conceptualization - Branding a company that has no public identity

Ok, that title might seem a little strange, but I will try to explain. And I will say, I do know this is more of a discussion type question, and not a technical question. Hopefully I wont get down-voted...

Just a little background first: I work for, let's just call it MyCompanyCo., which is a division of MyCompanyLLC....MyCompanyCo owns and operates 10 sub companies. Let's call them Company 1-10....Company 1-10 each have their own brand identity in which is recognizable to their audience and all revenue MyCompanyCo generates come from the customers of Company 1-10. MyCompany LLC, our parent company has their own brand identity also. However, MyCompanyCo has never once attempted to brand itself. We have a logo, which is the same look as MyCompany LLC, but with CO and the end of it. We have business cards, which are the same as the business cards of MyCompanyLLC. But beyond that, we don't promote ourselves to the public. We don't have a website (just a mention on the parent companies website), we've never created a brochure. I am willing to bet that most of the customers of Companies 1-10 have never heard of MyCompanyCo.

All the work I do is for the 10 sub companies, however on very rare occasions, I am asked to design something for our division, MyCompanyCo. My boss is a database administrator and has never worked as a designer, and in all honestly, I can tell he doesn't really care about it that much....He's the kind of guy that says things like "I just want it to look cool." The latest project I am working on, an internal blog that won't be seen by the public at all, has me a creative block.

I went to school for advertising, and have always learned that good creative communicates the uniqueness of a brand. It's not enough that something "looks pretty", but it also has to be identifiable...But because our division has never taken the time to brand itself, I feel like I am at a loss for creative direction...Now don't get me wrong, I know I can find one of the millions of Wordpress templates, change the logo, colors and some images and voila, I have a pretty blog; but I swear, just making something "look pretty" with out any reflection of the company goes against everything I have ever learned or believe about effective communication. However I see it all the time...So many designs out there look good, but don't communicate the brand well.

I know when it comes to this blog, nobody in my company cares how "unique" it is or how well it communicates MyCompanyCo. Heck, I am pretty sure if I created this blog in some grungy retro style (which would not match our company at all), most people would think it's the coolest thing, simply because it's "pretty"....So I think that's what I might do, however before I really get into the project, I was hoping for some feedback. Maybe some of you have been in a similar situation?

Thanks for reading my post, hopefully it's not too long...