The article was updated on June 11, 2025.

Being a startup in a crowded business is tough today—more than ever. Even niches aren’t enough for companies to perform without the pressure of business rivalry, and larger industries make market penetration nearly impossible. A brand identity, then, becomes a bright color in the sea of sharks—it’s something that allows a smaller fish, no matter how young, to move past the competitors and reach the surface. 

Startups competing with market leaders have to operate with limited resources and a lack of brand recognition while trying to grow rapidly. True, business newbies have to achieve short-term gains to ensure they don’t drown, but they also should keep long-term organic expansion in mind. A strong brand identity helps them build credibility and attract those passionate about what they do, setting the foundation for future success.

How to create a memorable brand identity, and what are its key elements? We’ve got the answers.

What is brand identity?

What is a brand identity? Brand identity is a set of elements that a company creates to demonstrate an image to its audience. It includes everything from the logo to the tone of voice, essentially covering everything that potential customers and the general public will see when interacting with them.

The concept of brand identity is broad because it encompasses everything that gives a brand its personality, and each brand identity kit is unique. This is particularly important for startups that have to distinguish themselves from larger competitors and catch people’s attention long enough to become attractive. 

Why brand identity matters for startups

Why is brand identity important? Brand identity isn’t an optional thing for entertainment—in fact, it can be the single smartest thing businesses can implement when starting from scratch in a market full of giants. Here are the advantages you can bring to your startup:

Building trust and recognition

When a business first launches, startups don’t have a reputation or track record to lean on, and developing a brand identity helps them address that. Your target audience wants to know what you represent and how you place yourself in the industry.

Edelman’s report states that 81% of customers will buy from the brand only if they trust it. Why should they order from you? What are your values? All of these increase your visibility and demonstrate your company’s transparency.

Authenticity is a crucial factor for 90% of customers who consider supporting a brand, and having an identity makes it happen by honestly showing what you offer. 

Differentiation from larger competitors

When you build a brand identity, remember that today, a lot of large companies invest in advertising despite many customers not being persuaded by it. 74% of individuals today use strategies to avoid advertisements.

The audience is already used to PR, and no matter how outstanding your marketing strategy is, it’s not enough to differentiate you from larger competitors. Startups cannot afford to advertise their products on the same level as their large rivals, so corporate identity is a more sustainable and effective strategy. 

Attracting investors and talent

Although investors evaluate all potential companies to invest in through a multidimensional lens, corporate brand identity is also a leading factor behind their decisions.

Startups with a clear vision know what to focus on and have a specific short- and long-term plan for their growth. A strong brand image demonstrates trustworthiness and stability.

The same goes for employees who search for a new professional opportunity. Older generations appreciate a persuasive corporate identity because they identify with the company they work for. Younger specialists, in turn, are more socially aware and believe in the brand’s strong positioning. 

As you see, the importance of brand identity stretches far beyond simple profit.

The basic elements of corporate identity: Building a brand book

As you can see, there are obvious advantages to having a strong brand. But how do you build one? To start with, you need your corporate identity kit.

Often referred to as “a corporate identity style guide” or “a brand book”, it is a complete set of brand-specific elements, including the rules for their usage. It is a guide on how to present a brand to the customers, partners, employees, etc.

Essentially, the guide serves as a recipe, while the branded assets are the ingredients needed to create a consistent and memorable brand experience across all platforms and presentation methods.

Before we move on to see what the main corporate identity elements are, we’d like to point out some important aspects of building a strong brand impression.

Specifically, there are three main rules for creating a corporate identity:

• Keep it consistent across all channels. Be it an email you send to your customer or your physical business location, it should be easily associated with your brand.
• Make sure to stand out from the competition. Your startup brand identity should be one of the differentiating factors that clearly and precisely communicate your unique value as a business.
• Be relevant to your market and audience. Large B2B companies rarely have witty slogans or playful logos. Similarly, if you are targeting millennials, projecting an overly serious image in your marketing efforts is not the best strategy.

Let’s now examine how these guidelines relate to the main components of a corporate identity kit.

What are the elements of corporate identity?

Your corporate identity isn’t just a logo—it’s a mix of visual and verbal elements of brand identity. Everything that affects the potential customers, investors, or professionals is a part of it. These elements work together and demonstrate how to create a strong brand identity that others won’t forget.

Visual identity

Everything, from the color of your logo to what font you’ve chosen, is related to your visual brand identity design. It’s how your brand looks and, consequently, feels. Your customers may forget the name of your company, but a striking picture or an appealing color will stay with them for a long time.

• Company logo. Your logo is the cornerstone of the corporate visual identity. It is a visual representation of your business purpose, so every other basic element of corporate identity will follow its style and message. A good logo should be memorable yet simple, unique, and self-explanatory. Most logos are centered around the company name, refer to the type of service/product offered by the company, or combine both approaches.

As for the corporate identity kit, it has to define the following details about your logo:

• an exclusion zone that denotes the minimum space around the logo so it won’t be damaged when cropped
• horizontal and vertical logo placement options
• the black-and-white logo version
• invalid usage options

• Color palette. Colors can help you make a strong impression with your brand. Thus, you should understand the basics of color psychology when choosing your corporate palette. In this regard, it is important to clearly state your primary and secondary color palettes with color breakdowns for their usage in print or on screen.
• Typeface. The typeface you choose won’t be as closely associated with your brand as a logo. However, it will also play an important part in creating a holistic and integral brand identity. The brand book should contain:
  • corporate fonts
  • details of the font family
  • default fonts for web use
• Patterns and iconography. Many companies include brand-specific patterns in their brand style guides. A pattern can be used on product packaging, on business cards, on merchandise, or on other advertising materials to amplify your brand image and make your company stand out.
• Imagery. These are photos, illustrations, and graphics you incorporate into your posts, blogs, and advertisements. As a rule, a brand identity strategy requires that images are catchy, have a limited color palette, and are consistent across all the brand’s communication channels.
• Miscellaneous. There are more corporate identity elements that can be designed as a part of the style guide for internal use and references, e.g., business cards, letterhead, email signature, etc.

Mission and values

The most important question to ask yourself when creating your brand identity is, “What values do you want to convey?” Your mission and values are the heart of your enterprise. Although every for-profit company aims to generate profit, it is not the only goal it strives to achieve.

It demonstrates the purpose behind your business activities and the principles that guide your operations. They shape your brand, from customer relationships to workplace culture. 

Brand voice and messaging

These refer to your tone, language, and style in communication. Brand identity guidelines for communication are flexible: some companies prefer a more formal style, while others go for a nonchalant and down-to-earth presence. Having a consistent voice helps them strengthen emotional connections and maintain consistent communication in all interactions.

Brand book examples

There are many examples of outstanding corporate brand identities, presented by both large corporations and startups.

Below are some of the examples you could use for inspiration:

• Vivid brand identity presentation by Netflix
• Comprehensive visual assets guidelines from Google
• A creative expression overview by Starbucks
• A demonstration of a brand book at NASA
• Detailed brand highlights from WWF

These are excellent examples of how to create a brand book that will serve your company well.

How to create a brand identity for your startup

While there is no unified approach to the corporate identity development process, following certain guidelines can help you avoid the most common mistakes and build a solid brand image. Here is a 5-step guide for creating your corporate identity.

1. Get to know the market you are targeting.

Start with a thorough brand audit and competitor analysis. This knowledge will help you identify your unique value proposition and understand how to amplify it with your branding. You should also get to know your target audience—their age, profession, and interests.

Before creating a brand identity, go deeper into understanding your audience’s values, its key problems, and why its needs weren’t met before. Analyze what tone and imagery work best and what doesn’t—you can test different options and pinpoint what resonates with your customers the most.

Align your brand with this audience and show that you aren’t here just to sell to them; your goal should be to develop authentic connections rooted in shared principles.

That’s also where storytelling enters the scene, adding some of the key touches to your brand personality. Designing a brand identity depends on an independent, inspiring narrative with strong emotional cues. 

2. Translate your brand message into visual concepts.

With the information you collect about your market and audience, you can now move on to the design. Start by creating the logo and choosing the colors that will best convey your mission statement and appeal to the specific audience you are targeting.

Establishing strong associations through visual elements and colors is a good way to build a memorable and distinctive brand image. As soon as you have the logo and color palette, you can design the secondary elements of your corporate identity—typeface, patterns, business cards, and signatures.

3. Develop a brand style guide

As you’ve seen already, a brand style guide is an excellent investment that ensures consistency in your corporate identity. This will help your team remain in touch with the key stylistic features even as it grows or as you expand your communication options. It maintains brand integrity and keeps all of your features aligned.

4. Gather feedback and refine your brand identity.

The way your customers interact with your brand can say a lot about the success of your corporate identity strategy. Very few companies can establish the right branding model from the start. The chances are, you will need to test out several options before you go all in with one of them.

By presenting your brand identity to small focus groups, you can collect valuable insights and improve it.

5. Keep your brand identity up to date.

As your business grows, your values, your philosophy, or your mission statement may change, which should also be reflected in your brand identity. Additionally, design standards may simply change.

Take, for example, the influence of material design. Many brands recreated their logos and, as a result, their corporate identity after adopting the new design standards.

That is why it is important to keep an eye on contemporary design standards and to review and update your corporate identity regularly.

Corporate identity and branding services with Eastern Peak

Your brand identity is much more than just a logo. It’s how your customers, partners, and even competitors see you and what makes them trust you. It’s what makes you, well, you!

Having a strong, consistent brand identity is a vital part of your company’s success. It can help you differentiate yourself from the competition as well as take on the industry leaders by building a loyal community of brand followers.

At Eastern Peak, we don’t just build software—we help you create a powerful and consistent brand image, from logo design to a complete brand identity book.

Contact us for a free consultation to see how we can help.

Frequently Asked Questions

Read also:

• How to Reduce Startup Burn Rate
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• Test Before You Develop: Why Should You Choose Rapid App Prototyping Prior to Building Your MVP?
• How To Successfully Recruit And Manage A Remote Software Development Team
• How Startups Can Compete with Bigger Players: The DeepSeek Example