Small Business - Avoid Identity Crisis With Strong Design

"Small firms often make the mistake of thinking matters such as corporate identity and branding are only for large companies," said George Kiely, head of EI's design unit. "But every company must project an identity if it is to succeed."

"How companies see themselves is unimportant, how their market sees them is what matters. That's where design and branding and corporate identity come in.

"When a company is describing itself, whether in a brochure or on a website, it needs to do so in terms not of the givens, which customers take for granted, but the added value. Branding is the company's way of indicating those extras."

"Smaller companies generally value design less than bigger companies," Meehan said. "They don't see it as an investment in the business.

It is discretionary spend, something they will only undertake if they feel they have a layer of fat."

The reason is simple. "With large firms, people are spending from a dedicated marketing budget. With small firms the person is spending their own money. It's personal," he said.

This means that, not only are they spending their own cash, but they are also acutely aware of where else that money could be spent.

Small firms tend to think design is all about big fees and they don't see where the value will come from, according to Marie McGrath, co-founder of Huguenot Design and a member of the GDBA.

"Developing a new corporate identity or brand for your business is about sitting down and identifying objectives," she said. "It's about delivering a solution that works for your business. It's not about pretty pictures."

Small firms "can feel intimidated by the design process," she acknowledges. To this end, the GDBA has drawn up guidelines aimed at helping the owner-manager.

The first step is to have somebody within the firm prepare a detailed brief, including market information, research data and historical background, together with details of special requirements, budget and timescale.

Take the success of Boru Vodka as a case in point. "Here is a small Irish company that cut through in a crowded vodka market, in an even more crowded drinks market," he said.

It offers a slightly unorthodox proposition, in that Ireland has no vodka heritage, but "it took on that challenge and in large part met it through its distinctive name and packaging," he said.

Far too many logos are "amorphous messes with no distinguishing features", he said. "Corporate identity is looked on as a completing item of no great importance. But any company interfacing with the public - and that means the people it wants to buy from them, work for them, and, maybe, ultimately, buy them out - needs to have a distinctive positioning in order to succeed."

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