The very first step is recognition and identification. You need to first recognize the personality of your business which is going to be unique. There should be at least something which will differentiate it from other businesses, even if they are in the same domain. This personality will be the impression that your customers or potential customers will have about your business. The overall personality of the business will comprise of:
1. What the business is trying to achieve in the long run.
2. What is the strong side of the business that can help it to stand out or impress the customers.
3. The approach that the business will adopt to grow and sustain.
Next step is to get the a logo and website designed for your business. Remember that whatever you have established in the first step, will be used here. The website and logo are the front faces of any business and are most important to leave that “first impression” which can make people stay with you- if it is impressive enough. Each and every aspect of the website and logo needs to reflect the philosophy of your business and answer the questions below:
a) What exactly is your business about?
b) What is the thing that your business does the best?
c) How are employees motivated and what makes them give their best to the company?
d) What is your unique selling point?
e) What are the things that the business can do in future to improve or expand.
f) If there is any CSR element in the business’s goals?
g) Does the business strive for improvements in future?
If the logo and website design can give a hint to the answers of these questions to the viewer, then it is a successful design.
If you think that it is hard to find answers to these questions, then you need to step back by one level, see the bigger picture. This will help you in seeing your business from different angles. After that, it will just be the matter of choosing the best angle. This thing can closely be associated with SWOT analysis.
To put this philosophical approach into a form of practical case study, imagine a business whose USP is selling those products which are cheaper due to their environment friendly nature. A company like that will have a USP and their website design can be a mix of blue, green and brown colour scheme. The logo might reflect a personality of hope to save the earth or a bird flying safe (depending upon the name of the business). You can reflect the feeling of being proud for doing something great for the planet as well as making a business out of it.
To summarize in short, the two major steps that you should take to establish the identity of your business is to identify the personality of your business and get the logo and the website designed which can reflect that personality. Once the base is setup, other steps will be marketing etc. which is the next level of retaining that personality of the business.