THE MEANING IN THE MESSAGE

abhishreshthaa

Abhijeet S
All companies have a visual identity even though they mat never have employed a design consultant to integrate the various elements in the coherent whole. Every physical element of the company that a stakeholder sees helps to form the identity.


The difference between the visual identity of McDonald’s and most other companies is that of consistency, and uniform presentation. McDonald’s family restaurants (fast food outlets) have a similar appearance all over the world. This makes them easy to recognize for people of all the ages and enhances the familiarity – liking as outlined in the model given earlier. Very few multi outlet companies manage their visual identity so well.




Each element of a company’s visual identity may elicit various meanings in the minds of the stakeholders. These can vary across different cultures and different types of stakeholders, this can make it difficult for companies to co-ordinate the signals sent form the various parts of the identity one way to overcome these potential problems is to hire corporate identity consultants and then trust their judgment. For example, Shining Strategic Design a Paris based consultancy has designed the identity for Indian companies such as for Lakme, Parachute, etc.



The main aim is to link a single value proposition to the company name and logo, and to communicate this to every stakeholder. In this way the company tries to avoid the problems associated with different impressions form the visual identity symbols.





One approach which companies use to create a single value proposition which will be linked to its visual identity is creation of a ‘tag line’, which is used along with the company name and logo in all advertising. This tag line reflects the essence of the company’s vision and strategy.



At the product level, Apple Computers ‘the power to be your best’ is a tag line, which nicely capture the essence of the company and its product promise. The tag line is generally a four to six word line that stakeholders can relate to every time they see the company’s visual identity (and its advertising).

Some famous tag lines are:


Company Tag-line
BPL Believe in the best
Citibank The Citi That Never sleeps
Philips Let’s make things Better
Airtel Express Yourself
Bajaj Inspiring Confidence
 
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