR CORPORATE IDENTITY
Sustainability changes companies and creates growth. Since the 1970s we have known that we use more resources than our planet can handle. Even the recycling symbol dates from this time. Today, concepts such as climate neutrality, energy transition, CO2 footprint and resource conservation shape our debates.
We know that serious engagement with the new requirements of globalization, climate change and the conservation of the environment as well as resources requires a clear stance in organizations. Because, in the future, customer trust will be shaped by sustainable business models and products. In this change process it is important to strategically build up a model that formulates sustainability and implements it consistently and genuinely.
For your marketing communication, it is important to take employees and existing customers with you and to win new customers and markets with this new set of values. In this respect, sustainability is a management issue but also increasingly a marketing and communication task.
We support companies with suitable strategies and specific implementation, for example with status quo analyses, development of guiding principles, brochures or with the development of an employer brand and sustainable corporate and employer branding.
WHAT IS YOUR CORPORATE IDENTITY?
A company that aims for a certain profile has to clarify its identity. Thus the corporate identity positions the company with a wide variety of internal and external target groups and creates a corporate image for the public. Corporate identity thereby provides orientation and has an effect both internally and externally.
It includes the following essential dimensions.
- Appearance – Corporate Design
- Behaviour – Corporate Behaviour
- Performance – Corporate Performance
- Communication – Corporate Communication
Corporate design – identity and recognition count
- Business stationery, publications, company vehicles and work clothing should have a high recognition value.
- A consistent logo, company-specific and tailored to the guidelines, is the best flagship for the organization.
- Pay attention to continuity! Because those who confront the market with a new image every few years loses credibility and identity.
Behavior – quality of togetherness
- The “behavior” dimension is about formulating the company’s guidelines, which employees and customers can use as a guide.
- These guiding principles should be formulated briefly and clearly so that they are easy to understand. They make the quality tangible and give the company a personal touch.
- And the old principle is particularly true in this context: only if the management level exemplifies the values, will the employees carry on the “quality”.
Performance – proof of strength
- In order to be successful, companies have to be extremely skilled. To concentrate on strengths and to communicate them accordingly – that is the challenge.
- It does not always seem advisable to only focus on the products. Often the “how” is more memorable and unique than the “what”. Service and attractive additional benefits are also valued by customers.
Communication – the conveyor of identity
The perception of the corporate identity is ensured through communication, through the experience of customers with the company’s services, through the motivation of partners and through the identification of employees with the company.
10 tips to shape the image of your company in the corporate identity process
Achieving that vision, mission and values do not only apply on paper.
- Corporate identity is a matter for management. The board and top management must be involved in the process from the start. It can only be successful if it is clear to everyone involved that the CI process is also carried out from the very top.
- Get an external CI consultant on board for support. Identity development is a specialty. As a rule, it is easier for external consultants to recognize internal structures and dependencies and to act independently of you.
- Appoint an internal CI ambassador. During the interaction between company management, employees and external consultants, it is important to have a CI ambassador in your own ranks who ensures continuity (not control).
- Involve the stakeholders. Put not only the market but also the employees at the center of strategic considerations. You have to fill the new CI with life later.
- Consider the digital world. Today, communication is no longer just analog. Brands and companies are communicated, evaluated and voted for online. Analyze your digital footprint as well.
- Culture evolves. But employees like to stick to familiar systems. Changes are only successful if they are understood, accepted and supported by all employees. That means you have to take time for culture and change training.
- Corporate identity means showing competence. Whether a PR campaign, advertising or communication activity supports the identity or not can only be decided if the CI framework has been communicated in a binding manner and the communication goals are clear.
- Corporate identity creates orientation. Vision, mission, values, guidelines and models create a structure and motivation for employees, customers and the public.
- Corporate identity is also economic. CI is an attitude that aims for a long-term and reinforcing effect. It is most successful when it is reflected in all areas of the company and prevents isolated actions.
- Corporate identity is a process. This means that every CI project goes through certain phases and lives from interaction and exchange. It cannot be prescribed from above.
OUR SERVICES AT A GLANCE
We at Dietrich Identity love to help our clients discover the power of brands to make long-lasting and positive impressions, both internally and externally. We also love strategy, and to roll up our sleeves for implementation. During their journey with us our clients discover what everyone wants to find but very few do ― their true values.
Find an overview of our skills and service areas below:
Brand Consulting
A strong brand is the basis and guide for your marketing. Together with you, we explore the success factors of your brand and develop a suitable strategy and positioning for your brand. We base this on the brand model we developed: the Dietrich Identity Brand Flower. It puts your brand values in the right light.
Brand strategy
Branding without a strategy is like a journey without a destination or a map. Together with you we develop the strategic framework. For this we have rethought the “Golden Circle”. Our 4 W form the framework for your overall strategy in the form of vision, mission, values and growth strategy.
Marketing Communication
Strong brands and strong communication are no coincidence. That is why we develop communication concepts for you as a marketing plan for your new market presence, both internally and externally. And we also conceive, write, design and produce a wide variety of brand communication measures for you.
Corporate Identity
The corporate identity, one’s own self-image, is the most important link between the company, the people and the target group. This way, you broaden the communication by the dimensions of performance and behavior – because clear communication of all services is just as crucial to success as the perceptibility of your culture and your company character through history, behavioral standards and symbols.
Corporate Design Your company-specific appearance makes your brand recognizable and unique. We have learned one thing from the multitude of branding projects: a visualized strategy is the strongest and most efficient tool to show the public a uniform, positive image and to increase awareness of your company.
Activation
Vision, values, and guiding principles are all just waiting patiently as ideas on paper as long as they are not lived. With our activation workshops, we ensure that the basics of your brand are understood, applied and implemented by everyone in your company. Together with we will inspire your employees and get them on board in a fun way.