Developing Your Company's Image

You probably only have one chance with your Web site or business card to make an impression, so be sure to hire a professional designer

by Karen E. Klein

With the New Year fast approaching, and maybe a new budget as well, this may be a good time to invest in a makeover of your company image. Or maybe you're hoping to start a new firm and are dreaming up images for 2007 (see BusinessWeek.com, 4/5/06, "Picture Your Business with a Logo"). Particularly for small companies trying to compete against big corporations, image means a lot, says Jennifer Jacob Kohn, founder of Los Angeles-based JJKO Design. A home-based entrepreneur herself, Kohn freshens up outdated company logos, Web sites, business cards, and mailers. She spoke recently to Smart Answers columnist Karen E. Klein; edited excerpts of their conversation follow.

How do you define a company "image" and why is it important to have one?

A company's image is what makes it stick in the minds of potential customers. An image is conveyed by the company's colorful logos, its artistic designs, creative Web site, and business cards, but it goes deeper than that. The look of your image backs up the corporate culture you've established inside and outside your firm. It's what you want to convey about yourself, your business, your product, your work ethic, and your professionalism combined with the strategy you've developed to reach your target audience.

It's so important because your image instantly tells all your customers and vendors what kind of company you're running. If your image is excellent, it will make your company stand out from its competitors.

What's the most important thing you tell business owners and would-be business owners when they're developing a company image?

Hire a professional. Unless you're a designer yourself, and really good at it, the image you convey will not look professional if you're trying to do it yourself. You've probably only got one chance with your Web site or your business card to make an impression. You've got to put your best foot forward with that effort. If you're scrimping and put out something amateurish, everyone will know it, and it'll reflect badly on you.

For graphically challenged people, can you explain how something looks different when it's professionally designed vs. homegrown?

Professional designs typically use beautiful color combinations, gorgeous layouts, and make a strong impression immediately. They match your image to your target audience—so you've got a trendy logo and look if your customers are trendy, or a classic, sophisticated look if that reflects and attracts your customer base. In any case, a professionally designed image is crisp, easy to read, it scales up and down easily so it looks good in a size big enough to go on a billboard over your storefront, and small enough to fit on your business card or Web site. A good logo doesn't include photos, but it may have a very simple picture in it. And also, it doesn't become stretched out or pixilated on your Web site.

When you're talking about business cards, have them printed on nice, thick card stock, or glossy stock that makes your images look crisp and beautiful. I also like a matte design with satin finish, and anything that has texture is pleasing to the eye and to the touch. Your business cards should definitely match your mailers, brochures, and anything else you send out in the mail. And all of that should get filtered over into your Web site in a consistent manner.

Can you give us some ideas of problems you've identified with company's business images?

If you can dazzle people with your image right away, it gives you credibility in a world of simple text logos and garish, overdone stuff. But the opposite is true if your image looks bad right up front—like business cards that are ugly, dirty-looking, printed on cheap paper or on an office printer with perforated paper at the edges, or Web sites that aren't organized coherently or have designs that aren't consistent from page to page, and logos that are too small or don't appear anywhere on the Web site.