Every business should have a corporate identity manual. A corporate identity manual defines how your company’s brand, image and messaging is delivered to the public and particularly to your key audiences. While Corporate image is the perception of the company by its various audiences, i.e., how it appears to outsiders such as the financial community or potential consumers. Corporate identity is what the business chooses to use to shape those perceptions.

To make it easier for the staff and constituents to present the corporate identity consistently, it becomes necessary as a business to publish a corporate identity manual. This CI manual is simply a set of instructions for how to present things like logos and how to describe the business accurately.

As a company grows and more people are involved, the very essence of the brand is being expressed by multiple managers and communicators. The corporate identity manual is the critical tool for this. It positions the company, no matter how big or small. The importance of consistent typography, color use, logo placement and such cannot be taken for granted. These are all laid out in the corporate identity manual.