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Step 1
Get a logo. This is the first step. If you're good on the computer and have a keen sense of aesthetics, you can do this yourself. If you're not sure what "aesthetics" are, hire a graphic designer.
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Step 2
Get a tag line. This should be a brief, catchy phrase or sentence that communicates something about your company. Think about slogans like "Just Do It" and "Like a Good Neighbor" and "The ultimate driving machine." Your slogan should be short, unique, and should express the essential idea of your product or corporation.
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Step 3
Get a color scheme. A color scheme can be pulled from your logo, if it incorporates colors. If it is black and white, then choose a color scheme that will work with your logo's other aesthetic factors.
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Step 4
Get a font family. Again, relate it to your logo. Your logo is the foundation of your visual branding. Choose a font that coordinates with your logo and fits with your color scheme.
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Step 5
Put it on everything related to the company. Your logo, slogan, color scheme, and font compose your visual brand. Use them on everything. Do not deviate from your choices. Your business cards, letterheads, emails, websites, t-shirts, give-aways, posters, brochures, bulletins, everything and anything should have your logo and your slogan and should be presented in your color scheme and your font family.
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Step 1
Get a website and/or blog. This is your portal to the world. If it's old and tired, give it a fresh new look which, of course, incorporates all the components of your visual brand. A blog is a great way to infuse personality into a corporate identity. It can be ghostwritten, if no one in the corporation actually has time and/or skill to write a blog. Make sure the website is easy to use, friendly, and provides important information like how to contact people in the company. Update the blog regularly, and put out a press release letting the media know that someone important at your company is now blogging.
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Step 2
Create a memorable mission statement. Make it no longer than a paragraph, no shorter than a decent sentence. Your mission statement is how you explain your slogan and how you defend the existence of the corporation. What are you about? What is your bottom line? (Don't say profit.) Your mission statement tells people what to expect from you. It explains your organizational philosophy.
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Step 3
Train employees in how to communicate the mission. Once you have it down, make sure everyone involved in the corporation knows the mission statement backwards and forwards. It should be on your website "About Us" section. It should be on little cards beside every phone in the corporate offices. It should be your default answer when you don't know what to say, and sometimes when you do know what to say. Relate everything to the mission.
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Step 4
Do some Golden Rule Marketing. See the resource box below for the full article. In short, Golden Rule Marketing is putting your focus on giving value more than on getting money. Brainstorm some ways you can offer services at little or no cost. Think of ideas for providing something of value for your customers that doesn't cost them anything. Then be proactive and get going. Of course, make sure your visual brand is on everything you offer.
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Step 5
Invoke your mission at every opportunity. Always bring people back to your basic mission. Show them that you are focused. Make it part of your blog posts, your articles, your press releases, your give-aways.
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Step 1
Brainstorm some public relations ideas that relate to your mission. Take it a little beyond Golden Rule Marketing for your existing or potential clients. Go a little bigger and bolder. Come up with advertising possibilities that relate to your mission. Only use advertising that you can relate to your mission.
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Step 2
Partner with non-profit organizations that relate to your mission. There is a non-profit organization that relates to your corporate mission. Find it. Find more than one. Partner with one. Partner with more than one. Give employees a bonus for volunteering there. Provide some resources that the non-profit needs. Create a grant or a trust fund. And make sure you make it public.
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Step 3
Stick to your mission. Don't be distracted by possibilities or advertising that doesn't relate to your mission. Deviation from your mission makes people distrust your brand. They want to know what to expect of you, even if what they expect of you is something constantly surprising.
