subject: Chicken Or The Egg: Should My Website Development Design Follow My Existing Corporate Identity? [print this page] Businesses are constantly evolving and reinventing themselves. The best businesses are, anyway! So, as you begin to develop an online presence or remain on the cycle of reinvention, should you be following your existing corporate identity or reinventing yourself with your new web development? We take a look at 100 considerations that will need to be balanced on an ongoing basis as both your online and offline branding grows and changes.
Unity of Branding
This is the major consideration for most companies. Whichever came first the chicken of corporate identity or the egg of the website development will be the one that they stick with for the other. So, if a business begins online, their other corporate identity materials will follow the same design as the website; if a company began in the real world, their existing logo, business cards and materials will donate elements to the Melbourne web development and design. Yet while consistency and duration are two key elements of success in corporate branding, you must remember that those who dont bend in the wind will break
Changing With the Times
Change is a necessary part of business, and occasionally those changes will have to be in your branding. Some situations where this might occur include:
When the strategy of the company changes, and therefore the personality and unique selling points also changes
When there is a natural evolution in your target demographic for example, a new population becomes interested in your product or service for outside reasons
If there is a major catastrophe involving your old brand
When you break into a new market or develop new products and services
Note that unfortunately, a new website development is not sufficient reason for change on its own! If youre keeping your branding, good web developers will be able to work with it to create a fantastic site.
However, if a new website development happens to coincide with the need for a change in corporate identity, you should finalise the details of your branding before briefing your web developers.
Does It Matter if My Online and Offline Branding Differ?
In todays world, it certainly does. The majority of your target market will be just as comfortable shopping on your website as in your store, and a difference in branding erodes trust and eventually sabotages your business. Dont be tempted to just create a new branding for your website.
What if My Offline Branding Isnt Suitable for the Net?
There are very few aspects of branding which are not suitable for the internet. On occasion, though, there might be a need to tweak aspects of your corporate identity for the net. These might include:
Very low resolution logos
Use of photos in your marketing collateral which you do not have access to the digital copies of
Use of colours and colour combinations which display very poorly on screens for example, red on black or blue on black.
Heavy use of white text on black backgrounds dark text on light backgrounds is far easier to read on a screen.
In these cases, your web developmentMelbourne team may be able to tweak colours or do some tricks with resolution to make your existing materials suitable for the net. If this isnt possible, make your changes small and incremental.
In almost all cases, website identity should follow brand identity. First the chicken evolves then it lays the egg!
