In order to project the identity that's right for your type of business and target market, you must create it. You do this by establishing a consistent look and feel to all your communications. A carefully crafted identity begins with a logo. While there are many important elements that will help you establish your identity, none is more critical than your logo. Your logo appears on all of your correspondence, your business card, and in your advertisements. The purpose of a logo is to instantly convey the essence of your company's identity. One of the most serious mistakes you can make is not to have your logo professionally designed. If you think you can't afford professional help, think again. An inappropriate logo will cost you far more in the long run in terms of sales. If your budget prohibits hiring a design firm there are many talented freelance designers you can hire to work with you. As you work with a professional designer, here are some basic guidelines:

• Make a point to notice other company's logos. Take a stack of magazines and do some easy research. Look at them critically and ask yourself what kind of image they convey and why.
• Avoid Graphics. Graphic emblems or complex geometric patterns usually don't work for logos. In fact, the simpler and more understated your logo, the more impact it will have. Graphics and patterns will complicate your logo when its purpose is to quickly make a statement about your company or product.
• Color is a significant element of a logo. Bright colors are strong attention getters and excite people. Blue and gray are conservative colors. If you want to convey an image that your company is hot, trendy, and on the cutting-edge, use red, yellow, and orange. You can use the same color as your competitor uses but vary the shade to differentiate your business. American Express for example, uses a consistent typestyle in all of their communications. They employ the same shade of the color green throughout all of their marketing communications involving their basic credit card. The color green is a significant, inseparable aspect of their logo.
• Typestyle. Bold blocks of text invoke the image that the company is strong and large. Italic type can convey a classic or upscale image. Whatever typestyle you choose, it should be simple to read.
• Once you have a successful combination of color and type, you may then consider embellishing your name with a single, simple graphic element such as a line, border, or box. The Gap, for example, uses a dark box to great affect in their logo. Or, you may alter or manipulate one letter to communicate the idea that your company is like your competition's, established and trustworthy, but that there's something different and exciting going on. Intel employs this technique effectively by dropping the letter e in their name below the rest of the letters. It's eye catching and makes a powerful statement.
• Tagline. The short and snappy sentence or words that appear underneath a logo is the tagline. Taglines are considered to be an intrinsic part of the logo offering a brief explanation of a company's philosophy. While you want to adopt an effective logo and stick with it permanently, taglines can change as the company grows, evolves, and expands their product line.

Here's some examples of taglines:

• General Electric: "We Bring Good Things To Life."
• Hyatt Hotels: "We've Thought of Everything."
• Lexus: "The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection."
• British Airways: "The World's Favorite Airline."

Each of the above taglines doesn't merely suggest an identity, it explicitly tells people what the identity is If a company is successful in creating the right logo and tagline, the consumer will believe it. When writing your tagline, first isolate two key words you want associated with your identity. Quality, Perfection, Favorite, Innovative, Luxury, Solutions, Affordable, Inventing, Think...

Choose the word that you want to sum up your business. Now write a short sentence--no more than six words--to encompass or explain your key word. If you isolated the word "Solution" your tagline might be: "Financial Solutions For Small Businesses." It's very clear from this tagline who this company's market is and what they're doing for them.

CREATE YOUR IDENTITY

___ Design Your Logo
___ Choose a Typestyle
___ Choose a Color
___ Write A Tagline For Your Logo

 Richard D. Adams is much more than just your average tax accountant. Before he started his own practice, Richard worked at the corporate level for over six years with Fortune 500 companies within the Los Angeles area. These businesses included McDonnel-Douglas, Equity Funding, Union Oil, Warner Bros, and Star Kist Tuna. Richard Taught "How to Start a Small Business & Succeed" for over 10 years.  

Richard D. Adams . All rights reserved.